Therapist
Paul Melia BA Hons, MPhil
What drew me to becoming a therapist — and keeps me here — is the chance to offer adults a place where they can speak frankly and hear what they actually think and feel.
I offer a space to work things through at their own pace, without their experience being quickly tidied away with advice, techniques, or a pre‑set model of how they are supposed to feel or change.
BACP Registered Member 71400
I am a qualified and experienced therapist and a Registered Member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (Member 71400). I trained first in Transactional Analysis counselling and psychotherapy, and then in psychoanalytic psychotherapy in the tradition of Freud and Lacan. My formation has continued through an extended personal analysis, ongoing clinical supervision, and participation in Lacanian study groups.
I established Therapy in Manchester in 2011, building on my work as a counsellor for a private healthcare provider and as a therapist for a North West charity. My clinical experience includes many years of working with people who are living with anxiety, depression, obsessive‑compulsive difficulties, psychosis, and the effects of trauma, among other presenting issues.
My aim is to listen carefully to what clients say about their lives, to work with them whether short‑ or long‑term, as needed, and to remain genuinely curious about what is going on.
I play an active role in the region’s professional network and have served as Chair of the North West Regional Psychotherapy Association and on the editorial board of the peer-reviewed Transactional Analysis Journal.
I also provide supervision for counsellors and psychotherapists, deliver talks, facilitate reading groups, and lead seminars and workshops for therapists and other related professionals.
The Bigger Picture
Before becoming a therapist, I enjoyed a 20-year career as an art historian — a discipline organised, like this one, around interpretation and attention.
I held senior academic roles at a UK university, authored articles and books, and wrote catalogues for art exhibitions I curated, including retrospectives of Peter Greenaway’s paintings and drawings, and of David Hockney’s work. Hockney, in turn, made this portrait of me in 2002.
Watercolour and crayon
© David Hockney
Continuous practice in Manchester since 2011.
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