Compulsive behaviours
Compulsive behaviours are things you repeatedly do that you don’t feel able to stop, even when you know they are self-destructive. At The Clearing, we offer therapy for compulsive behaviours to help you understand their roots, find alternatives, and ultimately take back control.
Find the right therapist for youHow compulsive behaviours can manifest
Compulsive behaviours are typically ways of managing unconscious thoughts, feelings, or unmet needs. They are often repetitive, hard to resist, and frustrating to live with. You might recognise some of the following:
- Repetitive thoughts or urges that feel hard to ignore
- Behaviours you are driven to repeat, even when you don’t want to
- A sense of autopilot while enacting the behaviour
- Checking, reassurance-seeking, or needing things to feel “just right”
- Overthinking or mental loops you can’t switch off
- Feeling temporary relief followed by guilt, shame, or frustration
- Difficulty stopping or interrupting patterns once they begin
- Feeling distressed, panicked or angry when the compulsion is interrupted or prevented
You don’t need to know exactly why you feel this way for support to be helpful.
How therapy for compulsive behaviours can help
Therapy isn’t about suddenly taking behaviours away or forcing change. It’s about understanding and addressing the roots of the behavioural pattern, finding alternative, less destructive ways to cope and empowering you to take back control.
Understand the compulsion
Explore the thoughts, feelings, and past experiences that have caused the compulsion.
Reduce intensity and urgency
Develop new, more adaptive responses to these compulsive urges, so you are less controlled by them.
Build alternative ways of coping
Find safer, more constructive ways to cope with whatever lies beneath the compulsive behaviour.
Compulsive behaviour counselling
Compulsive behaviour counselling will help you explore both the behaviour itself and the underlying patterns that are maintaining it.
For some people, compulsive behaviours are linked to anxiety, uncertainty, a desire to feel in control, or emotional dysregulation. They may have developed gradually since childhood and now be difficult to understand or change.
Therapy provides a space to make sense of these patterns with compassion, and to begin working towards positive change at a manageable pace.
Is this what you're looking for?
This support may be helpful if you:
- Experience repetitive thoughts, urges, or behaviours
- Feel driven to act in ways that are hard to control
- Rely on certain behaviours to reduce anxiety
- Feel frustrated, ashamed, or confused by these repetitive loops
Book now if you want to:
- Understand what’s happening and why
- Work at a steady, manageable pace, taking whatever time is necessary to really uncover the roots of the issue
- Explore what unconscious function these patterns are serving
- Let go of these compulsions for good
Therapists offering support with compulsive behaviours
Several members of our team work with compulsive behaviours, intrusive thoughts, and the underlying emotional patterns that may be contributing to them. You can explore our therapist profiles below to find someone whose approach feels right for you.
Annette
BACP Registered Psychotherapeutic Counsellor
Area of focus
- Anxiety & low mood
- Relationship difficulties
- Existential issues
- Adjustment to change
- Jungian oriented psychotherapy
Approach
Integrative psychotherapy drawing from Transactional Analysis, Jungian Psychology & CBT.
Availability
Online / telephone / in person
Location
Gosforth, Newcastle upon Tyne
Elizabeth
Senior Accredited Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist
Area of focus
- Attachment & relationship patterns
- Emotional overwhelm, numbness or shutdown
- Neurodiversity (ADHD & autism)
- Self-esteem & identity
- Anxiety
Approach
Depth psychotherapy drawing from the psychoanalytical, systemic & existential schools.
Availability
Online / telephone
Dr Rhian
Chartered Counselling Psychologist | Founder of The Clearing
Area of focus
- Identity & meaning
- Depression & low mood
- Mid-life struggles & life transitions
- Burnout & emotional exhaustion
- Anxiety & panic
Approach
Counselling psychology, integrating psychodynamic, person-centred, and existential therapies.
Availability
Online / telephone / in person
Location
Rural County Durham
We also offer support with:
- Anger & emotional regulation
- Anxiety
- Attachment & relationship patterns
- Bereavement & loss
- Burnout & Stress
- Child & young person therapy
- Depression
- EMDR for Trauma
- Emotional numbness & shutdown
- Neurodiversity (ADHD & Autism)
- People-pleasing & boundaries
- Relationship & couples therapy
- Self-esteem & confidence
- Trauma
We are here for you
Whether you know what you need or are still figuring things out, we’ll take things at your pace. To help you decide whether it’s right for you, we offer 50% off your first session, giving you a gentle, low-pressure way to begin your journey toward feeling better.