Addiction is a compulsive pattern of behaviour involving substances or activities that provides short-term relief or reward but causes longer-term harm. It affects how a person thinks, feels, and behaves, and over time can narrow and distort every dimension of a person's life. Addiction is not a moral failing. It is a complex human experience with psychological, neurological, and existential dimensions, and one that responds well to the right kind of clinical support.

Specialist addiction therapy is psychological treatment delivered by a clinician with specific training and expertise in addiction and recovery. It goes beyond general psychotherapy to address the patterns, drivers, and underlying experiences that sustain addictive behaviour, and works directly with the process of building and sustaining long-term recovery. At Kindly Now, specialist addiction therapy is grounded in existential psychotherapy and informed by current research in addiction and recovery, bringing together existential therapeutic approaches and behavioural change principles to support lasting change.

Existential psychotherapy is a clinically rigorous approach that takes seriously the deeper questions beneath addiction and recovery: not just how to stop, but why this began, what it was doing for you, and what needs to be built in its place. It understands recovery as an active, intentional process of meaning-making and the cultivation of new ways of being across every dimension of a person's life. It is particularly powerful for people who have tried other approaches and found them insufficient, because it addresses not just the behaviour but the whole life surrounding it.

Existential therapy is a philosophically informed approach to psychotherapy that places the human condition at the centre of the work. Rather than focusing primarily on symptoms or diagnosis, it explores how a person is living, the choices they are making, and what their life means to them.

Rooted in the philosophical traditions of thinkers including Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Jaspers, existential therapy has developed into several distinct but overlapping schools of practice. The American school is associated with Rollo May and Irvin Yalom. The European school includes the work of Viktor Frankl, whose logotherapy emerged from his experiences in Auschwitz, and Alfred Längle, who developed Personal Existential Analysis in Austria. The British existential tradition, advanced by Professor Emmy van Deurzen, places particular emphasis on the four dimensions of existence and on how these can help us understand how people can engage more fully and honestly with their lives.

At Kindly Now, the work draws on the full breadth of existential thought and practice, with a particular grounding in the British existential tradition.

Research indicates that existential therapy can lead to increased well-being and sense of meaning, and produces outcomes comparable to other established therapeutic approaches.

Most therapeutic approaches focus primarily on symptoms, behaviours, or thought patterns. Existential psychotherapy begins from a different premise: that to understand why someone is struggling, you have to understand how they are living. It does not work from a predetermined framework or impose a fixed pathway. It approaches each person's experience with genuine curiosity and rigour, and takes seriously the questions of meaning, identity, freedom, and what kind of life a person wants to build.

Addiction treatment at Kindly Now is grounded in existential psychology, which understands addiction not as a fixed disease or moral failing, but as a deeply human response to pain, disconnection, and a life that has lost its meaning. The work takes seriously not just how to stop, but why this began, what the behaviour was doing for you, and what needs to be built in its place. The approach draws on current and evolving research and theory in addiction and recovery, always held within an existential framework. Sessions are one-to-one, unhurried, and built entirely around your individual history, patterns, and goals.

Kindly Therapy is for adults and young people aged 18 and over experiencing addiction, substance misuse, behavioural addictions, eating disorders, existential crisis, self-loss, and major life transitions. It is for people who want consistent, focused, one-to-one therapeutic support on a weekly or fortnightly basis.

Kindly Therapy offers ongoing weekly or fortnightly sessions for people who need consistent support but do not require the intensity of an intensive programme. Kindly Rehab is an eight-week intensive outpatient programme that includes daily check-in support and is designed for people who need a higher level of structure and containment. Both are delivered by Dr Stephanie Knight and grounded in the same existential framework.

Yes. Kindly Therapy includes a specialist addiction therapy stream for adults and young people experiencing addiction, substance misuse, and behavioural addictions. It is suitable for those who do not require inpatient treatment, those stepping out of primary care, and those further along in recovery who need ongoing therapeutic support.

Kindly Therapy works with adults and young people aged 18 and over.

Sessions are typically 50 minutes.

Sessions can be weekly or fortnightly, depending on your needs and circumstances.

Sessions start from £130.

Yes. All sessions are delivered online, making them accessible wherever you are in the world.

Self-loss refers to a profound sense of disconnection from one's own identity, values, direction, or sense of self. It can arise gradually or in the wake of significant life events, transitions, or prolonged periods of difficulty. It is one of the most common and often unspoken experiences that brings people to therapy, and it is a core area of Kindly Therapy's work.

An existential crisis is a period of profound questioning about the meaning, direction, and purpose of one's life. It often arises at moments of transition, loss, or significant change, when the structures and meanings that have previously held a person's life together no longer feel sufficient. It is not a pathology. It is a deeply human experience, and one that existential psychotherapy is particularly well equipped to work with.

How do I get started?

Get in touch using our contact form or by emailing hello@kindlynow.com.