You became who you needed to be. It's no longer sustainable.
Depth-oriented work for professionals navigating the cost of high performance.
High function. Low reserves.
You are capable, reliable, and often the one others depend on. From the outside, things work. What changes is how much it takes to keep it that way.
What once felt like strength, being composed, self-sufficient, and in control, now feels harder to sustain. The same responses repeat, even when you can see them clearly.
The drive to keep functioning is still there. The capacity underneath it is thinning. What brings people here is rarely crisis alone. More often, it is the recognition that insight has not changed the experience itself.
If this feels familiar, you don't have to keep managing it alone.
I work with professionals in finance, law, technology, and the creative industries, often in senior or leadership positions.
Many are navigating significant internal pressure beneath outward success.
Dr Anne Li, CPsychol, DPsych
Chartered Counselling Psychologist (HCPC)
Former Investment Banking Professional
Work offered online, with limited in-person availability in central London, across ongoing therapy, focused consultations, leadership work, and intensives.
→ Explore ways of working
Friction points in high-pressure lives
“I’M DOING WELL, BUT IT NEVER FEELS LIKE ENOUGH.”
You hold yourself to a high standard, and it’s become automatic.
Even when you stop, your mind keeps going. Reviewing conversations. Anticipating problems. Adjusting to what’s needed.
Rest doesn’t fully land. There’s a background tension, and a growing distance from what you actually feel.
“MY RELATIONSHIPS FEEL STRAINED, EVEN WHEN I CARE DEEPLY.”
You want closeness, but something in relationships feels effortful or slightly out of reach.
You find yourself managing, accommodating, or carrying more than you mean to.
The same dynamics repeat, leaving you frustrated, emotionally distant, or unsure why connection still feels difficult.
“I DON’T KNOW WHO I AM OUTSIDE THE ROLES I PERFORM.”
You’ve adapted to expectations in work, family, or culture for so long that it has become difficult to tell what is truly yours.
Functioning takes priority over feeling. Responsibility over preference.
Life may look full from the outside, while internally something feels muted, distant, or missing.
“Dismantling the tyranny of “should”, one gentle, grounded truth at a time.”
How this work is different
It helps where insight, strategy, or self-understanding no longer feel sufficient on their own.
For high-performing professionals, the difficulty is rarely a lack of awareness. You may already recognise the patterns, know where they come from, and notice them as they happen.
Insight matters, and so do practical changes in how you think, respond, and relate. But some responses become automatic through repetition and pressure, continuing long after they no longer fit the life you want.
The work focuses on understanding what sustains these dynamics and how they continue to shape relationships, decisions, and how you move through life.
Change develops through both understanding and experiencing yourself differently in the moments where those patterns take hold.
The aim is a way of living that feels less effortful, more flexible, and more internally coherent.
→ Explore how this work is approached
How the work unfolds
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Recognising the patterns
Noticing the patterns shaping how you think, feel, and respond, especially those outside of awareness.
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Seeing how it took shape
Understanding how these responses formed, and why they persist long after they no longer fit.
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Working with them in the moment
Learning to recognise these dynamics as they arise, creating space to respond differently.
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Allowing change to stabilise
As new responses become more familiar, they begin to shape relationships, decisions, and everyday life differently.
What tends to shift
The internal pressure that rarely switches off begins to ease.
Holding everything together takes less out of you.
Relationships feel less effortful and more connected.
You begin to feel more present in your own life.
→ A more detailed exploration can be found in How Change Becomes Possible.
Psychological intensives
At times, something reaches a point where weekly sessions are no longer enough. This may be a period of acute pressure, a relationship dynamic that feels difficult to step out of, or a pattern that has not shifted despite ongoing work.
A psychological intensive creates a more continuous space to work at depth over several hours. Rather than stopping just as something begins to open, we are able to stay with it, understand it more fully, and work through it as it unfolds.
This often allows for movement that would otherwise take weeks or months to emerge.
Half-day or full-day sessions.
Ways of working together
The work is offered across a small number of focused formats, depending on what is needed.
The most appropriate way of working is usually clarified in an initial consultation.
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Individual therapy
For recurring patterns and deeper restructuring
For when the same patterns continue to shape relationships, decisions, and ways of being.
Ongoing work creates the space to understand how these patterns emerge over time and how they are sustained in everyday life, relationships, and under pressure.
The work focuses not only on insight, but on developing a different way of experiencing and responding in everyday life.
Sessions are offered online, with limited in-person availability in central London.
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Psychological intensives
For concentrated work when weekly sessions are not enough
A dedicated space for more focused and immersive psychological work.
Often useful during periods of pressure, transition, relational difficulty, or when something important feels stuck or unresolved.
Offered in half-day or full-day formats in person in central London.
→ Learn more about Psychological Intensives
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Focused consultation
For clarity around a specific issue or moment
For situations that require careful thinking, perspective, and psychological understanding.
This may involve a relationship dynamic, professional dilemma, period of transition, or recurring pattern that has become difficult to make sense of alone.
The aim is a clearer understanding of what is happening and why it feels difficult.
This may be a standalone consultation or part of a wider piece of work.
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Leadership + executive work
For pressure, responsibility, and complexity at senior levels
For professionals in roles where visibility, responsibility, and decision-making carry significant weight.
As seniority increases, more is carried privately, and the space to think openly can narrow.
The work focuses on leadership, authority, relationships, and how pressure is carried psychologically.
→ Learn more about Leadership & Executive Work
About
I am a Counselling Psychologist with a background in investment banking and the creative industries. This informs how I understand performance, identity, and internal pressure, particularly in environments where capacity is valued and difficulty is rarely acknowledged.
I am drawn to this work partly because I know this territory from the inside: the drives, the standards, and the cost of maintaining them.
I tend to think about difficulty in context rather than as something to simply fix or remove. I am attentive and curious by nature, and often more direct than people expect. I find that combination tends to suit the people I work with.
My approach is relational, depth-oriented, and integrative, drawing from psychodynamic, cognitive-behavioural, somatic, and existential approaches. The work pays close attention to recurring patterns, including how they emerge within the therapeutic relationship itself.
As a British Chinese clinician, I am also attentive to questions of identity, belonging, expectation, and adaptation across cultures, environments, and family systems.
How we learn to protect ourselves
At the core of this work is the recognition that how we think, feel, and relate is shaped early, within the environments in which we grow up.
When needs for safety, stability, attention, or acceptance are not fully met, we adapt. These adaptations often begin as ways of securing belonging, protection, or control.
They can support achievement, competence, and self-reliance, while also narrowing how we live and relate. What once helped can eventually become limiting.
This work creates space to recognise these patterns more clearly, so different ways of experiencing and responding can emerge.
Further reading: Is it always the parents' fault?
Professional Credentials
Doctorate in Counselling Psychology (DPsych)
Chartered Counselling Psychologist (CPsychol), British Psychological Society
Registered Practitioner Psychologist, Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC)
Over 14 years’ clinical experience across the NHS and private practice
Selected Insights
Fees
ONGOING INDIVIDUAL THERAPY
Online: £180
In-person (Central London): £200
50 minutes
FOCUSED CONSULTATION
£340
90 minutes
LEADERSHIP WORK
Structured according to the scope and format of the work. Discussed at initial consultation.
PSYCHOLOGICAL INTENSIVES
Arranged on a case-by-case basis. Fees reflect the depth and extended format of the work.
I work primarily with self-funding clients, and with a select number of insurers including Allianz, Aviva, Bupa International, Cigna, Healix, Vitality, and WPA. Bupa UK referrals are not currently accepted.
Questions?
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The first step is to arrange an initial consultation. This offers space to discuss what has brought you here and to consider whether working together feels like the right fit. We can also think about the most appropriate way of working at this stage.
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The initial consultation is a chance to discuss what has brought you here and to get a sense of how I work. It is not an assessment in a formal sense, but a space to begin thinking together and to consider whether this feels like a useful way of working.
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I work with thoughtful, high-functioning professionals who experience significant internal pressure despite appearing capable and successful from the outside.
Common areas of work include anxiety, burnout, perfectionism, and a persistent sense of pressure or self-doubt. This may be accompanied by overthinking, difficulty switching off, or a sense that achievement does not bring the expected relief.
Some people seek support around relationships, including patterns of over-responsibility, difficulty setting boundaries, or emotional distance. Others come with questions of identity, direction, or meaning, particularly at points of transition.
The work often focuses less on isolated symptoms and more on the patterns that sit beneath them.
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Many capable and thoughtful people are used to relying on their own insight and resilience.
This work offers a different kind of space: one where you can think openly with someone trained to notice patterns, emotional dynamics, and relational themes that are often difficult to see from the inside.
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Therapy focuses more explicitly on emotional experience, relational patterns, and the impact of past and present experiences on how you think, feel, and relate. It often involves working at depth over time. Coaching is typically more focused on current challenges, decision-making, and forward movement.
In practice, the distinction is not always clear-cut. Many of the challenges people face are shaped by underlying patterns that influence both performance and relationships.
My coaching work is informed by clinical training, allowing us to work with both outcomes and underlying dynamics where relevant. If you are unsure which is the better fit, we can think about this together.
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Ongoing work is typically weekly, with 50-minute sessions.
In some cases, we may work in a more focused way through extended consultations, or intensives, depending on what is most appropriate.
The length of the work varies. Some people come for a defined period around a specific issue, while others choose to continue for longer to explore patterns in greater depth.
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Yes. Sessions are held online via secure video, allowing you to attend from home or while travelling.
Online work can be just as effective as in-person work for many people, and often offers greater flexibility.
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I am registered with selected insurance providers, including Allianz, Aviva, Bupa Global, Cigna, Healix, Vitality, and WPA.
If you intend to use insurance, please check the details of your policy in advance and mention this when making your enquiry.
If this feels familiar
When managing is no longer enough
An initial consultation offers space to think about what is happening, whether this work feels appropriate, and what kind of support may be most useful.
A brief 15-minute call to consider fit and next steps.