Providing London with free and low cost psychotherapy

Howard Hodgkin, Ice, 2013
Courtesy of the Estate of Howard Hodgkin

Our Services

  • Individual psychotherapy

    If you are interested in accessing psychotherapy at CPU please email us at enquiries@cpulondon.com to receive details on how to apply.

    Psychoanalytic psychotherapy aims to bring about changes in how a person deals with their experiences in relation to themselves and others and help them to alleviate their emotional pain and distress. We provide weekly psychotherapy sessions up to two years, which offer an opportunity to think together with a psychotherapist about the difficulties in depth and on a regular basis over an extended period of time.

  • Additional details

    After applying, the first step of intake is typically consultation. Consultation offers an opportunity to think together with a psychotherapist about your difficulties and about what kind of ongoing help, if any, you may need. These meetings give an opportunity to get a better understanding of what psychoanalytic psychotherapy involves and whether this type of experience will be helpful to you.

    The consultation may consist of more than one meeting and may lead to group or individual therapeutic help at CPU London or to a recommendation to other agencies.

  • Please note

    ‍There is a general scarcity of our type of service and as we are open to patients from across London, we tend to experience a high volume of referrals. We are making every effort to expand our service capacity so as to maximise the number of people we are able to help and to reduce the waiting times for consultations and for therapy.

    ‍In the meantime, click here to see a list of other organisations offering free or low-cost psychotherapy services.

What people are saying…

  • “It was the best therapy I had... it helped build up my relationship with life (I was suicidal), with society, my future and – most importantly – with my child. The therapist rescued my life – I cannot pay her back.”

  • “Feel very grateful to be given such high quality help which I could not have afforded privately. I don’t know what I would have done with CPU - there is so little support for mental health issues in the NHS.”

  • “At a time when I felt utterly desperate, just being able to see someone and have the reassurance that I would be able to get help - albeit not at CPU - meant everything to me. I was referred elsewhere and fortunate enough to get the specialised help I needed - something that might not have happened were it not for CPU’s intervention.”

  • “It helped me talk things through and process my problems. Through this process I was able to prioritize issues clearly… I really appreciated the length of my therapy.”

  • “Willingness to help when I was desperate. The fact that CPU and the therapist was willing to help me when I was at my most desperate, and when there was no other service my GP knew of that could help.”

  • “An extremely necessary service helping vulnerable people who may not have any other support whereby they feel listened to and helped. A place where you are not judged and able to express your thoughts.”