Julia Samuel MBE, a senior accredited 娛樂城電子推薦 counsellor and former 娛樂城電子推薦 Vice President, is one of four therapists to feature in a new BBC series Change your mind: Change your life with Matt & Emma Willis.

Launching during Mental Health Awareness Week 2025 on BBC One on Tuesday 13 May, the series will give the public unprecedented insight into real therapy sessions and aims to demystify counselling and psychotherapy.

Transformative experiences

Presented by Matt and Emma Willis, who have both spoken openly about their personal transformational experiences of therapy, the programme will allow viewers to be a fly on the wall in real life therapy sessions, exploring a range of issues from phobias to relationships. 听

Reflecting on her personal motivations for taking part, Julia says: 鈥淎s a therapist, this was something completely new for me. It was exciting and, yes, a little scary. But the work felt authentic, not performative. We built real relationships, and I believe the therapeutic impact was as powerful as in any private setting.

Uncovering the mystery听

鈥淚 wanted to take away the mystery of therapy - to make it more accessible, more human. People think it鈥檚 something strange, or only for other people. But therapy is simply about talking, listening, and making sense of your own experience. The show helps people see that they too can support themselves and find tools to cope better in challenging times.鈥�

Over the course of the series, Julia worked with four clients - each seen for up to six sessions, both on and off camera. The sessions uncovered deeply personal issues such as grief, trauma, and serious illness. Julia says she witnessed some huge transformations during these sessions - including one client who had been living with the unresolved trauma of her mother鈥檚 death since she was a teen.

Unresolved trauma

鈥淎fter her first EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing) session (which was filmed) her children and husband noticed a difference in her immediately. After all those years, she had begun to process her trauma. She felt safer, more optimistic, and more reconnected with her present life,鈥� shares Julia.

Speaking about another of her clients, who was living with the emotional and psychological impact of a double leg amputation, Julia recalls: 鈥淭he transformation you鈥檒l see in the show is incredible. He initially couldn鈥檛 look at himself in the mirror. He felt disgusted, and it deeply affected his confidence and ability to form new relationships. Through therapy, we explored the anger he鈥檇 been holding onto. By releasing it, he was able to start seeing himself differently - buying new clothes, standing taller, feeling more open to dating again.鈥�

Ethics

Addressing concerns around filming and broadcasting real life therapy sessions, Julia acknowledges the sensitivity of the project: 鈥淭his wasn鈥檛 done lightly. It was a very ethical and psychologically informed process. The production team (20/20 Productions) employed professional psychological assessors to assess the potential clients who gave a full psychological report for all participants. These included detailed evaluations of their history, emotional resilience, and capacity to deal with the challenges of being filmed and broadcast. Clients were fully informed - not just about the filming, but about the permanence and potential impact of the transmission itself.鈥�

Julia stresses that the show is important not just because of the individual journeys it reveals, but because of the broader context: 鈥淲e鈥檙e in an epidemic of mental health need. Waiting lists are long. People are struggling. We need to do more to show that therapy isn鈥檛 a mysterious thing for the few - it鈥檚 a practical, effective support that can change lives.鈥�

Visible, understandable and human

With many therapy-based approaches shown in the series, the show emphasises that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to therapy. 鈥淭here鈥檚 value in people seeing that there isn鈥檛 one type of therapist or one single model,鈥� Julia says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 about relationship, fit, and what the person needs in the moment.

鈥淭he intention behind this show was always to help - to make therapy visible, understandable, and human. That鈥檚 something I deeply believe in.鈥�

Change Your Mind: Change Your Life with Matt & Emma Willis airs on BBC One on Tuesday 13 May 2025 at 11pm (two episodes), and Tuesday 20 May 2025 (two episodes). Also available on iPlayer.

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Photo credit: BBC