Hello, I’m Imran
Before we meet…
Therapy asks you to bring something of yourself into the room. It is only fair that you know something about the person who will meet you there.
What has shaped the way I work.
My work has taken me through many parts of mental health care, alongside people facing recent distress and those living with complex, severe or enduring difficulties.
Many of those years have been within NHS Talking Therapies. That breadth of work has made me cautious of easy explanations. A diagnosis can name part of an experience, but not how a life has been lived or what that experience means to the person living it.
I continue to work within NHS Talking Therapies. TalkWise is separate from that role and marks the beginning of my private practice.
My training includes a Master’s in Counselling and Psychotherapy from the University of Salford and a Diploma in Person-Centred Counselling. I am also an IPT UK Accredited Practitioner, with specialist training in Interpersonal Psychotherapy for depression.
What this experience brings to my work.
Experience influences what I notice and the questions I may ask, but it does not decide who you are. The work begins with your experience and develops through the relationship we create together.
Listening begins before meaning becomes clear.
On becoming a therapist...
When I began training as a counsellor in 2002, I knew I was interested in people. What I couldn't have known was how much the people I would meet would shape the therapist I became.
Early in my career, I worked with people living with severe and enduring mental health difficulties in their homes, on hospital wards and in the community. I saw how difficulties can affect relationships, independence, identity, hope and the ordinary business of getting through a day. I also learnt to keep seeing the person, not only the difficulty they were living with.
Later, several years of longer-term individual therapy taught me how gradually understanding can develop. Patterns emerge; relationships, experiences, beliefs and feelings begin to connect. Facilitating therapeutic groups offered another perspective: relationships and roles could sometimes be seen unfolding between people in the room, not only spoken about.
Understanding a person means looking beyond what first appears.
I became increasingly interested in personality, relationships, attachment, family and culture: the experiences that shape us, the ways we learn to cope and why patterns can remain powerful even when we know they are causing difficulty.
Assessment, risk work and working alongside other mental health professionals taught me to take difficulties seriously without allowing somebody's most difficult period to become the whole of who they are.
Training in Interpersonal Psychotherapy for depression added a more structured clinical perspective. It deepened my understanding of how depression can connect with relationships, loss, conflict, significant change and attachment.
Alongside the work, I kept learning.
My person-centred training gave me a foundation in acceptance, empathy and respect for the person's own experience. A Master's in Counselling and Psychotherapy, further psychodynamic study, personal therapy and continuing clinical work added other ways of understanding relationships, personality and the less conscious parts of ourselves.
Therapists are shaped by life as well as training.
Relationships, changes, difficult periods and the ordinary experiences of being human can shape any of us. Becoming a therapist does not place me outside them. They have strengthened my curiosity about why we become who we are, why relationships affect us so deeply and why understanding ourselves does not always make change easy.
Supervising counsellors within NHS services has also required me to think alongside another therapist without taking over or assuming there is only one correct understanding of a person.
Therapeutic space
The room we create.
The therapy room is more than the place where a conversation happens. Whether we meet in person or online, returning at the same time, with privacy and clear boundaries, creates a pause from the demands outside.
It can become a place where silence is not an absence, uncertainty does not have to be resolved too quickly, and thoughts that are usually interrupted can begin to take shape.
With each return, the space may begin to feel more familiar. You may notice what it is like to be listened to without having to manage the listener, and what becomes possible when difficult feelings are not hurried away. Over time, the steadiness of returning can matter as much as any single insight.
Understanding comes first. Then, possibly, change.
When something hurts, it is natural to want it to stop. But feelings and ways of coping rarely appear without a reason. Before trying to change them, we can try to understand what they have protected, carried or made possible for you.
A way of coping can keep us going and still make life harder later. We do not have to take it away before something steadier can grow in its place. By understanding why it became necessary, you can decide what you want to keep and what you would like to change.
Who I work with.
I work individually with adults whose difficulties may be recent, recurring or longstanding. This can include depression, anxiety, grief, trauma, relationship difficulties, problems with trust or self-worth, overwhelming emotions, dissociation, questions of identity, or the continuing effects of severe mental-health experiences.
You may have a diagnosis, several ways of understanding what is happening, or no clear name for it. What matters is how the difficulty affects your life and what you would like us to understand together.
Family, culture and the roles we carry.
Culture is not something only some people have; it is part of every life. Across cultures, many human experiences are recognisably shared, while language, faith, family roles, hierarchy and community expectations can shape how those experiences are understood, expressed or kept private.
Some difficulties are woven into family, culture, faith and community life: expectations carried across generations, questions of hierarchy, power and loyalty, or the different roles we learn to inhabit at home and in the wider world. We can think about these influences without reducing you to them.
I work in English, Urdu, Hindi and Punjabi. Experience of more than one language and cultural world can help me notice context and ask better questions, while your own meanings remain the starting point.
Read more about family, culture, language and the roles we carry →
Whatever brings you, we can understand it within the context of your life, whether it is recent, recurring or has been carried for many years. You are more than a diagnosis or a list of symptoms.
I do not offer couples therapy, family therapy or therapy for children. If your needs would be better met by another kind of therapy or a specialist service, I will be honest about that. Taking time to decide whether I am the right person to work with you is part of the care we take at the beginning.
Professional background
Qualifications
- MSc Counselling & Psychotherapy
- University of Salford
- Diploma in Person-Centred Counselling
- Interpersonal Psychotherapy for Depression
- Specialist IAPT-accredited training
Clinical experience
- More than 20 years' counselling and mental health experience
- NHS psychological therapy experience
- Longer-term individual therapeutic work
- Experience working with severe, complex and enduring mental health difficulties
- Therapeutic group facilitation
- Counselling supervision within NHS services
- Mental health assessment and clinical risk work
- Multidisciplinary mental health experience, including work alongside psychiatry, community mental health and other clinical services
- Continuing professional development throughout my career
Professional standing
BACP Registered NCPS Accredited IPT UK Accredited
Qualifications and accountability
Professional memberships and standards
MBACP
MNCPS (Acc.)
Interpersonal Psychotherapy
When you feel ready
You can check the current arrangements before getting in touch. Online appointments are currently available. You can begin with a brief enquiry, ask what matters to you and decide what feels right afterwards.
Send a private enquiry Check current availability →