I'm Afia. The work we do together is serious. The room it happens in is warm, full of plants, and occasionally funny. That mix is not an accident, it's the method.
You're everyone's strong friend, the one who copes, the one who organises. And you are so tired.
On paper it's all fine. Good job, people who love you, plants you mostly keep alive. So why does Sunday evening feel like a low hum of dread?
The family WhatsApp pings and your chest tightens before you've even read it.
You can name your attachment style at parties. Naming it hasn't changed it.
You've been carrying something for years and you've never said it out loud, because who would you even say it to?
Everything starts with a free 15-minute chat, because choosing a therapist from a website alone is like choosing a house from the doormat. Then we meet weekly, in Kings Heath or online, and we do the work properly.
50 minutes
Weekly one-to-one counselling and psychotherapy for the things that are heavy to carry alone. Anxiety, low mood, loss, family patterns, and the particular tiredness of always being the strong one.
50 minutes
Therapy for the decade nobody warns you about. University pressure, first jobs, family expectation, friendships shifting, and the question of who you actually are when nobody's watching.
15 minutes · free
Fifteen minutes on the phone or over video. You tell me a little about what's going on, I tell you honestly whether I can help, and neither of us pretends it isn't slightly awkward for the first ninety seconds.
Send me a message with a little about what's going on. A few lines is plenty. No forms, no symptom checklists, no pressure.
We talk on the phone or over video. You hear how I work, ask anything you like, and notice how it feels. If I'm not the right fit, I'll say so and point you to someone who is.
Weekly 50-minute sessions, same day, same time. We review how it's going openly as we go, and we finish when the work is done, not when the direct debit says so.
Before I was a therapist I was a secondary school teacher, which is excellent training for both. Ten years in Birmingham classrooms taught me how to hold a room, how to spot the child who is coping too well, and how much can change when one adult is genuinely, reliably on your side. Eventually I wanted to do that one person at a time, properly, so I retrained, and I have never once missed marking.
I work with adults who are tired of white-knuckling their own lives. The strong friends. The eldest daughters. The ones who organise the funeral and never quite get round to grieving. Serious therapy for people who are often very funny, because humour is not the opposite of depth, it's frequently the doorway to it.
Somewhere along the way we decided that healing has to be beige. Quiet room, low voice, a box of tissues and an atmosphere of mild emergency. I think that idea keeps a lot of people away, and I think it's wrong. The nervous system does its best work when it feels safe, and safety, for most of us, looks like warmth. So my room has plants and colour and tea, and sometimes we laugh properly. Then, because you feel held, we go to the hard places. That's the order it works in.
I'm a Black British-Ghanaian woman, and my practice holds space for the things that phrase carries. If you want a therapist who understands the weight of being the eldest daughter, the family WhatsApp, the code-switching, the being the first to do everything, you're in the right place, and you won't spend half your sessions translating yourself. And if that isn't your story, you're equally welcome. Good therapy meets the person who actually walks in.
You'll find me in a bright first-floor studio on York Road in Kings Heath, or online from wherever you are.
MBACP Registered Member
BACP is the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, the UK's main professional body for talking therapies
BAATN Member
The Black, African and Asian Therapy Network, the UK's largest community of therapists of Black, African, Asian and Caribbean heritage
I expected an hour of heavy silence and got an actual conversation. We laugh in there sometimes, and somehow that is what made the hard bits sayable.
Afia is the first therapist I have not performed for. I did not know how much energy the performing was costing me until I stopped.
Only if it turns up, and it usually turns up on its own schedule, not mine. We start with what's happening now. If the past is part of the pattern, we'll get to it gently and because it's useful, never as a ritual.
Completely. Warmth and rigour are not opposites. I'm MBACP registered, in ongoing supervision, and the work we do goes as deep as any beige consulting room. I just don't believe you have to feel like you're at the dentist while you do it.
Fifteen minutes, phone or video, no preparation needed. You say a little about what's going on, I explain how I'd approach it, and you ask whatever you like. Then you take your time deciding. Nobody follows up with a sales sequence.
Honest answer: the labels overlap a lot in UK practice, and I'm trained in both. What matters is the fit between us and the depth you want to go to. That's a conversation, not a menu decision, and we'll have it together.
It depends what we're working with, and anyone who gives you a number from a website is guessing. Some people find twelve sessions is enough, some stay a year or more. We review openly as we go, and stopping is always yours to choose.
Yes, within the standard safety limits every ethical therapist works to. If I believed you or someone else were at serious risk I would need to act, and I explain exactly how that works in plain words before we start.
No, and honestly, earlier is easier. A lot of my clients arrive saying they feel guilty for taking up space because other people have it worse. You're allowed to want more than coping.
The practice is a first-floor studio on York Road, ten minutes from Birmingham city centre by train and easy to reach from Moseley and Stirchley. Online sessions run across the UK.
Studio 2, 41 York Road, Kings Heath, Birmingham B14 7SA
Tell me a little about what's bringing you here. A few honest lines are plenty, and there is no obligation in asking. If it feels right we'll book a free 15-minute chat so you can hear how I work and decide in your own time.
Get in touchFree 15-minute intro chat · daytime and evening appointments