Rick Cox, Psychodynamic Psychotherapist MBACP (Accred)

I’m a UK-based, BACP-accredited psychodynamic psychotherapist. I work with adults who are stuck in long-standing emotional and relational patterns, especially where those patterns are maintained by anxiety, avoidance, or over-control.

My work focuses on helping people understand and work directly with their emotional and nervous system processes, so that change happens at a structural level, not just at the level of insight or symptom management.


Who I Am

I have over 4,500 hours of online clinical experience, working with difficulties including emotional avoidance, anxiety, shame, trauma, self-criticism, and entrenched relationship patterns.

Alongside my clinical work, I’m a BetterHelp UK Brand Ambassador and contribute to national conversations about mental health, therapy, and the psychological pressures shaping modern life.

My clinical style is steady, direct, and focused on what is actually happening beneath the surface. The work is not about performance or positivity. It’s about developing the capacity to stay with what is real. So you can be free of the weight of your emotional suffering.


How I Work

My approach is psychodynamic and ISTDP-informed. In practice, this means we pay close attention to:

  • What you are feeling

  • What gets in the way of those feelings

  • How anxiety and defences shape your reactions

  • What happens between us in real time

Therapy here is active and process-focused. We don’t only talk about patterns; we work with them as they appear. The aim is not symptom control, but increased emotional capacity, flexibility, and choice.

Areas of Work

I regularly work with:

  • Emotional avoidance and over-control

  • Shame, guilt, and harsh self-criticism

  • High self-pressure and internal conflict

  • Relationship and attachment patterns

  • Anxiety and overwhelm

  • Trauma responses and emotional shutdown

  • Repetitive emotional and relational cycles

  • Identity conflict and feelings of being stuck

This work is particularly suited to people who function well on the outside but feel constrained, flat, or stuck internally.


Clinical Background & Training

MBACP Accredited Psychotherapist

  • BSc (Hons) Counselling Psychology (BPS accredited)

  • Diploma in Counselling Practice

  • 4,500+ clinical hours with 375+ clients

Additional training includes:

  • Single Session Therapy

  • Emotional regulation and defence-focused work

  • ISTDP Pre-Core training throughout 2026

I’ve worked in-person and online across private practice, specialist eating-disorder services, and community mental health settings.

Alongside clinical practice, I publish clinical guides for therapists working with depth-oriented and experiential approaches.

Since 2022, I’ve worked with several hundred clients and delivered several thousand sessions, both in private practice and in a large-scale online clinical setting. This has given me unusually broad and repeated exposure to the same core emotional and relational patterns, rather than one-off or narrowly filtered cases. Over that time, engagement and continuation rates have remained consistently high, which I take as a sign that the frame and the work are holding.


My Clinical Focus

Working with the live emotional moment

  • Tracking anxiety and defensive patterns in real time

  • Helping people tolerate more feelings without becoming overwhelmed

  • Reducing self-attack and increasing emotional flexibility

  • Supporting structural and character-level change, that goes far beyond coping strategies

The work is guided by clarity, honesty, and respect for the pace of each person’s nervous system.


Fees and Practical Information

Sessions are 50 minutes and cost £65.

Appointments are available online across the UK, with morning, afternoon, and evening availability.

Next Steps

If you would like to explore whether therapy might be helpful, you are welcome to contact me.

The initial consultation is a chance to talk things through and decide what feels appropriate.

Contact

If you would like to explore whether therapy might be helpful, you are welcome to get in touch.

An initial consultation gives us space to consider what brings you here and whether this way of working feels right for you.


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