Identity and cultural transition · Online · Black male psychotherapist

Black Therapist in London — Somewhere You Don't Have to Explain Yourself First

I'm Brian Sheppard, a Black man and a clinical psychotherapist and mental health specialist, UKCP registered, with over 25 years in mental health. This page is the heart of what I call identity and cultural transition: living between places, cultures, generations or versions of yourself, and wanting a therapist who already understands the ground you're standing on. If you've been looking for a Black therapist in London and finding only directories, this is a person: one you can read about, check on the register, and speak to before you decide anything.

Book a free introductory call Message me on WhatsApp

UKCP registered
50-minute sessions on Zoom
£80 a session

Does this sound familiar?

Who this is for

Identity and cultural transition covers more than race, though race is often where it starts. It's arriving in a country as an adult and finding that home has quietly moved. It's being the first in your family to do almost anything. It's faith, class, sexuality, or the version of you that exists at work and the one that comes home. Black and Black British people, of African, Caribbean and mixed heritage, are at the centre of this page, and the door is open to anyone living between two worlds. You might recognise some of this:

You're the only Black person in the room at work, and being fine with that is a full-time job in itself
You've tried therapy before and spent half of it explaining your family, your culture or your hair
Something happened, at work, on the street, in a relationship, and the people around you told you it was nothing
You were raised to keep it in the family, or to take it to God, and never to a stranger
You're a Black man who was taught to be strong, and you're tired in a way you can't say out loud
You're carrying your parents' expectations, your children's needs and your own, and nobody is carrying you
You're not sure where you belong: too much of one thing here, not enough of it there
You want to be seen as yourself, not as a category, and you've stopped expecting either

You don't have to arrive with it all worked out, and you don't have to prove that any of it is real. I know it is.

Let's talk it through

My approach

How I work with Black clients

Finding a therapist who understands the experiences, the relationships, the culture and the pressures that shape Black lives can change what's possible in the room. I'm not a neutral observer of any of that. I grew up in Trinidad and Tobago, I've lived most of my adult life in London, I've raised children here, and I spent years as a mental health nurse before I trained as a psychotherapist, working with a lot of Black people who had reached the system far too late and been misread when they got there.

So when you talk about the look you got in the meeting, the aunt who thinks therapy is for white people, the exhaustion of code-switching from the moment you leave the house, or the weight of being the first in your family to do almost anything, I don't need it translated. That's the practical meaning of culturally matched therapy: less time explaining, more time on what you actually came for.

It doesn't mean I assume anything. Being Black is not one experience, and I won't decide what yours has been. It doesn't mean every session is about race, either. Some of my Black clients barely mention it; they came about a divorce, a job, a father, a low mood that won't shift, and what they wanted was simply to bring their whole self and not have to leave part of it at the door. You set the agenda. Race, culture, faith and family are in the room if and when you want them to be.

What I do bring is a person-centred way of working: no worksheets, no programme, no diagnosis handed to you in the first ten minutes. You talk, I listen properly, and I ask the questions that help you hear yourself. When something you describe is racism, I'll call it racism, and we'll look at what it did to you rather than whether it happened. And I won't flinch. Very little you can say will be something I haven't heard, or lived.

Questions I'm often asked

I can offer you one, and I can tell you how to check any therapist you're considering, including me. Look for a registered psychotherapist or counsellor, meaning one whose name you can find on the UKCP public register (opens in a new tab) or BACP public register. Look at how they describe working with Black clients: whether they talk about it in the first person or just tick a box. Then use the free introductory call, which any decent therapist offers, to ask them directly what their experience of race and culture is.

If it's not me you choose, the Black, African and Asian Therapy Network (opens in a new tab) is the most reliable place to find therapists of colour across the UK, and I'm a practitioner member myself (see my BAATN profile (opens in a new tab)). What matters most is that you end up talking to someone, not that it's me.

Why does it matter that your therapist understands race and culture?

Because the alternative costs you. If your therapist doesn't understand where you come from, you spend the session teaching them, and you edit as you go: softening the racism so they don't get uncomfortable, translating your family so they don't judge it, leaving out the faith or the food or the funeral traditions because they'd need a footnote. That's not therapy. That's more of the performance you came to put down.

A therapist who shares or deeply understands your background doesn't make a good fit automatic; the relationship still has to work. But it removes the first layer of work before the real work can start. And it means that when something in your life is about race, whether that's a promotion that keeps not coming or a stop-and-search your son didn't tell you about until weeks later, you'll be talking to someone who takes it as fact, not as a theory to be tested.

Do you work with Black men?

Yes, and they're the largest group of people I see. Black men are among the least likely people in this country to ask for help and among the most likely to end up in a crisis service instead. I've seen both ends of that, as a nurse and as a therapist, and this page exists partly because of it.

If you're a Black man reading this, I know what the training was. Be strong. Don't bring shame on the family. Handle it. I also know what it costs to keep that up at forty-five with a mortgage, a marriage under strain and a body that's started to tell you something is wrong. You don't have to be in pieces to come. You have to be honest for fifty minutes a week, with a man who has been where you're standing. There's more on my counselling for men page.

Do we have to talk about race?

No. This is the question people are most surprised I'm asked, and the answer is that you decide. Some clients come to me precisely because they want to think out loud about identity, belonging or racism without being managed. Others come for a relationship, a bereavement of a marriage, a career that's gone flat, and want a therapist who'll simply understand the background so that it doesn't get in the way. Both are welcome. I follow you, not a theme.

Do you only work with Black clients?

No. I work with anyone who's an adult, in the UK and wants one-to-one online therapy, and I specialise in men's mental health, relationship counselling online, divorce counselling, co-parenting and counselling for single mothers, whatever your background. This page is here because Black and Black British clients have told me, over and over, how hard it was to find someone like me, and because I'd rather they found me on a page that speaks to them than on a directory that sorts them by a filter.

Fees and first step

What it costs and how to start

Sessions are 50 minutes over Zoom and cost £80. I keep a small number of reduced-fee places for people on a low income; ask me on the introductory call. How everything works, including cancellations, is on my fees and concessions page.

Before anything else, we have a free introductory call. You tell me a bit about what's going on, I tell you how I work, and we both get a feel for whether it's a fit. No pressure, no obligation. If it isn't right, I'll say so and point you somewhere better.

£80 per session

50 minutes, one-to-one on Zoom
Free introductory call first
Some reduced-fee places

Book a free introductory call Message me on WhatsApp

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