Rate Miguel Echeverria

My name is Miguel Echeverria. I am a BACP registered British/Spanish psychotherapeutic counsellor. I was born in Spain, in the Basque Country, and due to my father’s work we moved quite a bit, ending up living in the USA for a few years. In 2001 I moved to the UK, and for a year now I have been living between Spain and UK. My migration journey has given me an acute sense of what it means to belong: to a place, a group or a family. During much of my 20s and 30s I battled through depression and addictions until I started my own search of healing and wholeness through different ways like meditation retreats, plant medicine, vision quests and other esoteric and not so esoteric practices. They all provided something valuable, but it was not until I started my own therapy that I really started to understand myself and my situation. Years later, I decided to embark on the path to do the same for others. I studied at Re-vision, achieving the Diploma in Integrative Transpersonal Counselling. In addition to my private practice, I also work for the mental health charity MIND in the UK.

I have an integrative approach that takes inspiration from depth and archetypal psychology (Jung, Hillman) with a psychodynamic foundation. This simply means that, on one hand, we will explore your childhood and the experiences that have shaped you, and on the other, the potentiality of what needs to grow and come out of these experiences. We can look at your problems as gateways into your soul, or in other words, the authentic you.

It may be useful to contrast this approach with a more behavioural approach (CBT) where you would learn techniques and ways of thinking to cope and manage your symptoms in order to be more ‘effective’ in life. There is nothing wrong with this, but, while it can work well, it can miss what is brewing in the depths of your soul.

My approach will vary depending on who I am working with and what is happening in their lives. I like to use imagination, creativity, myth and stories during sessions, as a way of helping move through the rational mind into deeper layers of meaning. But above all types of approaches or techniques I offer an attuned, empathic and holding presence, that will listen attentively not only to what you say, but also to what is not expressed. I trained for three years as an integrative transpersonal counsellor at the Re-vision training centre (www.re-vision.org.uk), and apart from my private practice I work for a mental health charity. I am registered with the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy, and my work is fully insured and supervised.