About Paula
Paula Appleton is a counsellor with 14 years' experience based in the United Kingdom. She draws on a mix of therapeutic approaches to tailor sessions to each person's needs. Paula works with people across a wide range of worries, from anxiety and depression to trauma and addiction.
Paula uses approaches such as Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, and Attachment-Based Therapy, adapting them to fit the person in front of her.
How Paula works
Sessions are practical and focused on real-life change, with space to talk through feelings and learn coping skills. She supports people dealing with grief, relationship challenges, intimacy concerns, and issues around self-esteem and identity. Paula also helps clients facing parenting stress, career transitions, and long-term health conditions.
Her work includes attention to neurodiversity and attachment-related struggles. Paula communicates in English and is able to work with American Sign Language users. She follows the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy ethical framework and holds BACP and NCPS credentials.
That background shapes her flexible, person-centred way of working. Sessions can include talking, practical exercises, and strategies to manage emotions and behaviour. Paula aims to build a trusting working relationship where people feel heard and more able to make changes.
The focus is on helping people move forward one step at a time.
Paula lists 18 ways of working on the entry:
- Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
- Attachment-Based Therapy
- Client-Centered Therapy
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
- Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
- Emotionally-Focused Therapy (EFT)
- Existential Therapy
- Gottman Method
- Jungian Therapy
- Mindfulness Therapy
- Motivational Interviewing
- Narrative Therapy
- Psychodynamic Therapy
- Solution-Focused Therapy
- Somatic Therapy
- Trauma-Focused Therapy
- Internal Family Systems
- Systemic Therapy
What Paula works with
The areas below are the ones Paula selected when setting up a profile. The first few are listed as the main focus; the rest are also named.
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Family conflicts
Also listed
- Abandonment
- Addictions
- ADHD
- Adoption and foster care
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Antisocial personality
- Attachment issues
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- Avoidant personality
- Bipolar disorder
- Blended family issues
- Body image
- Cancer
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Co-morbidity
- Coaching
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Dependent personality
- Depression
- Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD)
- Dissociation
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Eating and food-related issues
- Eating disorders
- Emptiness
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- Fertility issues
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Gender dysphoria
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Hearing impaired
- HIV / AIDS
- Hoarding
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Immigration issues
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Intellectual disability
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Men's issues
- Midlife crisis
- Money and financial issues
- Mood disorders
- Multicultural concerns
- Narcissism
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Paranoia
- Parenting issues
- Personality disorders
- Phobias
- Polyamory / non-monogamous relationships
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Sex addiction
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sexual dysfunction
- Sexuality
- Sleeping disorders
- Smoking / vaping cessation
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Somatization
- Trauma and abuse
- Traumatic brain injury
- Trichotillomania
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Visually impaired
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Training and background
| Registers | BACP, NCPS |
|---|---|
| Years in practice | 14 |
| Languages | English, American Sign Language |
| Session format | Online: video, phone, live chat or messaging |
| Country | United Kingdom |
Memberships and registers are shown as supplied; they are not licences, and this directory does not verify them.
Online support options
Therapeutic approaches and how they work online
Paula draws on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy to help people notice difficult thoughts and feelings while taking steps that match their values. ACT is useful for anxiety, depression and coping with life changes because it focuses on what matters in everyday life.She also uses Attachment-Based Therapy to look at how early relationships shape current patterns. This approach can help with trust, intimacy-related issues and attachment concerns by exploring how people relate to themselves and others.
Finding the most helpful approach is part of the work. Paula will talk with each person about their goals and preferences and choose or blend methods collaboratively. That means the plan can change as needs shift and progress is made.
Online therapy makes it easier to fit sessions into a busy life. Video calls allow fuller face-to-face conversation, phone sessions can be a good shorter check-in or when bandwidth is limited, and live chat or text messaging work well for brief updates or flexible scheduling. These options help people maintain continuity of care and access support from different locations, including international clients, while working with registered or accredited professionals.
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Common questions
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A practical next step
Write down two things you would want to be different in six months. That is the most useful thing to bring to a first session, whoever it is with. If you would rather start now than keep reading, online sessions are the quickest route.
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