Tanya Lecchi, PhD

My Approach

I am a clinical psychologist and relational psychoanalytic psychotherapist, working in private practice in Oxford. My work is grounded primarily in contemporary relational psychoanalysis, informed by my training in clinical psychology, cognitive-constructivist and systemic approaches, and by my ongoing interest in existential and phenomenological perspectives.

I am interested in the complexity of human experience: how we become who we are, how relationships shape our inner world, and how much of what we feel, think and do lies outside conscious understanding. Our past can continue to live in the present – in our relationships, our bodies, and in patterns we find ourselves repeating without quite knowing why.

I see psychotherapy as an opportunity to become more deeply acquainted with ourselves. It is not simply about managing symptoms or changing thoughts and behaviours, but about discovering meanings that may not yet have been understood, finding words for difficult experiences, and becoming more able to live with the different and sometimes contradictory parts of ourselves.

The relationship between therapist and client is central to this process. We develop through our relationships with others, and these ways of relating can become part of how we experience ourselves. In therapy, something of this relational world comes alive between two people. Paying attention to what happens there can help us recognise patterns that might otherwise remain outside awareness.

From Psychology to Psychoanalysis

My approach has developed over many years of clinical practice, research and training. I initially trained in clinical psychology, with a focus on systemic family therapy, before completing doctoral-level training in cognitive-constructivist psychotherapy in Italy, centred on therapeutic presence and relationality. I subsequently undertook further training in classical and relational psychoanalysis, including postgraduate training at the Stephen Mitchell Center (New York). I have continued to develop my psychoanalytic thinking through personal analysis, clinical supervision, further study and ongoing engagement with the field.

My earlier training gave me a strong grounding in psychological science and cognitive and behavioural models. Working as a clinician, researcher and academic gradually led me towards a way of understanding psychological suffering that makes greater space for the unconscious, embodiment, imagination and the irreducible complexity of human relationships.

We can understand something intellectually and yet continue to experience it very differently. We can want to change and find ourselves pulled towards what is familiar. We can know that a relationship is safe and nevertheless experience it as threatening. We can understand where a pattern comes from and still find ourselves caught within it. These contradictions can tell us something important about how we have learned to be in the world.

Fees and Terms

Experience & Development

I am interested in the complexity of lived experience: how we experience ourselves, how we make sense of what happens to us, and how experiences that may once have been difficult to understand can continue to shape our lives.

My early clinical and research work was largely with children, young people and families. During my PhD, I developed and evaluated a mindfulness-based intervention for children and adolescents who had experienced maltreatment and were living in residential care. This work left me with a lasting interest in development and in the ways early experiences become part of us.

In my work with adults, I remain attentive to the younger states of self that can emerge within present-day experience. Earlier ways of relating may become activated when we feel abandoned, criticised, dependent, unseen or overwhelmed. At times, these states can feel as though they belong to another time, even though they are experienced very much in the present. Understanding them can allow us to approach ourselves with greater curiosity and compassion.

I am also interested in the imaginative dimensions of psychological life. Not everything that matters to us arrives as a clear thought or coherent narrative. Images, dreams, metaphors, bodily sensations and memories can sometimes communicate aspects of experience that have not yet found a more direct form of expression. I see imagination as one of the ways in which we encounter and make meaning of our inner and relational worlds.

Clinical Work

My clinical work has included people across the lifespan and a wide range of psychological difficulties and clinical settings, including hospital, residential and community services and private practice. I now work primarily with adults, with particular experience in complex trauma, dissociation, relational difficulties and longstanding patterns of emotional distress.

My earlier work with children, young people and families continues to inform my understanding of development and of the ways early experiences can shape our relationships with ourselves and others.

Academic Work

Alongside my clinical work, I have had a longstanding academic and research career. Among other appointments, I have worked at the University of Oxford and at the Anna Freud Centre, where I was a Senior Research Fellow within the Child Attachment and Psychological Therapies Research Unit.

My research has explored trauma and adversity, psychotherapy processes and outcomes, therapeutic relationships, depression and suicidality, and psychological therapies delivered both in person and digitally. I have also conducted research exploring neural synchrony between therapists and clients using neuroscientific methods.

I continue to be engaged in academic research, examination and teaching, both in the UK and in Italy. This ongoing engagement informs my clinical thinking, while clinical work continually reminds me that no theory can fully contain the complexity of an individual life.

Working Together

Ultimately, I see psychotherapy as a process of exploration that unfolds within a relationship. Understanding where we have come from can be important, but therapy is not simply an archaeological search for an explanation of the past. Our histories are continually expressed in the present – in how we experience ourselves, how we relate to others, and in what unfolds between us in the therapeutic relationship.

By paying attention to these experiences together, we can begin to make sense of what may previously have been difficult to understand or put into words. At the same time, therapy is not only about understanding what has been; the relationship itself can become a place where something new can be experienced, thought about and created.

My role is not to tell you who you are or to fit you into a particular model. It is to think and explore alongside you: to listen carefully, to notice what may be difficult to see alone, and to help create a space in which different aspects of your experience can become more available to thought and feeling.

I offer long-term psychotherapy, usually once or more times per week, either online or in person in Oxford.

Training

  • BA (Hons) in Clinical Psychology
  • MSc in Clinical Psychology
  • Doctorate in Counselling Psychology and Psychotherapy
  • PhD in Psychology
  • Professional Training in Mindfulness-based Interventions
  • Foundation Course in Psychoanalysis
  • Foundation Course in Group Analysis
  • PGCertHE (Teaching and Learning in Counselling and Psychotherapy)
  • PG Certificate in Relational Theory in Clinical Practice (The Stephen Mitchell Relational Study Center, New York).

Publications

Recent publications

Ren, Z., Lecchi, T., & Cirasola, A. (2025). Understanding Alliance Discrepancies in Youth Therapy: A Case Study of Rupture and Repair in CBT. Psychotherapy Research, 1–13.

Dowse, N., Lecchi, T., Su, Y., & Slaney-Dowse, L. (2025). Is it always good to talk? A mixed methods study exploring self-disclosure when faced with ongoing trauma. Traumatology. Advance online publication.

Jones, A. K., & Lecchi, T. (2024). ‘It overshadowed everything’: Understanding working-class clients’ experiences of social class differences within the therapeutic relationship. Counselling and Psychotherapy Research, 00, 1–11. DOI: 10.1002/capr.12867

Lecchi, T. (2024). Intersoggettività e presenza nell’incontro terapeutico: una prospettiva costruttivista. In F. Giommi (Ed.), Coltivare Presenza: Psicoterapia e meditazione relazionale (pp. 117–137). Edizioni Edra.

Kristen, A., Lecchi, T., Loades, M. E., & Midgley, N. (2024). “I can’t escape my scars, even if I do get better”: A qualitative exploration of how adolescents talk about their self-harm and self-harm scars during cognitive behavioural therapy for depression. Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry. https://doi.org/10.1177/13591045241241348

Amin Choudhury, A., Lecchi, T., & Midgley, N. (2023). Understanding change – developing a typology of therapy outcomes from the experience of adolescents with depression. Psychotherapy Research, 34(2), 171–181. https://doi.org/10.1080/10503307.2023.2179440

MacKean, M., Lecchi, T., Mortimer, R., & Midgley, N. (2023). ‘I’ve started my journey to coping better’: exploring adolescents’ journeys through an internet-based psychodynamic therapy (I-PDT) for depression. Journal of Child Psychotherapy, 49(3), 432–453. https://doi.org/10.1080/0075417X.2023.2173271

Li, E., Dudley, K., & Lecchi, T. (2026). ‘The one place where I can come and not get in trouble’: emotional safety and epistemic trust in brief psychosocial Intervention for adolescent depression. Counselling Psychology Quarterly, 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1080/09515070.2026.2741574

Koenig, A., Westlake, F., Abraham, T., Wakelyn, J., Lecchi, T., Scior, K., & Totsika, V. (2026). A feasibility study of Watch Me Play! for parents of young children with developmental delay. International Journal of Developmental Disabilities, 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1080/20473869.2026.2721332