I'm Ewan Irvine, founder of Clarity Counselling and a BACP Accredited Counsellor.

I offer face-to-face counselling in Edinburgh and Bathgate, as well as online sessions.

Choosing a counsellor can feel quite personal. Qualifications and experience matter, but so does whether you feel comfortable with the person you're talking to.

My aim is to offer counselling that feels human, straightforward and down-to-earth.

You don't need to arrive with the answers

Starting counselling can feel unfamiliar, particularly if you're used to dealing with things yourself or don't normally talk openly about what's happening.

You might wonder what you're supposed to say, whether what you're dealing with is 'serious enough', or whether you'll be expected to talk about things before you're ready.

You don't need to prepare for counselling and you don't need to tell me your whole life story in the first session.

We start wherever you are.

What I'm like to work with

I see counselling as something we do together.

I'll give you space to talk and think, but you won't be expected to sit and talk while I simply listen in silence.

I'll be actively involved in our conversations. I may ask questions, reflect back what I'm hearing, help you notice patterns or offer a different perspective.

Sometimes you may simply need somewhere to say things you haven't felt able to say elsewhere. At other times, you may want to understand why you keep feeling or reacting in a particular way, or explore practical ways of dealing with something that's happening in your life.

I won't tell you what you should do or make decisions for you.

My role is to help you understand yourself and your situation more clearly, explore the possibilities available to you and find a way forward that feels right for you.

A flexible approach to counselling

I'm trained in pluralistic counselling.

The idea behind it is fairly simple: different people need different things from therapy, and what helps one person may not be what helps another.

Rather than expecting you to fit a particular therapeutic model, we'll talk about what you want from counselling and what seems most useful to you.

My work can draw on Person-Centred Counselling, CBT and Solution-Focused approaches.

That might mean giving you space to explore how you're feeling, looking at thoughts or patterns that may be keeping you stuck, considering a different way of responding to a situation, or focusing on practical changes you would like to make.

We'll regularly check how you're finding counselling and whether our work together feels helpful.

If something isn't working, we can talk about it and change direction.

A particular interest in men's mental health

I work with adults of all genders, and men's mental health is a particular area of interest within my counselling practice.

Men don't always experience or express emotional distress in ways that are immediately recognised as a mental health problem.

You might not think of yourself as anxious or depressed. You may simply notice that you're more stressed or irritable, working too much, sleeping badly, withdrawing from people, drinking more, losing motivation or feeling emotionally numb.

Sometimes the hardest part is acknowledging that something isn't right.

You don't need to identify with a diagnosis or label to come to counselling, and you don't need to be comfortable talking about your feelings.

If something doesn't feel right, that's enough to start a conversation.Thinking about counselling?

You don't need to decide everything before getting in touch.

If you'd like to ask a question or find out about arranging a first session, send me a brief message. You don't need to explain everything that's happening — a couple of sentences is enough.