Be Heard, Gain Insight, and Change
Anxiety, addiction and relationship specialist in Crouch End and Muswell Hill
Accredited counsellor and psychotherapist with 18 years of experience
Are you struggling with anxiety, addiction, or relationship issues?
I’m Andrew Martin, a counsellor and psychotherapist based in Crouch End (N8) and Muswell Hill (N10), North London. I specialise in helping people with anxiety disorders such as social anxiety, OCD, health anxiety, generalised anxiety disorder, and other forms of persistent worry and fear. I also work extensively with addiction and compulsive behaviours, and with relationship difficulties, both for individuals and couples.
My approach is supportive and evidence-based, but also practical and solution-focused, helping people make genuine and lasting changes in their lives.
Discover what my former clients say about their experience here.
My Approach to Counselling
The best counselling works when the approach matches your needs and goals, whether you want to explore the past or focus on practical solutions.
My integrative approach combines evidence-based therapies such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT), and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), delivered in a supportive and collaborative style.
I specialise in helping people manage anxiety disorders, overcome addictive or compulsive behaviours, and work through relationship difficulties. My practice is based in Crouch End (N8), and I also work with many clients from the nearby Muswell Hill (N10) area. My goal is to provide counselling and psychotherapy that gives you both insight and practical tools to make lasting changes.
Click here to learn more about my qualifications and experience.
What To Expect
Your first counselling session is an opportunity for us to get to know each other and to explore what has brought you here. We might talk about the difficulties you are facing, such as anxiety, stress, OCD, health anxiety, panic attacks, or relationship challenges. This is also a chance for you to ask me questions about the counselling process, and I will explain everything as clearly as possible.
I will outline important aspects such as confidentiality, my approach to therapy, and what working together might look like. By the end of the session, you should have a good sense of whether you feel comfortable with me and whether you’d like to continue.
From my side, I will listen carefully, begin to understand your concerns, and share initial thoughts on the therapeutic direction I recommend. If we both feel there is a good fit, we can agree on a regular weekly session. These sessions are your dedicated time, giving you consistency and space to focus on change.
Counselling sessions usually last 50 minutes and take place at The Vale Practice in Crouch End (N8). I also work with many clients from Muswell Hill (N10), Highgate, and across North London, and my goal is to provide a space where you can make lasting changes.
What do you need help with?
I specialise in counselling for anxiety disorders, addictive behaviours, and relationship difficulties. Many people come to me for help with issues such as OCD, health anxiety, social anxiety, panic attacks, stress, or alcohol use. Others want support with relationship problems, whether as an individual or as part of a couple.
You can click on any of the topics below to read more about how I work with these difficulties and the types of therapy that may help.
I’m always happy to answer questions, so please feel free to contact me.
Private Healthcare Insurance
I am a registered provider with many of the leading private healthcare organisations. If you have private health insurance that covers counselling, psychotherapy, or addiction counselling, you may find that they will pay for some of the cost of seeing me.
I am a registered provider with Aviva Healthcare, Cigna Healthcare, WPA, and Vitality Health.
If your healthcare provider isn't mentioned above, it's still likely they may cover your treatment. Please feel free to email me so we can discuss it further. Unfortunately, I do not work with patients insured by Axa PPP or BUPA. I’m sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.
Article: Understanding Maintenance Cycles in Anxiety
When a person suffers from recurrent, pervasive anxiety, it often continues through invisible patterns that quietly sustain it. These are known as maintenance cycles, repeating loops in which thoughts, emotions, and physical sensations influence one another and keep the experience of anxiety alive and growing.
Anxiety is not a single process that happens only in the mind. It involves the whole system: how we think, what we feel, and how the body reacts to these thoughts and feelings. A shift in one area can lead to changes in the others. Over time, these interactions can form a cycle that repeats itself automatically, making anxiety seem ever-present, unpredictable, and uncontrollable.
For instance, a physical sensation such as an increase in heart rate may lead to a worrying thought (“Maybe there’s something wrong with my heart”), which creates more intense emotional distress such as panic. This, in turn, heightens the physical sensation as the heart rate increases further. Each part of the system reinforces the next. For example, the thoughts may become more catastrophic (“I’m going to have a heart attack, I’m going to die”), and the body and mind become caught in a feedback loop that maintains and intensifies the anxiety.
Becoming aware of the patterns that keep anxiety going
These cycles often operate outside of conscious awareness. People can find themselves feeling anxious without fully knowing why, because the processes that keep anxiety going are subtle and interconnected. It’s not usually one single event or thought that causes the problem, but the ongoing interaction between them.
In therapy, you can develop the ability to slow this process down and recognise it when it is happening. Over time, you can become highly skilled at noticing the relationship between thoughts, emotions, and physical sensations. This turns what was once an unconscious pattern that affected you, but which you were probably unaware of, into something you are conscious of and understand well. This creates the opportunity to make different choices and small interventions that can disrupt the unhelpful maintenance cycle and allow you to begin taking actions that reduce your anxiety.
Taking back control from automatic anxiety patterns
This is the beginning of a deeply empowering way of understanding anxiety and how, through your own actions, you can begin to undermine the process and put yourself back in the driver’s seat. A process that was once automatic and negative, almost certainly leading to avoidance and other unhelpful anxiety-maintaining behaviours, can start to be dismantled.
To understand this more fully, we need to look at the branch of psychology known as behaviourism, which we will explore in the next article.
Client's Experience
Therapy offers a space to better understand yourself and your emotional responses. It can help you to recognise patterns in your relationships, make sense of past experiences, and find new ways of relating to yourself and others.
Clinic Locations
Crouch End N8
Muswell Hill N10
Parking in Muswell Hill, and Crouch End
If you are seeing me for counselling or psychotherapy in Muswell Hill, North London, parking is free in all the surrounding roads. Try to leave an extra ten minutes just in case it is hard to get a space. Click to see a map of the local area.
For counselling or psychotherapy in Crouch End, North London, there is free parking most of the day with some exceptions. Click to see a map of the local area.
Other North London Locations
- Rutland House Surgery, 40 Colney Hatch Lane, London, N10 1DU. Get directions here.
- Crouch Hall Road Surgery, 48 Crouch Hall Road, London N8 8HJ. Get directions here.
Get in touch
Feel free to contact me if you have any questions about how counselling works, or to arrange an initial assessment appointment.
This gives us a chance to discuss what has brought you to counselling, whether it may be helpful for you, and whether I am the right therapist to support you.
All enquiries are treated in the strictest confidence and handled securely. I will respond to your message as soon as I am able.