Online · One-to-one · Anywhere in the UK

Single Parent Support for Mothers — Room for You, Too

I'm Brian Sheppard, a clinical psychotherapist and mental health specialist, UKCP registered, with over 25 years in mental health. If you're raising children on your own, you already know that nobody asks how you are, and that when they do, you say fine. This is one-to-one counselling for single mothers: 50 minutes a week that belong to you and nobody else.

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

Does this sound familiar?

Who this is for

Mothers doing it alone, by choice, by circumstance or by someone else's decision. You might recognise some of this:

You're the parent, the earner, the taxi, the nurse and the bad guy, and there's no one to tag in
You're so tired that tired has stopped being a feeling and started being a personality
You haven't had a conversation about yourself in months, and you've stopped noticing
Money is a low hum of worry that never fully switches off
The loneliness hits hardest after bedtime, when the house finally goes quiet
You feel judged at the school gate, at work, by your own family, and sometimes you agree with them
You're still angry with their father, or grieving him, and you have to be civil by Friday
You used to be someone else, and you'd quite like to meet her again

None of this means you're failing at it. It means you're doing the work of two people with the rest of one. That deserves an hour that's only yours.

Let's talk it through

My approach

How I work with single mothers

Most support for single parents is about the children, or about the money, or it comes as a leaflet. There's very little that's simply about you: what it's like to be the only adult in the house, the person who can't be ill, the one who makes every decision and then lies awake second-guessing it. That's what these sessions are for.

I'm a person-centred psychotherapist, which means I don't arrive with a plan for your life. You talk about the week you've had, and I listen for what's underneath it: the guilt that's doing the driving, the resentment you're not allowed to say out loud, the confidence that went missing somewhere between the split and the school forms. I'll ask the questions no one else has time to ask you. I'll notice when you're minimising. I won't tell you to run a bath.

Yes, I'm a man. Some women pause at that, and it's worth saying on the introductory call if it's on your mind. I've spent over 25 years in mental health nursing and psychotherapy, a lot of it alongside women holding families together on their own, and single mothers have been one of the groups I've named in my practice from the beginning. What I bring is a way of listening that doesn't need you to perform coping, and a genuine interest in the woman underneath the mother.

Everything's online, over Zoom, for 50 minutes. You don't need childcare or a journey, just a door that shuts. Plenty of mothers talk to me after bedtime, or from the car outside the school. And I'll say now what nobody says to you: it's fine if a child wanders in. We'll pause, and carry on.

Questions I'm often asked

Is counselling for single mothers different from ordinary counselling?

The room is the same. The weight you carry into it isn't. A single mother arrives with no cover, no one to hand the evening to, usually less money and less sleep than anyone else in my week, and a habit of putting herself last so deep it's become invisible. So I pace it differently. I don't expect homework. I don't mind if you've had no time to think since we last spoke. And a lot of the early work is simply getting used to an hour where the question is "how are you?" and the answer isn't allowed to be "fine".

I can barely find the time. How does this fit?

That's the most common reason single mothers don't come, and it's a fair one. Online sessions take away the journey and the babysitter, so the hour is only the hour. I'll do my best to find a time that works around bedtimes and shifts; ask on the introductory call and I'll be honest about what I have. And if a week falls apart, tell me. That's life with children, not a failure of commitment.

Can I afford it?

Only you can answer that, and I won't pretend £80 is nothing when you're the sole earner. What I can tell you is that I keep a small number of reduced-fee places for people on a low income, and that the introductory call costs nothing, so the question of whether this is worth it to you is a fair one to bring to it. Everything about payment, cancellations and reduced fees is on my fees and concessions page.

What if I'm still not over their father?

Then that's where we start. Whether he left, you left, or he was never really there, the end of that relationship is often the thing you've had the least room to feel, because the children needed you the day after. Anger you've kept out of their earshot, grief for the family you'd pictured, the effort of being civil at handover: all of it belongs in the room. If the separation is still raw, my divorce counselling page goes deeper, and if the handovers and messages are the hardest part, so does co-parenting counselling.

Do you work with single fathers too?

Yes. This page speaks to mothers because most single parents are, and because it's who searches for it, but everything I've said about the weight of doing it alone is true for a father holding the house on his own. Many of the men I see are exactly that. If that's you, my counselling for men page may feel more like it was written for you, and the door is the same.

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