It’s not all in your ‘head’.
We each arrive in a body, brain, and life we never chose, shaped by complex biological, familial, and cultural systems. No wonder balance, rest, and meaning can feel hard to sustain.
Therapy can’t change the world around you, but it can strengthen your ability to meet it.
CBT Therapy in the City of London with Rex Woodhouse
I offer Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) in London for adults who feel stuck in patterns of anxiety, self-criticism, burnout, relationship difficulties, or loss of direction.
Having lived in London for over ten years, I understand many of the pressures associated with city life — demanding work environments, financial stress, overstimulation, loneliness, and chronic overwhelm. I frequently work with professionals whose work has begun to dominate their identity, relationships, or ability to rest.
What is Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)?
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is an evidence-based, structured therapy that examines how thoughts, emotions, physical sensations, and behaviours interact in specific situations.
CBT is practical and goal-focused therapy, helping you identify and change unhelpful patterns that maintain anxiety, low mood, self-criticism, avoidance, and stress.
As a therapy, CBT is collaborative and skills-based, with a focus on developing tools you can use in everyday life to create sustainable change beyond the therapy room.
People I Work With.
I specialise in working with adults and professionals experiencing anxiety, stress, burnout, perfectionism, self-criticism, relationship difficulties, low mood, or a loss of meaning and direction.
In practice, this can look like:
- work consistently hijacking life while rest feels impossible
- overthinking, rumination, and difficulty switching off
- withdrawing from relationships or social life
- relying on food, substances, reassurance, or routines to regulate emotion
- feeling emotionally flat, disconnected, or unsure what matters anymore
- struggling with a harsh inner critic or chronic self-doubt
In my experience, many of these difficulties begin as understandable ways of coping with deeper experiences such as grief, trauma, bullying, emotional neglect, loneliness, abandonment, or fear of failure.
At some point, these strategies may have protected you or helped you function. Over time, however, they can begin to narrow life rather than support it. Much of our work involves understanding how these patterns developed and building more flexible, sustainable ways of responding.
Specialist areas
Unrelenting Standards, Perfectionism and Inner Criticism: Constantly striving to do or achieve more, yet it’s never quite enough for that critical voice.
You push yourself to achieve and prove your worth, yet it never feels enough. While high standards and self-criticism may have driven your success, they can quietly erode confidence and create exhaustion disguised as discipline.
Through CBT, we’ll explore where these patterns began and how to replace relentless pressure with self-compassion and balance — finding fulfilment in progress rather than perfection.
Dating and Relationships: Wanting connection, craving the security of a relationship, yet feeling restless or doubtful once you’re in one.
You might find yourself caught between wanting a relationship and fearing it — dating with openness and hope, yet as things progress, doubts creep in. You start to wonder if you’ve chosen the right person, or if they’re as invested as you are, and imagine feeling freer alone. What begins as excitement can turn into restlessness or uncertainty.
Using CBT therapy, we’ll explore the fears and beliefs beneath these cycles, helping you build relationships that feel secure, fulfilling, and genuinely mutual.
Existential Anxiety and Loss of Meaning: Feeling left behind, paralysed by seeking the “right” choice, or overwhelmed by global events.
You may feel life is moving forward for everyone else while you’re standing still — questioning choices, worrying about time, and wondering what truly matters. It can feel even harder to find meaning when the world itself feels unstable — as we face climate change, conflict, and an endless stream of unsettling news.
CBT Therapy offers a space to face these existential fears with honesty and compassion, to rediscover what sustains you, and to live with greater steadiness and purpose.
Anxiety and Control: Feeling on edge, or over-responsible.
You hold everything together through sheer effort, fearing that if you let go, things will fall apart. Periods of control often give way to collapse or impulsive escape, leaving guilt and frustration behind.
Using CBT therapy, we’ll find steadiness between the two — building emotional regulation, flexibility, and trust in your ability to cope without over-managing.
Selflessness and People-Pleasing: Pleasing others at your own expense and feeling unseen or resentful.
You’re caring and reliable, but your own needs rarely make the list. Saying ‘no’ feels risky, and you worry that honesty might upset or disappoint someone.
In our CBT therapy session, we explore the fears that make self-interest feel selfish and work on boundaries that protect it without alienating others — helping you ask for what you want with confidence and build relationships grounded in mutual respect and care.
Burnout: Running on fumes, afraid that if you stop, everything will fall apart.
You’ve carried pressure and responsibility for so long that slowing down can feel unsafe. Even when you’re depleted, you keep going — driven by duty or the fear of letting others down. Burnout isn’t weakness; it’s your body’s natural response to being at capacity for too long.
CBT therapy helps make sense of how you reached this point and begin to restore balance — easing guilt around rest and rebuilding energy, motivation, and a sustainable rhythm.
Additional Areas I work with
- Addictions & Sobriety Integration
- ADD, ADHD & ASD
- Anger & Rage
- Anxiety & Panic Attacks
- Bereavement, Grief & Breakups
- Body image & Disordered Eating
- Burnout
- Depression
- Goal setting & Life Transitions
- Health Anxiety
- Insomnia
- Low Self-Worth & Self-Esteem
- OCD
- People Pleasing
- Phobias
- Procrastination
- Study Anxiety & Stress
- Trauma
Approach
I draw on several CBT and integrative frameworks, including:
- Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT)
- Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT)
- Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT)
- Compassion-Focused Therapy (CFT)
- Schema Therapy
What to Expect:
I value building thoughtful, compassionate, and collaborative relationships with the people I work with, where you can speak openly and move at a pace that feels manageable.
Sessions are conversational, reflective, and practical. I often use diagrams or whiteboard exercises to help map out how thoughts, emotions, behaviours, and past experiences connect. Many clients find this helps make difficult experiences feel clearer, more understandable, and easier to work with.
At times, I may challenge beliefs or coping strategies that are maintaining distress while helping you develop greater clarity, self-awareness, and self-compassion.
The journey of CBT Therapy can naturally end after a certain number of sessions or continue open ended, as long as you need support.
Psychotherapy Qualifications, Training:
Accredited member, National Counselling & Psychotherapy Society (NCPS)
Trained with the College of Cognitive Behavioural Therapies, London
Qualifications:
- Diploma in CBT/REBT
- Advanced Diploma in CBT/REBT
- Advanced Diploma in Integrated CBT/REBT
Further Training and Continuing Professional Development (CPD)
I actively engage in ongoing training to deepen and broaden my clinical practice, with additional CPD in the following areas:
- Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT): Trauma, ADHD, and OCD
- Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT): Balanced Minds
- Schema Therapy: The Basic Schema Model, Methods and Strategies
- Trauma and the Brain: Trauma, the Brain, and Recovery
- Masculinity and Trauma
- Other Specialist Topics: Couples Toolbox, Bipolar Disorder, & Climate Change and Its Impact on Mental Health
Experience
I have worked as a CBT therapist in London across private practice, NHS GP surgeries, and charitable services, supporting adults experiencing a broad range of psychological and emotional difficulties.
My experience also includes working within an IAPT-backed veterans’ service and volunteering on a suicide helpline, which has given me a grounded understanding of distress, resilience, and the complexity of human experience.
I’m also a qualified yoga teacher through Sangye Yoga School in London and may integrate mindfulness, breathwork, or simple grounding techniques into sessions where helpful.
What next?
If you are looking for CBT therapy in London, I offer structured, evidence-based support tailored to your goals. I work with anxiety, burnout, perfectionism, OCD, low self-esteem, and relationship difficulties, helping you develop practical strategies for lasting change.
To take the next step, contact me by email, phone, text, or WhatsApp to arrange an initial call or first CBT session. I aim to respond to all enquiries within 24 hours.
Contact:
Rates:
60-minute 1 to 1 therapy: £100
Sessions:
Psychotherapy sessions at City Therapy Space:
Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesday & Thursdays: 07:00 to 12:00
