ENGLISH-SPEAKING COUNSELING WITH ANDREW WRIGHT | AMSTERDAM & ONLINE
You don’t have to go it alone
Life asks hard questions — about who you are, what matters, and how to move forward when the ground feels uncertain. This is a space to slow down, look clearly, and find your way back to yourself.
More than managing symptoms
Anxiety. Depression. A pattern you keep running into, a life transition that's raised questions you weren't expecting, or something harder to name. Whatever brought you here deserves more than a quick fix.
Our work goes beneath the surface. Along with focusing on symptom relief, together we will look at patterns, choices, and sources of meaning — the deeper architecture of how you relate to yourself, to others, and to the life you're trying to build. Anxiety, disconnection, and difficulty in relationships often point toward something real that wants to be understood, not simply escorted out of the room.
This kind of work takes honesty, willingness, and vulnerability. But through it, you may find yourself moving forward with a clarity and intention you didn't have before — not just feeling better, but living more fully.
Here are some of the things we can work on together
Anxiety & Uncertainty
Find steadiness when life feels unstable or overwhelming
Depression & Disconnection
Return to yourself when you've felt absent from your own life
Stress & Burnout
Recover from chronic overwhelm and rebuild a sustainable pace
Grief & Loss
Grief counseling for what you've lost while finding a way to move forward
Life Transitions
Navigate career change, relocation, identity shifts, and new chapters
Relationships
Understand patterns and find more authentic connections
Low Self Esteem
Loosen the grip of self-criticism and build a kinder relationship with yourself
Mindfulness
Cultivate presence and a steadier relationship with your inner world
Meaning & Direction
Reconnect with what matters when you've lost the thread
Expat Experience
Discover ways to build a new life far from home
My approach
Andrew Wright, LPC, NCC
I don't start with a framework and fit you into it. I start with you — with what you're carrying, how you're making sense of it, and what this particular moment in your life is asking for.
Think of our work as walking through the woods together. I'm not ahead of you, clearing the path. I'm alongside you — helping you notice what you might have missed, pointing out openings you didn't see, and trusting that you already carry more capacity and resilience than you may recognize right now.
My approach draws on existential and psychodynamic traditions — both of which take seriously the idea that understanding yourself more deeply is the path to living more freely. In our work together, you’ll find that I’m especially interested in how you relate to meaning, choice, and the friction that life and change inevitably brings. That friction isn't always the enemy. In fact, it's often the catalyst for the change we need to see in our lives.
Sessions are conducted in English. I can work with you in person in the Leiden area, or through online therapy across the Netherlands and beyond.
Training & Qualifications
Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) — Illinois License #178.022837
National Certified Counselor (NCC) — USA Certification #1742000
MA, Clinical Mental Health Counseling CACREP-Accredited
Existential, Internal Family Systems & Psychodynamic approaches
"In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer."
- Camus
Existential counseling
You may have read about, or even experienced, other therapeutic approaches — EMDR, CBT, person-centered therapy, and others — and found yourself wondering if existential therapy is worth considering. It's a fair question, especially since existential therapy is one of the oldest approaches in psychotherapy, and yet one of the least talked about. Many people arrive here without really knowing what it involves, or whether it can actually help the way other approaches can. So let's get into it.
As one of the foundational humanistic approaches to psychotherapy, existential therapy has its roots in Existentialism, a philosophy focused on the role of personal freedom in building a life that feels both authentic and fulfilling. It’s a humanistic approach, and it isn't operationalized or form-driven the way CBT's structured exercises or EMDR's specific protocols are. Instead, it's an in-depth exploration of your values, ideals, and choices, and how well they align with the life you're actually living.
That difference in approach doesn't mean it works any less directly on what's actually bothering you. Anxiety, depression, disconnection, grief, or a sense that something is missing often point toward deeper questions: how you're living, what matters to you, what you're consciously or unconsciously avoiding. In short, whether the life you're building actually feels like yours. Existential counseling takes these questions seriously, and works through them the same way other therapies work through their focus: consistently, over time, in conversation with someone trained to help you see what's hard to see alone.
Together, we'll look at how you relate to meaning, choice, freedom, and the discomfort that can come with trying to live in a way that feels true to yourself. The uncomfortable feelings you carry aren't treated as a malfunction or a personal failing. In fact, learning to listen to them is often the shortest path to healing, and to reorienting your life toward peace and fulfillment.
In practice, this isn't just abstract, feel-good philosophy. It's close, careful attention to your actual life: how you're living it, who you share it with, the transitions you're moving through. Your relationships, your patterns, your losses, your hopes. The work is collaborative, and it tends to produce the same kind of outcomes other therapy aims for: real relief, and a clearer understanding of who you are and what life you're trying to build.
Psychodynamic approaches explore how your past experiences — particularly in relationships — shape how you think, feel, and behave today, often in ways you're not fully aware of.
Together with existential work, this gives us two lenses: one pointed outward toward meaning and how you're living your life, another pointed inward toward the patterns and histories that influence who you are.
Both existential and psychodynamic approaches have substantial research support, particularly for outcomes related to long-term wellbeing, self-understanding, and relational patterns.
I don't primarily use structured CBT techniques, though elements of cognitive awareness, and mindfulness, naturally arise in the work. If you're looking for a highly structured, protocol-driven approach, this may not be the right fit. If you're looking for something more exploratory, collaborative, and attuned to the full complexity of your experience, it may be exactly right.
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