Brighton and Hove Psychotherapy was formed by Mark Vahrmeyer and Sam Jahara in 2013 with the aim of providing high-quality psychotherapy and consultancy services in central Hove.
Our founders
Mark Vahrmeyer and Sam Jahara come from very different backgrounds as well as hemispheres but both share a passion for understanding the human mind in working with people to better understand who they are.
Originally from Brazil, Sam has lived all over the world and is fluent in multiple languages as well as being culturally aware. Through her experiences growing up moving between cultures and languages, Sam has developed a special interest in how to develop a strong sense of identity and belonging, despite experiences of uprootedness and uncertainty. With a background in industrial and fashion design, Sam retrained as a psychotherapist in Australia and then the UK.
Raised bilingually in English and Dutch from birth, Mark has also lived in Australia, Canada and much of Europe and sees psychotherapy modalities much like languages – whilst literal translations can be made from one ‘language’ to another, a language also conveys much more than simply words; it carries with it a cultural history and philosophy which comprise the lens through which the language is understood. After a successful career in the corporate and higher education sector, Mark retrained as a psychotherapist in Australia and in the UK.
The beginning
Mark and Sam, both UKCP registered psychotherapists, had both worked in the field since 2008. Both had built thriving private practices in Brighton, and envisioned creating a talking therapy clinic with other skilled and like-minded colleagues.
By 2012 the idea of creating a high-quality psychotherapy practice was born with the following ethos:
- To build a practice comprised of experienced psychotherapists able to work across modalities and with different client groups
- To operate from well-appointed and centrally located consulting rooms
- To build an accessible and down-to-earth website debunking the myths of psychotherapy and making it easy for the lay public to understand what is on offer.
Our practice
Fast-forward to the 2020s and Brighton and Hove Psychotherapy has been running for well over a decade, and has steadily built a solid reputation for excellence in the city. As a result we now comprise a team of skilled associates who bring with them a wealth of experience. We receive referrals from GP practices, solicitor firms, private medical insurance providers, psychology clinicians in other fields as well as direct through our website.
We have expanded our offering to include a practice in Lewes as well as offering online psychotherapy to clients across the UK and further afield.
Each of our associates is part of an integrated team and is interviewed in person before being invited to join the practice. We all collectively attend regular practice meetings to help improve our offering and in order to cross refer to each other.
Unlike so many directory sites that purport to be clinics, or large operations comprising many clinicians, we have purposefully kept our team small enough to ensure we can all work together on a personal basis, whilst being large enough to cater to the diverse needs of our client base.
