In this short video, I explain why capable people so often keep pushing long after it stops serving them, and what we look at together when you take an hour out of your calendar to meet me by video.
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Online psychotherapy for professionals helps people with demanding careers look at what their achievements cost them and what lies beneath the drive. We meet one to one by video, in English, in 1-hour sessions with 50 minutes of therapy, at a time that fits your time zone and your diary, from home, a hotel room or a quiet office.
I help you understand the inner rules that keep you working, proving and holding it all together, and where those rules came from, so your choices about work and life become your own. This is the professionals’ door into my online psychotherapy. For a sharper focus there is burnout therapy, imposter syndrome therapy, perfectionism therapy and career crossroads therapy, and back-to-back sessions if your calendar suits a concentrated block.
When you are ready, reserve a first session or arrange a free 30-minute call. My client policy explains confidentiality and cancellations, and you can always send me a message.
Online psychotherapy for professionals is for English-speaking people, anywhere in the world, whose careers look impressive from outside while something inside is running low. You may be a lawyer, doctor, engineer, consultant, founder or manager, used to fixing problems by working harder. You want a private, discreet place to think about what all the effort is for, with someone who is not impressed by your CV.
Working life brings many kinds of strain, and some are served better elsewhere. If one of these lines describes you more closely, the linked page was written with you in mind.
You can also send me an email
These reviews describe clients’ experiences of working with me. They come from my wider practice and do not all relate to online sessions. Each person’s experience is their own, and a review does not promise a particular outcome.
“Working with people in many time zones, I meet the same mistake in boardrooms from Dubai to Toronto: the belief that the answer to inner strain is better time management. It almost never is. High achievers are often running an old programme that says they are only safe while they are useful. Underneath the talk of targets I hear a quiet question, ‘If I stop delivering, will anyone still value me?’, and a firmer one beside it, ‘Just leave me to handle it, I always do.’ No calendar app can answer either. What helps is finding out whose voice set the pace in the first place, and deciding whether you still want to run to it.”
Mark Colclough, MA, psychotherapist and EFT couples therapist
I am Mark Colclough, MA. I have practised since 2004 and offer online psychotherapy and couples therapy in English.
My training brings together your emotions, your thoughts and your relationships. My deep passion is the moment when what happens between you finally makes sense, to each of you and to each other. I have lived and worked in nine countries, so I know something of life across languages, cultures and borders.
Read about my background, or explore online psychotherapy and online couples therapy.
I meet regularly with experienced psychotherapists to reflect on my work, question my understanding and develop my skills. Supervision is part of the professional care I bring to individual and couples work, including online sessions.
My focus is thoughtful practice, integrity and responsibility.
You are welcome to ask about the kind of support you need.
Tell me where you are based and your time zone. We can then consider whether online sessions together are suitable.
Malik is 42, a partner at a consulting firm in Dubai who grew up in Birmingham. He flies 2 or 3 times a month, sleeps 5 hours a night and answers calls from London, Riyadh and Singapore. Colleagues see him as unshakeable. Lately he sits in hotel car parks for 20 minutes before going in, and his wife says the children have stopped asking when he will be home. A holiday feels unthinkable, because he is sure clients would leave without him.
I would begin by asking Malik what he fears would happen if he slowed down, and then listen for whose voice answers. In a first video session, booked between 2 flights, he would probably see that being indispensable has kept him safe since long before his career began.
I have presented this clinical example as a compound of 22 years of clinical practice.
You have pushed, planned and optimised, and the sense that something is wrong has not shifted.
There is no correct moment and no qualifying reason to begin therapy. A sense that your working life is costing more than it should, or that your relationships are thinning while your career grows, is enough. You do not need a diagnosis, a precise problem statement or a breakdown first. In 22 years of practice I have learned to recognise when high performance has become a pattern that needs proper attention.
I will help you see what is driving you, what keeps it in place and what has to change, and I will be direct about it. Use the 6 questions below as a quick audit of where you stand.
If so, notice it now. Work is often the last thing to slip, so it can hide how much else has gone: friendships left unanswered, exercise dropped, meals at the desk, evenings you barely recall. You are still delivering, which is exactly why nobody, you included, takes it seriously.
I would look at what has gone quiet in your life, how long ago it began and whether time off restores you at all. That tells us whether this is a demanding season or a pattern that will not ease. If it sounds familiar, book a session with me.
Both pulls are real, because they serve different needs. One part of you is exhausted and wants a slower life. Another feels uneasy without a goal, as if stillness exposes you. So on holiday you check email by the pool, or you plan the sabbatical you never take.
I do not treat either part as the enemy. In the psychosynthesis tradition I trained in, we listen to both as parts of you. The tired one is telling you the truth about your limits. The driven one has protected you for a long time. I help you find out what each is guarding.
For many high achievers it does. A short email, a raised eyebrow in a meeting or a client who goes quiet can feel like a verdict on your worth. You replay it at night, draft replies you never send and work harder to win the person back.
Wanting to be valued is legitimate, and I will not make you feel foolish for it. What I help you change is the alarm that rings before there is real evidence. We trace it to its source, often an early lesson that approval had to be earned, and you practise asking directly where you stand.
Many professionals know this. You want a partner who truly knows you, or a friend outside work, and when it begins to happen you suddenly have a deadline. Closeness feels both wanted and risky, so you stay busy enough that nobody gets too near.
I help you slow this down so we can see the moment the wish for closeness turns into a reason to work late. It is often tied to fear of being needed or of being seen without your role. I respect why you learned this, and I will ask you to own the times it leaves others outside.
Work can be a very respectable hiding place. When a relationship turns tense, a parent falls ill or grief arrives, you take on another project. Feelings become problems to solve. It gives you control, and it costs you contact with yourself and the people at home.
My view is that this way of coping made sense once, and I will not shame it. I help you see what the busyness protects you from, so you can stay with a feeling a little longer without drowning. You learn to say “I need a day off, not another task” and mean it.
After years of climbing, many professionals find their role has quietly taken the place of a self. Remove the title, the salary and the inbox, and you are not sure what is left. Moving country for work can make this sharper, because the job is the only thing that came with you. It shows how hard you have worked, not that you are empty.
I help you separate who you are from what you do, including the expectations you inherited from your family and class. I will challenge you when you hide behind performance, but the person you find is yours.
If you recognised yourself, book a free call to talk it through, or reserve a session if you already know you want to start.
You can also send me an email
Tell me briefly what kind of support you are looking for.
Include your country and time zone so we can discuss whether online work together is possible and find a suitable time.
You do not need to explain your whole story in your first message.
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Insight into your drive is useful, but the work must also change how you spend your evenings, lead your team and make decisions.
Working with me will help you see what drives you, recognise the patterns that keep you running and make changes people around you can feel. Professionals are often skilled at analysis, and some arrive with a full theory of their own behaviour. Insight that never alters your calendar, your tone at home or your choices does little.
In 22 years of practice I have found that clever people need a therapist who will not be outmanoeuvred. I will tell you what I see, ask the awkward question and challenge explanations that keep you stuck. The 6 questions below show what we work towards.
Related reading: Why can’t I switch off from worrying about work?, Why do I still feel like a fraud when I am doing well? and Why does rest no longer fix how tired I am?.
I help you separate the core problem from its consequences. The long hours, the sleeplessness and the irritability are real, yet they are usually results. Beneath them sits something more specific: a fear of being ordinary, an old rule that rest must be earned, or a family story in which love followed success.
I give you my assessment, name what needs attention first and question the stories that keep you stuck, such as “this is just what the job requires”. When you want to begin, book a session with me and we start mapping it.
You can learn its early signals. There is usually a sequence: a flicker of unease, a thought like “I should just check”, the laptop open again at 22:00. Once you catch the first step, you gain a moment to choose.
In our sessions I help you slow that sequence down and look at what sets it off and what it shields you from. Knowing is not enough. We practise a different response, on screen and between sessions, until you can use it on a Thursday night after a bruising call.
Calming down does not mean switching off feelings or pretending the pressure is fine. It means staying present enough to notice what is happening and choose your response. Some of that restlessness is a real warning. Some is an old alarm that still thinks you must stay alert.
I help you recognise the rise sooner and understand what your nervous system is reacting to. We find ways of settling that fit a travelling life, in a taxi, a lounge or a hotel room. I will be clear that the practice between sessions does most of the work.
Clear limits begin with knowing what you feel, what you need and what is genuinely yours to carry. You may agree to everything and resent it later, or go quiet and let a colleague discover your limit through missed deadlines.
Together we find wording that is honest, precise and in proportion. I will challenge you when you swallow what you need, and also when you expect your team or family to read your mind. We often rehearse a real conversation, with a manager, a client or a partner waiting up at home.
Choices clear when you separate fear, duty and other people’s expectations from what you actually know and value. Should you take the promotion, move country, leave the firm, start your own? Prestige and sunk costs make every exit look like failure.
I help you weigh each option and what it would ask of you. I will give you my professional view and tell you when I see you avoiding or rushing the choice, but it stays yours. When the question is mainly whether to change direction, online career crossroads therapy goes further.
Change has to reach past our sessions into your Monday morning, your next long-haul trip and the dinner you usually miss. You may need firmer limits on availability, a different role, a team that carries more, or time that is protected for the people you love.
I help you decide what must change and what can stay. Your ambition, your standards and your competence are part of you, and they are not the problem. The aim is a career that serves your values rather than your fear.
You can also send me an email
You can come with no diagnosis, no agenda and no executive summary. We open with your current week and the change you are after.
From the first session I listen closely, help you name the central difficulty and give our work a clear direction. You do not need a polished account of your life.
This is a focused strand of my online psychotherapy, structured individual work on your inner life and your relationships. If the main strain is in your marriage, and your partner is willing, online couples therapy offers long-term relational development and healing. If you know the work will take time, a therapy bundle lowers the cost and fixes a plan in your diary.
I ask what has made you reach out now, what feels hardest, what you have tried and what you would like to be different. I ask a little about your family and early expectations, because the drive often began there. You do not need your whole history before useful work can start.
By the end I share my first reading and propose a direction, and you decide whether the way I work is useful. Prefer a conversation before you commit? Arrange a free 30-minute call.
Individual work fits when the focus is you: your drive, your feelings, your history, your decisions and how you show up with others. Your colleagues, clients and family will be present in what we discuss without anyone else joining the call.
I keep continuity from week to week, give the work direction and challenge you honestly. If you are unsure whether work is really the centre of it, online psychotherapy describes my structured individual work as a whole.
Choose couples therapy when the relationship itself needs sustained attention. If your partner feels like a single parent, if the same argument about your hours keeps returning, if trust has been damaged, or if one of you reaches out while the other retreats into work, working together usually helps more.
In couples work I help you both see the cycle, own your part and find safer ways of being together. Online couples therapy is long-term relational development and healing, and some professionals start alone and bring their partner in later.
Pace depends on how serious the strain is, how much room your work allows and how much continuity the change needs. Regular sessions protect the work from being crowded out by the next quarter.
I usually suggest weekly or fortnightly sessions to start. You will hear from me if the gaps undermine the work, and also when spacing them out is safe. If your travel makes weekly sessions impossible, back-to-back online psychotherapy places several sessions over a few days instead.
A bundle makes sense when you know the work will take several sessions and you want continuity rather than renegotiating each hour against your diary. A planned course means the session holds its place.
It also lowers the cost per session and gives you an agreed structure. See therapy discounts and bundles and the bundle cards below this section.
Therapy has done its job when you have more ownership, clarity and choice, and the original difficulty has shifted enough for you to carry on without the same support. Work still makes demands, but it no longer decides who you are.
I review progress with you openly and have no interest in therapy without an end. Sessions can space out, pause or stop. Coming back at the next career turn does not mean the first round failed. New roles bring new questions.
Unsure whether to start here or somewhere more specific? Here is this page beside the 3 routes senior people most often ask me about.
| Option | Choose it when | Pace |
|---|---|---|
| Online psychotherapy for professionals (this page) | Your career is demanding, and you want to understand what it costs you and what drives you. | A regular 1-hour video slot, weekly or fortnightly |
| Online burnout therapy | You are already depleted, perhaps signed off, and recovery comes first. | Weekly 1-hour video sessions at first |
| Online imposter syndrome therapy | Feeling like a fraud, despite clear evidence of your ability, is the core of it. | A focused course of 1-hour video sessions |
| Back-to-back online psychotherapy | Your schedule suits a concentrated block of sessions over a few days. | Several video sessions close together |
Online psychotherapy for professionals with me is individual psychotherapy by video, in English, for people with demanding careers anywhere in the world. It looks at what your work costs you and what drives you, rather than only at managing stress or productivity.
I work in depth with the whole person: your feelings, your body, your relationships and the expectations you inherited from your family. It sits within my online psychotherapy.
Come when your work is costing you sleep, health, relationships or your sense of who you are, and the strain has lasted months rather than weeks. Do not wait for a collapse. If part of you suspects something is wrong, take it seriously.
I look at whether time off restores you, whether the strain is spreading into home life and what you have quietly given up. Professionals often tell me they waited because they were still performing. Performance is a poor measure of wellbeing.
Yes. That gap between outer success and inner flatness is one of the most common reasons professionals contact me. I cannot promise what will change, and I do not offer quick fixes, but we can understand why achievement has not delivered what it seemed to promise.
In my clinical experience, the people who feel emptiest at the top often began chasing success to earn something else, such as attention, safety or love. We would look at what you were really reaching for, and how to find it more directly.
Yes. What you tell me stays confidential within my professional and legal obligations, which I explain at the start. I do not report to employers or insurers, and nobody in your sector needs to know you are seeing me.
Working by video adds a layer of discretion: no waiting room, no chance meeting with a colleague. My client policy sets out the details, and you can ask me anything about it before you begin.
Because pushing has worked for you before. Effort brought praise, safety and control, so when you feel low the old reflex reaches for more effort. Some seek reassurance from the boss, others go silent and grind on alone. Neither is a character flaw.
I help you see which way you move under pressure, what that move is trying to achieve and what it costs you and the people close to you. Then we build steadier options, such as asking for support and resting before you are forced to.
We start with now: what a typical week looks like, where it hurts, what you have tried and what you want to be different. Before we finish, I share how I understand it so far and where I suggest we begin.
You do not need an agenda or the right words. Many professionals log on from a car or a meeting room, slightly out of breath, and that is fine. Reserve a first session or start with a free discovery call.
Plan for a course of sessions over a few months rather than a couple of conversations. That is often enough to understand the pattern behind your drive and begin to change it. Patterns that reach back into childhood usually need longer.
After 22 years of practice, I prefer a clear first block followed by an honest review to open-ended drift. Every review ends with a shared decision about the pace, or about stopping.
Yes. Video lets you keep the same therapist across trips, postings and time zones, which matters when your life moves this much.
Use a personal device rather than a work laptop, headphones and a room where you cannot be overheard. A hotel room or parked car works well. The booking calendar shows every time in your own time zone, and we can sort the practical side on a free call.
Sessions of individual psychotherapy are booked as 1-hour online appointments, each with 50 minutes of therapy. The fees in US dollars are kept up to date on my prices page.
If you plan a longer course, a therapy bundle saves 10 per cent on each session and fixes a structured plan. Each bundle size is listed on therapy discounts and bundles.
Reserve your first session online, or arrange a free 30-minute call if you want to talk first. The calendar shows times in your own time zone.
If nothing fits your schedule, or your situation feels acute, write to me directly. For acute cases I keep some space free, usually within days, as set out on acute online psychotherapy. Put the hour in your diary, and we will start from there.
You can also send me an email
I want therapy to help you understand your experience and make choices you can use in everyday life. We pay attention to feelings, needs and the responses that happen before you have time to think.
Our online room should offer enough trust and honesty to explore what is difficult. I bring attention and professional judgement. You bring your experience, questions and the right to say when something does not fit.
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P.S. I’ll call you in a bit!
