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. I am a UKCP registered supervising psychoanalyst, practising in Central London. I hold a PhD in Psychoanalysis from Middlesex University. My analytic training was in the Lacanian orientation and I offer psychoanalysis and/or psychoanalytic psychotherapy in English and Greek.

Rather than providing vague, one-size-fits-all advice, or teaching you how to have "correct", "proper" or "normal" thoughts and emotions in order to avoid this or that disorder, 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 only rarely conform precisely to the diagnostic categories of our manuals, and when they do they don't 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.

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.

To talk to someone listening, and find pathways through what you struggle with.