Integrative Therapeutic Counselling, Psychotherapy and Internal Family Systems in Clapham, Battersea and Online
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Integrative Therapeutic Counselling, Psychotherapy and Internal Family Systems in Clapham, Battersea and Online ✹
Dean Smithers
Dip. Therapeutic Counselling, MBACP
Are you plagued by a sense of hopelessness? Do you repeatedly find yourself in dysfunctional relationships or engaging in self-destructive behaviours? Is there a thirst in you for change, and a yearning to break the cycle you’ve been stuck in for as long as you can remember? If so, consciously choosing to enter into a therapeutic relationship may just be the best decision you ever make, and I say this as someone with first-hand experience of the transformative power of counselling or therapy from the perspective of both therapist and client.
Whatever your reason is for being here, I welcome you with open arms, and I hope that what follows gives you some sense of who I am beyond the words I’ve written, and of how I might be able to help you.
Who are you and what do you do?
My name is Dean Smithers, I’m an integrative counsellor, and I provide an authentic and engaging style of talking-meets-experiential therapy that aims to facilitate deep healing with a lasting impact.
My way of working is characterised by presence, empathy, curiosity and care, and I’m passionately dedicated to building rich and meaningful relationships with each of my clients that lovingly support them in becoming who they are. Together, we’ll grow both your conscious awareness and capacity for self-compassion, and in doing so open the door to genuine change.
As an integrative counsellor, I combine various modalities or approaches to therapy that share the same underlying philosophy and most resonate with me, resulting in a unique and potent style charged by my enthusiasm for its healing potential.
Can you say more about your integration?
At the heart of my practice is a cutting-edge approach to psychotherapy known as Internal Family Systems or IFS, and I integrate humanistic and psychodynamic therapies into this from person-centred and Jungian perspectives respectively. Blending the modern and traditional allows for my clients and I to move in and out of deep healing safely, and between experiential and talking therapy in a way that helps ground any inner work we might do. What ties my integration together is the understanding that each of us has a core, undamaged Self, and that the extreme beliefs, emotions and energies we carry from childhood into adulthood can be released in a way that means we suffer less and thrive more.
IFS not only offers a tangible and effective way of doing this, but it also acknowledges—from a curious and compassionate perspective—the various protective parts of us that work so hard to keep our pain at bay.
More on the Internal Family Systems Model
Common examples (of the protective parts mentioned above) include the part that tries really hard to get it right, or to be perfect, or goes out of its way to help, please or meet the needs of others. Perhaps you have an obsessive thinking part that leads to burnout, or a part that procrastinates and prevents you from getting anything done. You may be familiar with an inner critic that berates you, or a part that harshly judges and lashes out at others. Further still, there are the parts of us that turn to alcohol or drugs to numb the pain, and to self-harm or thoughts of suicide when nothing else works. What’s common among all of these is a unique protective agenda, each one activated or triggered by a different kind of emotional distress or overwhelm, and although our natural inclination is to resist, fight or rid ourselves of such parts (usually the ones that make us look ‘bad’), it’s only when we hear their stories and acknowledge their concerns that the healing can begin.
IFS means the world to me for many reasons, one of which is the power it affords clients. Simply put, you’re the expert when it comes to you, your experience, your parts and your system. Not only that, but you have everything you need to heal. My job is to support and guide you in a process of self-healing, and to be your co-explorer as we navigate your inner world with respect, curiosity and a desire to bring harmony to it. According to IFS founder Dick Schwartz: “It’s a non-pathologizing approach that transforms the internal battlefield into sacred ground, where clients learn to offer their parts what they’ve always needed: to be seen, understood, and welcomed.”
The playlist above features some of the resources I’ve found most helpful since first becoming acquainted with the model (including a fantastic articulation of how to work lovingly with addiction), and I’ll be updating it as I continue down this path. Also, if you’re interested in getting to know your parts outside of or alongside therapy, head here for a practical how-to guide.
Any parts work we might do will be backed by a robust foundation of deep emotional attunement, genuine empathy and a flare for helping clients make crucial connections between past and present in a way that really hits for them. My integration lends itself to both exploratory and structured ways of working, and we can lean in and out of these depending on what you need. There’s no set agenda, and we’ll always move at a pace most suited to you and your system.
What experience do you have?
I’ve been working in the field of counselling and psychotherapy for over five years, and as a sponsor in a spiritual context for two years and counting. I’ve also been a client in therapy for over a decade, and I’ve maintained a consistent spiritual practice for the same amount of time. I say this because I can only take you as far as I’ve gone, and so my personal development is just as important to me as my professional development. Prior to qualifying as a therapist, I worked as a musician for several years and trained as an artist before that. I hold a CPCAB-accredited and BACP-approved Diploma in Therapeutic Counselling and I’m a registered member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, whose Ethical Framework I adhere to. You can refer to this framework if ever in doubt about what constitutes good practice.
From August onwards, I’ll be undertaking a 4-month comprehensive Internal Family Systems training program called Stepping Stone.
A formal list of my qualifications and selected CPD relevant to my integration includes:
Level 2 Certificate in Counselling Skills – Antoinette Prince, CPCAB (2019)
Level 3 Certificate in Counselling Studies – Antoinette Prince, CPCAB (2020)
Carl Jung and the Spiritual Quest – Vivianne Crowley, Treadwell’s (2021)
Level 4 Diploma in Therapeutic Counselling: BACP-Approved Practitioner Qualification – Saska Plowman, CPCAB (2020-2022)
Working at Relational Depth in Counselling and Psychotherapy – Mick Cooper, PESI (2022)
An Introduction to the Internal Family Systems Model – Alexia Rothman, PESI (2022)
The Magical Castle: 8-week online retreat – Alan Chapman, Barbarous Words (2023)
Harvest: The Psyche’s Time of Fulfilment – Jim Fitzgerald, The Guild of Pastoral Psychology (2025)
The Foundations of IFS with an Introduction to Unattached Burdens and Porosity of Mind – Robert Falconer, Beyond IFS (2025)
Treating Complex Trauma with Internal Family Systems Therapy: 2-day intensive workshop – Frank Anderson, PESI (2025)
Stepping Stone: 16-week comprehensive IFS course – Peter Silvien, IFSCA (2025)
Do you specialise in anything?
As it stands, I have experience and a particular interest in making sense of the difficulties people so often experience in relationships, whether they be friendships, romantic relationships, or those with parents, siblings or other significant figures. I work predominantly with young adults in their 20s or 30s who find themselves lost in the chaos of those years, and I provide a patient and compassionate space for anyone wanting to address an addiction to porn.
You might also choose to work with me for the following reasons:
To have help managing and getting to the root of anxiety, panic attacks, overwhelm, anger or depression
To be supported in the questioning of your sexuality, or to deepen your relationship with it
To move away from self-criticism or even loathing and towards self-acceptance
To explore the expectations you have of yourself and alleviate the pressure you’re under to meet them
To reconcile the so-called good and bad in you and live in less of an extreme or polarised way
To resolve inner conflicts and bring balance back to your system
To process childhood trauma and abuse
To free yourself from guilt and shame
To heal targeted emotional wounds through guided inner work
To better understand and integrate dreams or spiritual experiences
To make an all-important mind-body connection, ground your emotions somatically and bring some spirit to your therapeutic work
What will our sessions be like?
There are many ways a session can go, but we’ll always begin with where you are, and the likelihood is we’ll end up learning a bit about how your past shaped your present. Over time, we’ll connect crucial dots and develop a shared understanding of why you find yourself in the situation you’re in, which you can then consciously choose to step out of once you see it for what it is (i.e. a reflection of your childhood, or a life you’re living for others rather than yourself).
Some sessions will simply be about loving you unconditionally as you are, which can be incredibly healing given so many, if not all of us are driven by conditional and false beliefs to do with being a certain kind of person, and only when we are this person are we ‘worthy’ or ‘good enough’. Others might be about putting some distance between you and your anxiety, for example, in a way that means you can relate to it with clarity as part of you rather than all of you. If you’re coming to me for IFS specifically, sessions will be about gaining permission from protective parts to access and heal emotional wounds, and about increasingly becoming your own attachment figure.
Where do we start?
I offer all clients a free introductory session lasting a total of 30 minutes. This gives us a chance to meet, for you to get a sense of how I work, and for me to clarify your needs and how I might best meet them. It’s got to feel right for you, and there’s no pressure to continue unless you’d like to. If we do decide to work together, an ongoing slot will be discussed and agreed upon collaboratively and a date set for the beginning of our journey. All you need to do for now is reach out in a way that feels comfortable to you, and I’ll respond as soon as I can (usually within a day or so).
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