Suffering can take many forms. We give it names; we identify symptoms; we describe them; we formulate theories; we think of diagnostic categories; we check our theories with experiments; we do all we can do to learn how to alleviate our pain and distress.

My name is Christos Tombras and I am a psychoanalyst, member of the Centre for Freudian Analysis and Research, and the College of Psychoanalysts - UK. I am registered with the UKCP.

I offer psychoanalysis and/or psychoanalytic psychotherapy in English and Greek. I am based in West Hampstead, North West London.

Rather than providing vague, one-size-fits-all advice, or teaching you how to have "correct" thoughts and emotions, I invite you to talk freely in a safe, non judgemental environment.

Our suffering can take many forms, and can also change readily from one form to the other. Contrary to what we would like to believe, our problems do not conform to the diagnostic categories of our manuals for too long. Today they are here, tomorrow they might be somewhere else.

How much easier it would be if our pain and distress was tangible, identifiable, unambiguous, measurable, objective --as if it was an illness, a wound, a broken limb or something. We would go to the doctor, and everything would be fine.

Unfortunately, things are rarely so simple.

Because our suffering, our pain, our distress, is our very own. Whatever the name we give it, we know: Your suffering has little to do with mine or with that of the person next door. There might be similarities, obviously; but in the end it's only you who knows what you are going through. One's suffering is related to one's personal history in unique and telling ways.

This is why I invite you to talk.

By listening to you, I will help you explore what you find difficult in life, discern its meaning, and trace new pathways of relief around it.