Depth-Oriented Psychotherapy for People Under Sustained Pressure
Who Is John Tepe?
I am a psychotherapist working with people who carry sustained pressure, responsibility and complexity in their lives. Many of the individuals I see are thoughtful, capable and high-functioning, yet experience persistent mental strain, overactivity of thought or difficulty disengaging from responsibility.
My work is grounded in structured psychological formulation and informed by applied neuroscience, cognitive behavioural therapy and Cognitive Behavioural Hypnotherapy. Sessions are intensive and focused, offering space for careful analysis, emotional processing and deliberate change.
My approach differs from brief, solution-focused models that prioritise speed over depth. While meaningful change can occur quickly, it is sustained through careful formulation, attentional work and the steady application of evidence-based methods.
Many clients come to me during periods of transition or sustained responsibility, when established coping strategies begin to show strain. Rather than offering quick optimisation, our work focuses on understanding and restructuring the patterns that maintain distress.
Clinical Foundations of My Work
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Background
My work developed through academic study, clinical training and personal experience. Before practising psychotherapy, I spent many years in higher education, immersed in sustained engagement with complex texts and ideas. That environment shaped the way I think about meaning, responsibility and the psychological strain that often accompanies high levels of expectation.
Foundations
My practice is informed by cognitive behavioural therapy, Cognitive Behavioural Hypnotherapy and applied neuroscience. I work from structured psychological formulation, integrating attentional training, behavioural experimentation and emotional processing within a contained therapeutic framework.
While the work is structured, it is never impersonal. Psychological formulation is used to understand your specific context, history and relationships — not to reduce you to a diagnosis or label. Each person’s experience is approached with care, nuance and respect.
Credentials & Experience
My academic and professional training spans psychotherapy and applied neuroscience. Before entering clinical practice, I worked for many years in higher education and secondary education, teaching in some of Birmingham’s high-performing schools. Sustained engagement with complex ideas, and with the pressures faced by students and professionals alike, shaped the structured, formulation-led approach I now bring to psychotherapy.
Working Together
Working together requires commitment, honesty and a willingness to examine established patterns with care. I offer a structured and contained space in which difficult material can be explored without haste or judgement.
If the way I work resonates with you, I invite you to arrange a consultation and consider whether this form of intensive psychotherapy is the right fit.
Clinical Method
How I Work
My work is structured and formulation-led. Rather than relying on open-ended discussion alone, sessions are focused and analytic, examining the interactions between thought, behaviour, emotion and physiological response.
Where appropriate, we incorporate behavioural experiments, attentional training and hypnotic techniques to strengthen regulation and integrate new patterns. The emphasis is on careful examination and sustained application rather than rapid optimisation.
Integrated Clinical Framework
My work draws on cognitive behavioural therapy, Cognitive Behavioural Hypnotherapy, applied neuroscience and structured behavioural methods. These approaches are integrated within a contained therapeutic process rather than applied as isolated techniques.
Extended Session Structure
Sessions are 120 minutes in length, allowing sufficient time for careful formulation, experiential work and consolidation within a single sitting. The extended format supports depth without fragmentation.
Structured and Deliberate Process
Each session has a clear focus informed by formulation. We work systematically with patterns that maintain strain, returning between sessions to reflection, behavioural application and ongoing refinement.
Who I Work With
I work with individuals who carry significant responsibility and operate under sustained pressure. Many are thoughtful, capable and outwardly successful, yet experience persistent mental strain beneath that competence.
You may recognise yourself if:
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Decision-making feels relentless or isolating
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Work has become difficult to disengage from, even outside professional hours
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Perfectionism or overcontrol is beginning to carry a cost
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Periods of transition have unsettled established coping strategies
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You function well externally but feel internally overextended
This work is not about optimisation or performance enhancement. It is about understanding and restructuring the patterns that maintain strain, so that responsibility can be carried with greater steadiness.
If this resonates, you are welcome to arrange a consultation to consider whether this form of intensive psychotherapy is an appropriate fit.
From Performance to Psychotherapy
Lived Experience and Clinical Focus
Beyond formal qualifications, my own experience within performance-driven environments has shaped my understanding of internal pressure, self-critique and responsibility. I know how easily competence can coexist with strain, and how difficult it can be to disengage from expectation.
This lived context informs my clinical work. It allows me to recognise the subtle ways pressure embeds itself in thought patterns, behaviour and identity, and to approach that material with steadiness rather than judgement.
Competitive athletics
Competing at junior national and university level in rowing required sustained discipline, focus and tolerance for pressure. Those experiences shaped my understanding of how performance culture can strengthen resilience while also intensifying internal strain.
Education and teaching
Nearly two decades teaching in secondary and higher education required clarity of thought, structured communication and close attention to individual development. Working in demanding academic settings deepened my awareness of the pressures faced by students and professionals alike.
International experience
Living and working in different countries exposed me to varied professional cultures and expectations. Adapting across these environments strengthened my sensitivity to context, transition and identity.
Personal transitions
Like many people I now work with, I have navigated significant career transitions and periods of professional uncertainty. These experiences reinforced my respect for the psychological demands that accompany responsibility and change.
Academic Formation
Doctoral and Postgraduate Training
My academic background is interdisciplinary, grounded in sustained engagement with literature, philosophy and the study of human meaning. I completed a doctorate in English literature, where my work required careful analysis of narrative, identity and psychological complexity.
That training shaped my attention to language, internal narrative and the ways individuals construct meaning around experience. It continues to inform the depth and precision I bring to psychotherapy.
I hold a PhD in English Literature, a training that required sustained analytical work, close attention to language and long-term engagement with complex material. I later completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Applied Neuroscience at King’s College London (IoPPN), deepening my understanding of attention, memory and emotional regulation. My clinical training includes Cognitive Behavioural Hypnotherapy and behavioural approaches to psychological change, alongside formal study in contemplative philosophy.
Integrating Disciplines
It was through completing my doctoral research at the University of Birmingham, teaching in British secondary schools and later undertaking postgraduate study in Applied Neuroscience at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience at King’s College London that these strands began to consolidate.
Bringing together sustained analytical training, educational experience and neuroscience deepened my interest in the psychological structures that shape attention, stress and internal narrative. Over time, this integration led me toward formal clinical training and the practice of psychotherapy.
Understanding Performance Environments
Sustained engagement with performance-driven environments has been a defining thread in my life. From competitive athletics to rigorous academic settings and later professional roles, I have worked within cultures shaped by expectation, evaluation and responsibility.
Living and working in those environments taught me that performance is rarely just about skill. It is shaped by internal pressure, attentional habits, self-critique and unexamined standards. Over time, my interest shifted from performance itself to the psychological structures that support — and sometimes undermine — it.
That thread now runs through my psychotherapy practice. I work with individuals who carry responsibility seriously, think deeply and often operate under sustained pressure, helping them examine the patterns that maintain strain beneath outward competence.
If the way I work resonates with you, I invite you to arrange a 30-minute consultation to consider whether this approach is an appropriate fit.
Psychotherapy as Structured Practice
Psychotherapy differs from motivational or goal-focused models in both scope and depth. Rather than concentrating solely on outcomes, the work examines the underlying cognitive, emotional and behavioural patterns that maintain strain.
Sessions are formulation-led and structured, integrating behavioural methods, attentional training and, where appropriate, hypnotic techniques within a contained clinical framework. The emphasis is on understanding and restructuring patterns, not simply driving performance.
Core Elements of Practice
4. Long-Term Integration
The aim of the work is not short-term activation, but sustained restructuring of patterns that maintain strain. Over time, responsibility can be carried with greater steadiness and less internal friction.
As patterns become clearer and more flexible, individuals are better able to regulate attention, disengage from unhelpful loops and respond to pressure deliberately rather than reactively.
The emphasis is on durable psychological organisation rather than temporary motivation.
3. Intensive Session Structure
Each 120-minute session provides the time required for careful formulation, sustained exploration and experiential work. The extended format allows material to be examined thoroughly rather than addressed in fragments.
No two individuals present with the same patterns. The structure of the work is shaped around your history, responsibilities and specific maintaining cycles, rather than delivered through a fixed programme.
The emphasis is on depth and precision: working carefully with what maintains strain rather than applying generic strategies.
2. Integrated Clinical Application
No two individuals present with the same patterns. The structure of the work is shaped around your history, responsibilities and specific maintaining cycles, rather than delivered through a fixed programme.
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Behavioural experimentation to test and revise established patterns
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Attentional training to strengthen regulation and reduce cognitive overactivity
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Expressive writing and structured reflection to process emotionally charged material
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Hypnotic techniques, where appropriate, to support attentional focus and integration
Each method is selected through formulation rather than applied generically. The emphasis is on deliberate restructuring rather than rapid change.
1. Research-Informed Psychological Work
My practice is informed by contemporary research in behavioural science, clinical hypnosis, memory and emotional regulation, including the work of:
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Judson Brewer, MD, PhD — neuroscientist and psychiatrist specialising in habit formation, addiction and anxiety regulation
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David Spiegel, MD (Stanford University) — psychiatrist and leading researcher in clinical hypnosis and attentional control
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James Pennebaker, PhD (University of Texas at Austin) — pioneer in expressive writing and emotional processing research
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Charan Ranganath, PhD (University of California, Davis) — cognitive neuroscientist specialising in memory and time perception
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Ethan Kross, PhD (University of Michigan) — psychologist researching self-talk and emotional regulation
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Lisa Miller, PhD (Columbia University) — researcher in the psychology and neuroscience of spirituality
Credentials & Experience
My professional training spans psychotherapy, applied neuroscience and behavioural approaches to psychological change. I hold a PhD in English Literature and a Postgraduate Diploma in Applied Neuroscience from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience at King’s College London. My clinical training includes Cognitive Behavioural Hypnotherapy and structured cognitive-behavioural methods.
Alongside formal qualifications, I spent nearly two decades teaching in secondary and higher education, working within academically demanding environments. These experiences shaped the structured, formulation-led approach I now bring to psychotherapy with individuals operating under sustained pressure.
Academic Background
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BA, University of Pennsylvania
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PhD, University of Birmingham
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PGDip, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King’s College London
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PGDip, Buddhist Studies (Nalanda Diploma Course, Tibet House – Office of H.H. the Dalai Lama)
Professional Qualifications
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Master Practitioner of NLP
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Certified NLP Coach & Practitioner
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Fully Qualified Teacher (Formerly in Outstanding UK Secondary Schools & Sixth Forms)
Ongoing Professional Development
• Level 5 Diploma in Clinical Hypnotherapy and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (in progress)
Is This Work Right For You?
Choosing a psychotherapist is an important decision. This work is structured, depth-oriented and requires a willingness to examine established patterns carefully.
It may be appropriate if you:
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Carry significant responsibility and experience sustained internal pressure
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Value structured, formulation-led psychological work
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Prefer extended sessions that allow material to be examined thoroughly
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Are seeking depth rather than surface-level motivation
This approach is not designed for rapid optimisation or short-term activation. It is intended for individuals prepared to engage in deliberate, sustained psychological work.
If that resonates, you are welcome to arrange a consultation to consider whether this model is an appropriate fit.