Sharon McHugh, BACP

Sharon McHugh is a counsellor registered with the British Association for Counsellors and Psychotherapists (BACP) and has seven years of practice. She helps people who carry anxiety, trauma and the fallout of a difficult upbringing. Her work commonly covers stress, low self-esteem, relationship and intimacy questions, grief and life changes.

Sharon offers sessions that are led by the client. She invites people to bring whatever matters most that week. Early meetings focus on goals and a practical plan for how counselling might help.

In sessions she listens and asks questions to understand life from the client's point of view. That helps both of them make sense of recurring patterns such as people-pleasing, feeling empty, or losing a sense of self after years of coping. Sharon explains ideas plainly and checks they are helpful before using them.

Her background includes private practice work and roles in external agencies. She has supported people dealing with panic, social anxiety, addictions, trauma, sleeping problems and career uncertainty. She also works with concerns like codependency, guilt, compassion fatigue and issues facing veterans and first responders.

Sharon trained in a number of approaches including client-centred work, cognitive behavioural methods and hypnotherapy. She keeps her practice up to date by attending continuing professional development courses. She asks clients what they want to change and then helps them take small, manageable steps toward those aims.

How her approaches translate to online work