Being affected by HIV can take many forms. You may be living with HIV yourself, supporting a partner or loved one, or carrying the long-term emotional impact of diagnosis, treatment, loss, stigma, or survival.
Even when physical health is stable and life appears to be moving forward, the emotional weight of HIV can remain present beneath the surface. Others may assume that things are “fine now”, leaving little space to talk about what continues to shape your inner world.
Therapy can offer a place where these experiences don’t need to be minimised, explained, or managed — only understood.
I offer online therapy for people affected by HIV across the UK.
The emotional impact of HIV is not limited to diagnosis alone. For many people, it continues to influence identity, relationships, intimacy, and how safe or visible they feel in the world.
You might recognise some of the following:
Living well outwardly while carrying private fear, vigilance, or grief
Internalised stigma or shame, even years later
Anxiety around disclosure, intimacy, or rejection
Supporting a partner while struggling to name your own needs
Fatigue from always having to be “resilient”
Feeling disconnected from your body, sexuality, or future
A sense that there’s nowhere to speak freely about it all
These experiences are common and understandable, yet often carried alone. Therapy offers a space where they can be explored with care and without pressure to move on or make sense too quickly.
Therapy is not about pathologising HIV or reducing your experience to a diagnosis. It’s about creating space for the emotional realities that often accompany it — whether directly or indirectly.
Working therapeutically can help you:
Explore the emotional impact of diagnosis, caregiving, or loss
Understand how stigma has shaped your sense of self or safety
Navigate intimacy, relationships, and disclosure
Process grief, anger, fear, or uncertainty
Reconnect with your body and emotional life
Feel more integrated and grounded over time
Therapy can become a place where your experience is held with complexity, dignity, and respect.
Alongside my professional training, I bring lived experience to this work. As a gay man living with HIV, I understand how diagnosis, treatment, and long-term survival can affect identity, intimacy, and how visible or invisible you feel in the world.
This does not mean I assume your experience is the same as mine. It means therapy takes place in a space where you don’t need to educate, justify, or downplay what HIV has meant in your life. Our work is shaped by what matters to you, at your pace, and in your words.
This work may be a good fit if you:
Are living with HIV or are closely affected by it
Support or love someone with HIV and need space for yourself
Feel physically “fine” but emotionally burdened or disconnected
Carry experiences of stigma, fear, grief, or silence
Want therapy that feels calm, adult, and respectful
It may be less suitable if you’re seeking only practical or medical guidance rather than emotional exploration.
No. I work with people living with HIV as well as partners, loved ones, and others affected by HIV in different ways.
Not necessarily. HIV may be central, or it may sit alongside other aspects of your life. Therapy follows what feels most relevant to you.
Yes. Online therapy offers privacy, consistency, and accessibility, which many people find particularly supportive when discussing sensitive experiences.
Yes — and also with those affected through relationships, loss, or caregiving.
