Counselling JCT
Online Counselling & Therapy – Serving Cumbria, Manchester, Lancashire & the North West
Something in you
has been waiting
to be understood, you carry it quietly
The exhaustion that does not lift after a good night's sleep. The anxiety that arrives without warning, even when nothing is obviously wrong. The pattern that returns despite everything you have tried.
You have held things together for a long time. And you are very good at it.
But something beneath the surface is asking for more than management.
I offer online counselling for adults across the UK who are ready to stop managing alone and start to understand what is really going on beneath the surface.
Who I work with
You do not need to be in crisis to deserve this space
You may be high-functioning, thoughtful, the person others come to.
From the outside, life looks steady.
Inside, something has not fully settled.
Perhaps you are navigating a loss that has not had space to land.
Perhaps grief has arrived unexpectedly, in the body, in the middle of ordinary days.
Perhaps you are moving through a transition that feels larger than you expected.
Or perhaps it is older than that.
A way of responding to things that you did not choose. A relationship with yourself that was shaped very early. A childhood that looked ordinary from the outside, or one that didn't, and either way left something unresolved in you.
A pattern that feels familiar, almost inherited.
Something that runs quietly beneath your life and shapes it in ways you have not yet been able to name.
This is exactly the kind of work I do.
The Work
Not what is wrong with you
What has your system learned to carry
Counselling with me is not about unpicking the past for its own sake. It is about understanding what your nervous system learned in order to keep you safe, and gently exploring what it might be ready to put down.
I work somatically and relationally. That means we pay attention to what the body is holding as much as what the mind is saying. Insight matters. But regulation opens the door that insight alone cannot.
My approach draws on person-centred counselling, polyvagal theory, and somatic awareness. I have worked with trauma, complex trauma, and attachment for over twenty-five years, including with adults whose early experiences shaped them in ways they are only beginning to understand.
The pace is yours. There is no pressure, no fixed protocol, no expectation of where we should be by session six.
Some people come for a few sessions around a specific moment in their lives. Others choose to work at greater depth over time. We decide together, and we can always revisit that decision.
Most people begin with a single First Step Session.
No commitment. No expectation.
Simply a space to arrive, and to begin to make sense of what has been asking for attention.
Childhood trauma and high-functioning adults
You learned to cope. Brilliantly
That does not mean it did not cost you
Many of the adults I work with do not identify with the word trauma. What they know is that something does not quite fit. A tendency to disconnect when things get hard. A nervous system that stays on alert even when life is calm. A relationship with themselves that feels conditional, or unseen, or simply exhausting to maintain.
These are not personality traits. They are adaptations. Responses the body and mind developed when they needed to. And they can shift, with the right kind of attention.
If you experienced childhood trauma, whether that felt dramatic at the time or entirely ordinary, whether it had a name or not, and you have built a capable, outward-facing life around it, this work is for you.
Childhood trauma counselling online, UK. Complex trauma. Attachment-informed therapy.
Something a Little Different: Unthread
Some patterns are not yours alone,
they arrive before you
There is a kind of exhaustion that comes not just from what you have lived, but from what was handed to you before you had words for it.
- The first generation lives through something difficult.
- The second feels the consequences, often without understanding why.
- The third has enough distance to witness it, name it, and choose differently.
Unthread is a reflective, symbolic approach I developed to explore these deeper layers.
Where certain emotional patterns come from. What they have been trying to protect. And what you might want to pass on, or put down, from here.
Some clients come solely for counselling. Others feel drawn to explore Unthread alongside it, or separately. There is no expectation either way.
" Something is there. Lets us find it together."
Jackie Connaughton
About Jackie
I know what it is to carry, more than you can name
I am Jackie Connaughton, a BACP-registered counsellor with over twenty-five years of experience supporting adults through anxiety, grief, major life transitions, and the emotional patterns that can quietly run a life.
I trained and practised across settings that demanded a deep understanding of trauma, child protection, attachment work, complex early experience, before moving into private practice with adults. The people I work with now often carry the long shadow of those early years without ever having had a space to set it down.
They are not usually in crisis. They are thoughtful, capable, often the person others rely on. But privately, they are exhausted in a way that good intentions and hard work have not been able to shift.
I understand that. Not as theory. As lived experience.
My work has always centred on what lies beneath the surface. What the body holds. What was inherited rather than chosen. What becomes possible when someone finally has a space that is completely and unhurriedly theirs.
I work online, supporting adults across the UK. My sessions are held in complete confidence within the BACP ethical framework.
Your next step
You do not need the right words, you just need to begin
A free consultation is simply a conversation. No commitment.
No expectation. A chance to see whether working together feels right.
Get in touch
Contact Jackie
Email: jackie@counsellingjct.co.uk
Phone: 07432 373270
You can also leave a message using the contact form below.
All enquiries are answered within 24 hours and handled in complete confidence using secure phone and email services.
Find Me Online
Counselling JCT | Online Counselling for Adults Across the UK
Helping you move from overwhelm to calm, and from self-doubt to confidence, one compassionate step at a time.