Brief Psychotherapy in Berkshire & Online Worldwide with Dr John Eaton (PhD)
My credentials:
- 36 years’ experience
- 24,000 client hours
- Simple, direct, clear approach
- Brief, time-limited therapy
- Author and Registered Psychotherapist
I offer rapid, evidence-based interventions face-to-face in Kintbury (near Hungerford) and Basingstoke, as well as Online Worldwide.
Stop Struggling. Start Living Again.
For over 36 years, I have helped people overcome anxiety, depression, stress, relationship difficulties and emotional problems – usually in far fewer sessions than they expected.
That isn’t a guarantee. Every person is different. It is simply what has happened consistently throughout my years in practice.
If you’ve been worrying that therapy means months or years of talking, you may be surprised by how quickly change can begin.
You don’t need to spend years understanding your problems to resolve them.
Why Therapy Sometimes Doesn’t Work
If you’ve ever found yourself asking why therapy isn’t working – for you, or for someone you know – you’re not alone; it’s one of the most common frustrations people bring to a first session. Many people come to therapy believing they need to analyse their past, understand every thought, or find the ‘root cause’ of their distress.
Ironically, this can sometimes be exactly what keeps the problem alive.
The harder we struggle against anxiety, painful thoughts or unwanted emotions, the more trapped we often become – and unproductive struggle, more than any lack of effort, is one of the most common reasons therapy stalls.
My approach is different.
Rather than endlessly analysing problems, we work together to understand how the problem is being maintained today – and how you can reverse out of that cycle.
A Different Way of Thinking
I call this approach Reverse Thinking.
Instead of asking:
“Why do I feel like this?”
we ask:
“What keeps this problem going – and what happens if I stop feeding it that way?”
Drawing on over three decades of clinical experience, Brief Therapy, CBT, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), and awareness-based psychology, I help clients discover practical ways of breaking free from patterns that may have persisted for years.
This is often the missing piece for people who’ve already tried to stop overthinking through sheer willpower, or found that understanding a problem intellectually hasn’t been enough to change how it feels.
Is This Approach Right for You?
People consult me for:
- Anxiety and excessive worrying
- Panic attacks
- Stress and burnout
- Depression
- Obsessive thinking
- Trauma and Post-traumatic stress
- Low self-esteem
- Relationship problems
- Work-related pressures
- Life transitions
- Loss of confidence
Whether your problem has existed for months or decades, we focus on what will help you move forward now.
Read more about Brief therapy here.
Overcoming Anxiety & Panic Attacks Without Years of Therapy
One of the most common questions I’m asked is whether working through anxiety and panic attacks really has to take years – solution-focused therapy is built on the opposite assumption. It focuses on solutions rather than problems, and practicalities rather than theories. Clients are asked to examine situations in which problems appeared and look at what worked rather than what didn’t, and to explore how they might do things differently in the future. In this way we identify specific changes in habits, thoughts, communications and behaviours that can make a difference.
Read more about Solution-focused Therapy here.
Managing Chronic Stress, Burnout & Emotional Blocks Effectively
ACT stands for Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, another approach to Brief Therapy based on changes in awareness and action.
ACT is a simple, elegant process based on acceptance of human suffering, mindful attention to how the problem appears, defusion from unhelpful thoughts and reactions, while committing to new actions that improve the client’s position in life.
Read more about Acceptance & Commitment Therapy here.
Breaking Negative Thought Cycles With CBT
It’s a fair question to ask whether CBT actually works for anxiety: it remains one of the most researched talking therapies available, and one of the oldest Brief Therapy approaches. It focuses on teaching the client how to examine, question, challenge and replace dysfunctional thoughts – some of the most common being thoughts about the worst that can happen, failure, and an inability to cope. Once clients learn these skills the mind is opened to trying out new behaviours without overthinking them.
Read more about Cognitive-Behaviour Therapy here.
Mindfulness-based Therapy – Calming an Over-active Mind and Overthinking
If you’ve searched for how to stop worry and overthinking, mindfulness is consistently one of the most evidence-backed answers – not because it suppresses thoughts, but because it changes your relationship to them. ACT and Mindfulness-based CBT both employ mindfulness techniques to disentangle clients from conditioned thoughts and reactions and float by them. Mindfulness also promotes calm and self-acceptance, thus decreasing agitation and improving physical state.
Read more about Mindfulness in therapy here
Before You Book
What does a session cost?
Individual sessions are £95 per hour. For clients experiencing financial difficulty, a concessionary rate of £55 per hour is available – just ask.
How many sessions will I need?
The great majority of clients – around 80% – complete therapy within one to eight sessions. A smaller number, usually involving long-standing or childhood trauma, or clinical depression of more than five years’ duration (sometimes complicated by medication), may need more; in the most extended cases this can run to around twenty sessions.
Do you offer online therapy?
Yes – Online worldwide via Google Meet.
Is therapy with you confidential?
Yes. As a UKCP-registered psychotherapist I work within a professional code of ethics that includes confidentiality, with the standard exceptions that apply to all UK therapists (such as a risk of serious harm to yourself or others).
Make an appointment
A question I’m often asked is whether online therapy really works as well as sitting in the room together. For the issues I treat most often – anxiety, stress and depression – research consistently shows it does; the main exception is when someone is very overwhelmed and benefits from the extra containment of an in-person session.
I currently offer appointments in:
- Kintbury (Near Hungerford)
- Basingstoke
- Online therapy (worldwide)
Click here to go to the appointments page
Email me if you have a specific issue you would like to ask me about.
See my profile page for information about my career so far, and about me personally.
If you want to know more about my approach to specific problems, or my ideas on psychotherapy then go to the Blog page here.
For specialised symptom recovery regarding Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia, please visit my dedicated portal at Reverse-Therapy.com