I first met Deb Coughlin on my psychotherapy course when I was a stripling first year and Deb was preparing for graduation. This was in the context of a room of forty people. Deb’s gentle presence shone out. Now I know her to be an experienced psychotherapist and when I heard that she was running a group I felt a thrill of excitement. The group is about surviving the challenges of winter.
Winter can make visible what a busy year allows us to keep moving past. The days shorten, routines change, and it can become harder to ignore the effort involved in holding everything together.
That does not necessarily mean someone is in crisis. Many people are capable, reliable and outwardly coping, while also feeling tired, lonely or detached from themselves. They may be surrounded by others yet still feel that much of their experience goes unshared.
This is the territory of Together Through Winter, a new small online psychotherapy group facilitated by Deb Coughlin. Running from 4 November 2026 to 10 February 2027, it offers a regular space to slow down, notice patterns, and explore what happens when we are genuinely with other people.
Why a group?
Individual therapy offers a valuable place to think and feel with another person. A group adds something different: the chance to notice oneself in relationship as it is happening.
We may begin to recognise familiar roles: being the person who takes responsibility for everyone else, trying to fix discomfort quickly, withdrawing when we feel unseen, or relying on thought when feeling would be more difficult. In a thoughtful group, these are not failures to be corrected. They are experiences that can be noticed with curiosity, understood in context, and perhaps approached differently.
Group work can be especially meaningful for people who are used to coping alone. It provides an opportunity to discover what becomes possible when one does not have to be the person holding everything together.
Deb’s way of working
Deborah Coughlin is a Gestalt psychotherapist and experienced group facilitator. Her work also draws on experience in leadership development, innovation and culture, alongside psychotherapy, creativity and group work.
What comes through clearly in Deb’s description of her practice is an interest in the things that often sit beneath the surface: the patterns we repeat, the roles we take on, and the parts of ourselves for which there is rarely enough room. Her approach is thoughtful, curious, relational and creative. It makes space for people not to have all the answers or to perform being fine.
That feels particularly apt for a winter group. Winter does not demand that everything grows visibly. It can be a time for resting, taking stock, letting go of what no longer serves, and giving attention to what has been waiting quietly in the background.
About Together Through Winter
The group is online on Wednesday evenings, 7:00–8:30pm, and is limited to ten participants. It includes:
- 12 weekly 90-minute group psychotherapy sessions
- an individual pre-group session
- weekly reflective and psychoeducational prompts
- a Christmas and New Year break from 21 December to 11 January
The full programme costs £600. Payment plans are available, and Deb is offering a small number of reduced-fee places at £360 for the whole programme.
If you are interested, the next step is simply a free 15-minute conversation with Deb. It is an opportunity to ask questions and decide whether the group feels like a good fit; there is no obligation to join.
You can read more about Together Through Winter, Deb’s approach, the practical details and how to book a conversation on her website: therapysessions.uk/groupwork.
A gentle invitation
A group is not about fixing yourself or becoming a more acceptable version of who you are. It can be a place to bring the parts of experience that are difficult to carry alone, and to find out what changes when they are met in relationship.
For anyone who is functioning well enough but knows that something is not quite working, Together Through Winter may offer a useful pause: time to pay attention, to feel less alone, and to enter the new year with a fuller sense of what matters.