For the last five years, Althorp Counselling & Psychotherapy has existed as a vision board.
Not literally pinned to a corkboard, but in notebooks, late-night ideas, website mock-ups that were never published, logos, domain names that sat unused, and countless conversations that started with, “One day…” Today, that “one day” is here. Althorp is officially open.
I had this original logo done up in 2022, while in grad school.
People often ask where the name Althorp comes from, and yes – it is named after Princess Diana’s family estate. If that sounds like an odd place to start a counselling practice, you’re not wrong.
But for me, Diana has always represented something more than royalty. She changed the way people talked about mental health, vulnerability, and compassion. She wasn’t afraid to sit with people who were hurting, to challenge stigma, or to remind us that kindness matters. Long before mental health was part of everyday conversation, she helped make those conversations possible. She reminds me of the values I want this practice to reflect: humanity, empathy, courage, and a willingness to meet people where they are.
That philosophy has shaped this practice from the beginning. When I first started training as a therapist, I noticed something that didn’t quite sit right with me. Many people arrived at therapy expecting to be analyzed, diagnosed, or “fixed.” They braced themselves for clinical language, awkward silence, and someone sitting across the room taking notes.
I kept wondering… What if therapy didn’t have to feel like that?
What if the first thing someone noticed wasn’t the office or the credentials on the wall, but the feeling that they could simply be themselves? What if therapy felt more like an honest conversation than an assessment? What if we focused less on what’s “wrong” with someone and more on helping them build a life that feels meaningful?
Those questions became the foundation of Althorp Counselling & Psychotherapy. This practice wasn’t created because I thought therapy needed to be reinvented. Therapy changes lives every day. It was created because I believe the experience of seeking therapy can be different.
More human. More collaborative. Less about sitting across from an expert, and more about walking alongside another person.
One of my favourite metaphors is that of two people climbing separate mountains. As therapists, we don’t stand on top of someone else’s mountain shouting directions. We climb our own. From our own perspective and experience, we can sometimes see paths, obstacles, or possibilities that another person can’t yet see. Therapy isn’t about leading someone’s journey, it’s about helping them discover their own way forward.
That’s the relationship I hope to create with every client.
I am grateful to everyone who has encouraged me over the past five years. Grateful to the clients who have trusted me throughout my career and helped shape the therapist I continue to become. Grateful that I get to spend my days doing work that matters.
Althorp Counselling & Psychotherapy isn’t the finish line. It’s the beginning.
My hope is that this practice becomes a place where people feel genuinely welcome. Where they don’t have to perform, have all the answers, or be “ready enough” before reaching out. A place where therapy feels a little less intimidating and a little more like sitting down with another human being who is genuinely interested in understanding your story.
If you’ve been following along while this idea slowly became reality, thank you. And if you’re just finding Althorp now, welcome.