Psychodynamic Therapy in Croydon

For when you can't keep pretending

If you've found your way here, something's not working.

Maybe you cry in your car after work. Maybe you're awake at 3am with that feeling in your chest you can't name. Maybe you're fine until someone asks "how are you really?" and you want to leave the room.

You're holding it together - work gets done, bills get paid, you show up for everyone who needs you. But there's this gap between how you look and how you feel. Between what people see and what's actually going on.

What I do

I'm a psychodynamic therapist working in Croydon and South London. Not the kind who gives you breathing exercises or tells you to think positive. The kind who helps you work out why you keep ending up in the same mess, with the same types of people, feeling the same kind of empty.

We meet once a week and talk about what's really going on. Not the version you tell your friends, not the story you've polished. The actual truth of it.

Sometimes we'll talk about your childhood - not because I think everything's your mother's fault, but because your early life is where you learned the rules you're still following. The ones that made sense when you were seven but are wrecking you at thirty-seven.

Unlike CBT or counselling that focuses on managing symptoms, psychodynamic therapy explores why these patterns exist in the first place. We look at the unconscious stuff - the things you do without knowing why.

This work is hard, but it's held

Therapy isn't about feeling better straight away. Sometimes you feel worse before you feel different. You'll discover things about yourself you've been avoiding. You might get angry about things you thought you were fine with. You could grieve things you didn't know you'd lost.

But something shifts when you stop pretending. When someone sees the worst bits and doesn't look away. When you finally say the thing out loud and the world doesn't end.

Who this is for

People who are tired. Properly tired. Not just need-a-holiday tired but can't-keep-pretending tired.

The depression that looks like high achievement. The anxiety that everyone calls "being organised". The relationship patterns that keep repeating. The things you can't remember but can't stop reacting to.

You don't need to know what's wrong. You don't need the right words for it. You just need to know that what you're doing isn't working anymore.

Maybe you've never talked to anyone properly. Maybe you've been putting everyone else first for so long you've forgotten you exist. Maybe you're successful on paper but feel like you're drowning.

The practical bits

• 50-minute sessions, weekly
• In person in Croydon (near East Croydon station) or online anywhere in the UK
• Standard fee: £65 per session
• Evening and daytime slots available
• Currently accepting new clients

Email me at hello@talktoluke.com. Just say what's going on. Don't worry about sounding together or explaining it properly. I'm not looking for the polished version.

What we might work with

• Why the same situations keep happening
• The exhaustion behind your competence
• Relationships that feel like performance
• Work patterns that are killing you slowly
• Family dynamics you're still trapped in
• The anger you're not allowed to feel
• The grief that has nowhere to go

Luke Row BACP Registered Psychodynamic Counsellor Advanced Couples Psychotherapy Training - Tavistock Relationships BPC Member Practice in Croydon | Serving South London, Bromley, Sutton & Online

What someone said

"Luke has a highly impactful way of blending supportive enquiry and reflection. His skills helped me cope with the most distressing time of my life. By talking to Luke, I was able to make things clearer, to know I had a choice, to experience very significant loss and pain without injury as my life seemed to change before my eyes."

— Croydon practice client

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