The Study is located within a beautifully converted old timber joinery factory in Colchester. Surrounded by countryside, we offer a setting conducive to our work and ethos as therapists.
About the People
Nelly Randall and Ryan Manning are the founders and principal therapists at The Study. Ryan holds a First Class BA Hons in Counselling and Psychotherapy from the University of East Anglia. Nelly has Coaching qualifications from City and Guilds and the Institute of Leadership and Management, a DipHE in Counselling and Psychotherapy from UEA, and further training in couples therapy. Ryan is an affiliate member at The Stockwell Centre and is undergoing a Masters in Psychoanalytic Studies at Essex University. They are both registered members of the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy.
Whether you are seeking support for a specific difficulty or looking for a reflective space to better understand yourself, our practice is here to meet you where you are.
Therapy begins with listening. The work is grounded in the person-centred tradition, offering a space where clients can speak in their own words, at their own pace, without the pressure of a rigid framework. While shaped by this foundation, our practice is pluralistic. No single model of therapy speaks to everyone in every moment. Different times call for different kinds of support, and the work adapts accordingly. Ideas from a range of traditions are drawn in when they are useful, always through ongoing dialogue.
Psychoanalytic and psychodynamic perspectives also inform the practice. They invite attention to the ways past relationships and unconscious patterns may shape present experience, sometimes making sense of feelings or behaviours that are difficult to understand. The intention is not to impose a method but to remain open, responsive, and thoughtful. The work is collaborative; attention is given to what matters most to you, and curiosity is held for what emerges along the way.
Therapy can bring us back to parts of ourselves that feel distant or forgotten. Often there is a sense that something essential has been misplaced; a feeling of vitality, trust, or connection. Therapy can be a place to return to these lost elements, and to live more fully in the present. Fragments of experience may be revisited, re-understood, and integrated. Sometimes this means exploring early patterns and influences; at other times it means honouring who we are now. The work is less about recreating the past than about allowing what was once obscured to come back into view. In this way, therapy can restore a sense of continuity, helping a person feel more at home in themselves.
The therapeutic encounter is unlike most conversations. It offers the rare chance to be met with sustained attention and presence, to speak freely and be heard without judgement or distraction. Within this space, something simple but uncommon becomes possible: an exploration of experience in the company of another person who is deeply engaged, committed to understanding, and attuned to what matters most.
