Confidential therapy for footballers — online, or in person
One to one, completely confidential, and independent of your club.
What this is
Nothing you say reaches the dressing room, the manager, the medical team or your agent. Not a summary, not a hint. I’ll confirm to whoever is paying that a session happened, and nothing else.
I don’t work for your club. There is no pathway from me to anyone who picks the team, renews your contract or decides whether you’re fit. You are the client, not the club.
I’ve coached in an academy, worked inside a professional club, and sat with players through release, injury and retirement. You won’t have to explain how any of it works.
Why me
Most therapists who take on footballers have read about the pressures. I coached in a Premier League academy, ran a soccer school for released academy players that became a ten-part television series, and spent a season as the Mental Wellbeing and Psychological Performance Consultant at Liverpool FC Women, where I co-authored the club’s mental health strategy and referral pathway. I work to the BACP Ethical Framework and I’ve been in practice for over twelve years.
Liverpool FC Women · academy coaching · matchday
About me
When you talk about a bad result, a manager who’s stopped speaking to you, an injury that won’t settle, or the week after you were told you weren’t being kept on — I already know the shape of it. We can get straight to what’s underneath.
I’m a psychotherapist and counsellor, a registered member of the BACP and BAPAM, and I work with footballers at every level — current professionals, academy players and scholars, those who have been released, and those who finished years ago and never quite landed.
Before I trained I spent a decade signed to Sony Records as a recording artist, so I know what it is to be judged in public and to have your work be the thing you are. It turns out that translates.
Trevor Gray
BA HONS · MBACP · MBAPAM · PG DIP TA PRACTICE
Clubs
I’ve worked with players from Premier League, EFL, WSL and Category One academy clubs.
I don’t list which ones, and I don’t show their badges. Partly because a club crest on a therapist’s website implies an endorsement that isn’t mine to claim. Mostly because the same discretion that keeps those clubs off this page is the discretion that will keep you off it.
Who I work with
You don’t have to be in crisis, and you don’t have to still be playing.
Where to start
Pick whichever is closest. None of them have to be exactly right.
What I do
Online on a secure clinical platform, or in person — at a location that suits, and away from the training ground if that matters. Sessions are 50 to 60 minutes, usually weekly to begin with.
From £75 online · from £125 in personSix sessions with a shape to them: what’s happening now, what’s underneath it, and what you want to be different. Useful if you want a defined piece of work rather than open-ended therapy.
Ask for current pricingFor squads, academies and staff. Practical sessions on mental health, pressure and transition, plus help writing the strategy and referral pathway that sits behind them.
Quoted per clubQuestions
No. What you say to me doesn’t go back to your club, your manager, your agent or the medical department. If the club is paying, I’ll confirm that a session took place and nothing more. The only exceptions are the ones that apply to every therapist in the country: a serious risk to you or someone else, a safeguarding concern about a child or vulnerable adult, or a court order. Wherever it’s safe to, I’ll talk to you first.
One-to-one sessions start at £75 online and £125 in person, plus travel agreed in advance. The six-session programme and club workshops are quoted separately — ask and I’ll tell you straight away. The first 30-minute call is free.
No. Plenty of the players I see are performing perfectly well and want somewhere to think. You don’t need a diagnosis, a crisis or a reason you can put into words.
Independence, mostly. A practitioner employed by your club sits inside the same building as the people who select the team. Even where they’re scrupulous, players tell me they hold something back. I’m outside all of it, and I know the game well enough that you won’t spend the first three sessions explaining it.
Either. Online sessions run on Doxy.me, a platform built for healthcare, and are never recorded — which suits players who are travelling, on loan or who’d rather not be seen walking into a building. In person works too, at a location we agree.
Usually weekly to start with, then less often as things settle. Some people come for six sessions, some for a year. You decide, and you can stop whenever you want.
Yes, and with their parents. Where a young person is under 18 I’ll agree with everyone at the outset what is and isn’t shared, so the young person knows exactly where they stand before they say anything.
That’s some of the most common work I do. When the thing you did was also the thing you were, losing it doesn’t stop mattering because time has passed.
No. I’m independent and I’m not on the PFA’s panel. The PFA runs its own wellbeing service and works with Sporting Chance, who support current and former professionals, and both are worth knowing about — if either is a better fit for you than I am, I’ll tell you so.
What I would add is that knowing therapy and knowing football are two different things. The practitioners working in this area are properly qualified, but not all of them have spent time inside a club. I’ve had therapists ring me for a steer on how to work with a player, which tells you something about how particular the environment is.
Sister practice
The same practice, for performers in the arts, media and sport — actors, dancers, musicians, writers and athletes across every discipline. And for people with nothing to do with performing at all.
Get in touch
30 minutes, no obligation. Confidential, and independent of your club. You tell me what’s going on, I tell you honestly whether I’m the right person. If I’m not, I’ll point you to someone who is.
