Meet Stuart Walker MBACP | Counsellor & Psychotherapist
Before I became a counsellor, I simply wanted to become a better listener.
If you'd told me twenty years ago that I'd become a counsellor, I probably wouldn't have believed you.
I was married, raising four children and working through two different careers. Counselling wasn't part of some carefully planned life goal. It wasn't something I'd always dreamed of doing.
It began with something much simpler.
I wanted to become a better listener.
That curiosity led me to enrol on a CPCAB Level 2 counselling skills course. At the time, I wasn't planning to become a therapist. I simply wanted to understand people better and communicate differently.
What I didn't realise was that learning to listen differently would also begin changing the way I understood myself.
One Step Led to the Next
As I continued training, I became more aware of my own mental health and of the experiences of the people around me.
The more I learned, the more I realised counselling wasn't really about having answers.
It was about creating the kind of space where people could begin to find their own.
Each course naturally led to the next. Not because I had a grand career plan, but because every stage made me want to understand a little more.
Looking back, becoming a counsellor feels less like a sudden decision and more like a journey that gradually unfolded.
My Work Found Me
People sometimes ask why my work has developed particularly around men's mental health, fatherhood, grief and neurodivergence.
The answer is that I didn't sit down one day and decide those would become my specialisms.
Over time, I simply noticed the people who kept finding their way into the therapy room.
Men who had spent years carrying everything on their own.
Fathers trying to hold families together whilst quietly losing sight of themselves.
People living with grief that didn't fit neat stages or timelines.
Neurodivergent adults trying to understand themselves in a world that often expected them to fit someone else's idea of normal.
Again and again, I found myself working alongside people whose experiences weren't always easily spoken about or understood.
Those conversations shaped the therapist I am today.
Many of the men who contact me tell me they were specifically looking for a male therapist. For some, it simply feels easier to talk openly with another man about fatherhood, relationships, grief, work or the pressures they've carried for years.
Others have no preference at all.
I don't believe one is better than the other.
What matters is finding a therapist you feel able to trust and speak honestly with.
I've Sat on the Other Side Too
Like many people who come to counselling, I've also been the person sitting on the other side of the room.
I know what it's like to wonder whether you're saying the right thing.
To feel uncertain about what might happen.
To question whether counselling is really for you.
That experience has stayed with me.
It's one of the reasons I try to make the whole process as straightforward as possible, from the way this website is written to the conversation we can have before you decide whether you'd like to begin.
Starting counselling can feel like a big enough step without having to work out how counselling works as well.
Professional Background
I'm a qualified integrative counsellor and psychotherapist and a Registered Member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (MBACP).
Alongside my private practice, I have extensive professional experience supporting people and families bereaved by suicide through AMPARO, a suicide postvention service.
My work has developed particularly around men's mental health, fatherhood, grief and suicide bereavement, neurodivergence, relationships, identity and the changes life brings.
Professional development remains important to me. I regularly undertake continuing professional development and work within regular clinical supervision.
My MSc research explored how different AI systems respond to emotionally significant prompts, and the relational, ethical and clinical implications of those responses when considered through the lens of psychotherapeutic practice.
I don't think becoming a therapist means reaching a point where you've finished learning.
If anything, I've found the opposite.
Beyond the Therapy Room
Counselling and psychotherapy remain at the heart of my work, but the conversations that happen there have also influenced what I do beyond it.
I write books and articles, contribute to conversations around men's mental health, fatherhood, grief, neurodivergence and AI and psychotherapy, and develop resources intended to make counselling feel a little more understandable and accessible.
Alongside this, I increasingly work with organisations, projects and ideas where there is something that needs understanding, developing or looking at differently. That might mean exploring a problem, helping shape an idea, bringing together different perspectives or finding a practical way forward.
Although therapy, writing and consultancy can look like very different kinds of work, I've realised they often begin in much the same place: listening carefully, understanding what is actually happening and finding a useful way forward.
That's also part of what Me In Time has gradually become.
Not simply somewhere to book a therapy session, but somewhere you can read, think, explore and perhaps understand something about yourself before you're ready to have a conversation with anybody.
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If You're Thinking About Therapy
You don't need to have decided exactly what you need.
You don't need a diagnosis, a crisis or a perfectly formed explanation of what's going on.
You can read about how I work, explore the areas I work with most often, or simply get in touch.
I offer a free 30-minute introductory conversation, giving us a chance to meet before you decide whether you'd like to begin.
I'm based in Manchester and offer counselling and psychotherapy online across the UK.
Sessions last 50 minutes and cost £60. I'm currently accepting new clients.
→ Thinking About Counselling? Start Here