MEET ROBIN ALTWARG

Coping shouldn't have to feel this hard

Cognitive Behavioural Psychotherapist in Liverpool and online

I'm Robin Altwarg, offering evidence-based psychotherapy from my consulting rooms on Rodney Street in central Liverpool and Ullet Road in south Liverpool, as well as online via Zoom.

I help midlife professionals and business owners who seem to have everything under control, but privately feel overwhelmed by work stress, anxiety, impostor syndrome, or ADHD.

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Robin Altwarg wears a light blue shirt and smiles in his consulting room, with a painting, sofa, and plant in the background.

how i work

Therapy that goes beyond simply coping

You may be used to appearing capable while privately working hard to manage anxiety, self-doubt, feeling overwhelmed or the relentless pressure to keep performing. Therapy offers a place where you no longer have to maintain that appearance. Instead, it becomes an opportunity to understand what's driving those struggles and begin making changes that help life feel genuinely more manageable.

What it’s like to work with me

I work best with clients who want more than a sympathetic ear. They are looking for a therapist who is warm and understanding, but also active, thoughtful and willing to help them address the patterns keeping them stuck.

Our sessions will be collaborative and purposeful.

Together, we will build a clear understanding of what is happening beneath the surface. We'll explore the thoughts, emotions, behaviours and coping strategies that may have once helped you succeed but now leave you feeling anxious, exhausted or questioning yourself. Over time, you may begin to see that your struggles make sense in the context of your life, rather than as evidence that something is wrong with you.

You can expect:

A clear understanding of what is maintaining the problem. We will make sense of your difficulties in the context of your experiences, responsibilities and the demands you place on yourself, so you leave therapy with greater clarity rather than more confusion.

An approach tailored to you. Rather than applying a rigid formula, we'll adapt evidence-based cognitive behavioural therapy to your personality, circumstances and goals, focusing on what is most likely to help you move forward.

Practical work between sessions. Therapy is not confined to the consulting room. Together, we'll plan exercises, experiments and new ways of responding that help you translate insight into meaningful change in everyday life.

Compassion without avoidance. I won't judge or push you before you're ready, but I will gently challenge assumptions and habits that may no longer be helping you, while supporting you to develop new ways of responding to yourself and the situations you face.

A focus on lasting change. The aim is not simply to help you get through the next stressful period. It is to help you relate differently to pressure, uncertainty and self-doubt, so you can move through life with greater confidence, flexibility and self-trust.

We’ll work well together if…

You are someone who is curious about yourself and willing to take an active role in therapy: reflecting honestly, trying new approaches between sessions, and putting what we learn into practice. You don't need to arrive knowing exactly what needs to change, and you don't need to have the answers. We'll work them out together.

Why work with me

Understanding what's beneath the surface

A middle-aged man with gray hair and glasses sitting on a dark blue armchair in a warmly lit room. He is wearing a navy button-up shirt and khaki pants, smiling. There is a large houseplant, a wooden side table, and a framed picture on the wall in the background.
A middle-aged man with gray hair and glasses sitting on a dark blue armchair in a warmly lit room. He is wearing a navy button-up shirt and khaki pants, smiling. There is a large houseplant, a wooden side table, and a framed picture on the wall in the background.

You’re used to figuring things out for yourself

If you're used to being capable, thoughtful and good at solving problems, you've probably already tried to make sense of what you're struggling with. You may have read the books, listened to the podcasts or told yourself you just need to manage things better. Yet knowing what you should do doesn't necessarily make it easier to change patterns that have developed over years.

This is something I understand well about the people I work with. The problem is rarely a lack of intelligence, insight or determination. Often, the very qualities that have helped you succeed have also made it possible to keep going long after things have become difficult. Being capable can make it harder to acknowledge when you're struggling, particularly when everyone around you assumes you're coping. Here, you’re not expected to be the capable one in the room. You’ll have space to be honest about what’s really going on, including the things you may find difficult to acknowledge elsewhere.

Experience that helps me see the bigger picture

I've spent more than two decades working as a therapist, including more than ten years providing therapy to professionals working in the City of London. I'm an accredited Cognitive Behavioural Therapist, with extensive experience helping people with anxiety, work stress, impostor syndrome, perfectionism, low self-esteem and the emotional and practical challenges that can accompany ADHD in adulthood.

I've seen how drive, responsibility, high standards and independence can be genuine strengths while also carrying a cost. Someone can be highly effective at work and still feel overwhelmed. They can be the person everyone relies on while privately doubting themselves. They can keep meeting expectations while finding it increasingly difficult to switch off, enjoy what they've achieved or feel that what they do is ever quite enough.

That experience helps me understand not only the difficulties you've come to therapy with, but the wider context in which they've developed.

Living room with two blue armchairs, wooden coffee table, potted plant, standing lamp, framed landscape artworks, patterned rug, and sunlight through window.
Living room with two blue armchairs, wooden coffee table, potted plant, standing lamp, framed landscape artworks, patterned rug, and sunlight through window.
A walnut desk with a potted plant on the left and a closed laptop in the centre, in front of a wall with a framed painting of Liverpool's Sefton Park Palm House at sunset.

Supportive, but willing to challenge

My style as a therapist is warm and down-to-earth, but also thoughtful and willing to challenge you when it matters. I won't simply agree with everything you say, nor will I tell you how you ought to live your life. I'll listen carefully, ask questions and take your experience seriously, while helping you notice things that can be difficult to see when you're in the middle of them.

For me, good therapy starts with feeling accurately understood. When you don't have to explain away your struggles, defend your choices or maintain the appearance that everything is fine, it becomes easier to look honestly at what's happening and begin doing something different.

my approach

The principles that guide my work

CBT provides the structure for my work, but how we use it will fit your individual needs. These principles guide my approach and what I believe helps therapy lead to meaningful, lasting change.

Understanding comes before action

Before trying to change something, we need to make sense of it. We'll develop a shared understanding of the patterns keeping you stuck and why they make sense in the context of your experiences.

Insight needs to lead to change

Understanding matters, but it isn't the end goal. We'll turn what you learn about yourself into practical changes in how you think, respond, make decisions and approach your life.

Therapy is something we do together

I bring clinical knowledge, experience and an outside perspective; you bring knowledge of yourself, your experiences and what matters to you. We'll use both to decide where to focus and what could help.

Change happens through practise

Therapy isn't only about what happens in our sessions. We'll look for opportunities to try different ways of responding in everyday life, so that what we understand together can gradually become something you experience differently too.

Your strengths are part of the work

We’ll pay attention not only to what you’re finding difficult, but also to the qualities that have helped you cope, persevere and succeed. Together, we’ll look at how you can use those strengths in ways that serve you better.

I will take your difficulties seriously without treating you as fragile

I want therapy to be a place where you can look honestly at what's difficult without losing sight of your capacity to change. I'll take what you're experiencing seriously while helping you build the understanding, confidence and flexibility to respond differently.

My aim is for you to leave therapy better able to understand yourself, respond more effectively to life’s challenges and use what you've learned long after our work together has ended.

My Specialisms

Work Stress

Anxiety

Impostor Syndrome

ADHD in midlife

my methods

Evidence-based therapy, adapted to you

My approach is grounded primarily in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), alongside ideas and practices from Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT).

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)

CBT helps us develop a clear, shared understanding of how your thoughts, emotions and actions influence one another, and how certain patterns can contribute to the difficulties you’re experiencing.

Together, we’ll explore how some of those patterns may once have helped you cope but now leave you feeling anxious, overwhelmed or stuck. We’ll then test practical ways of responding differently, both in our sessions and in everyday life.

Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT)

CFT can be especially helpful when self-criticism, shame or a sense of never being good enough are impacting you.

It focuses on developing a more supportive relationship with yourself, not by lowering your standards or ignoring difficulties, but by learning to meet them with greater understanding, steadiness and courage.

A framework rather than a formula

I’ll adapt our work to you, drawing on your experiences, strengths and goals so that therapy feels both personally meaningful and practically useful.

My Background

Ready to get started?

You can build a life that feels like your own

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