Maladaptive Daydreaming Support

Is Maladaptive Daydreaming taking over your life?

Do you find yourself spending significant time lost in elaborate daydreams, sometimes wishing you could feel more present and connected?

If excessive or vivid daydreaming is impacting your daily life, relationships, or well-being, know that you've found a safe and understanding space. As a qualified Clinical Psychologist specialising in maladaptive daydreaming, I offer compassionate and expert support to help you navigate this experience and rediscover a fulfilling connection with the present. Let's explore practical strategies together to help you find balance and regain control in a nonjudgmental and compassionate space.

You might not be seeking therapy primarily for maladaptive daydreaming.

However, consulting a clinical psychologist who is knowledgeable about maladaptive daydreaming can still be incredibly helpful for other challenges you're facing. Knowing they understand maladaptive daydreaming creates a shared foundation, where you don't have to hide this part of yourself and can freely share its significance for you.

Read more about me and my qualifications and academic background.

How does therapy work for maladaptive daydreaming?

Research and practice-based evidence show that maladaptive daydreaming often co-occurs with other mental health difficulties such as social anxiety, depression, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. For some individuals, shorter-term therapeutic support (under 20 sessions) is sufficient to develop effective strategies for managing these conditions while also addressing maladaptive daydreaming. By working through the root causes of these difficulties, individuals can begin to live a more fulfilling reality—reducing their reliance on daydreaming.

For others, these challenges may overlap with more enduring mental health conditions (e.g., severe depression, complex trauma) or neurodevelopmental conditions (e.g., ADHD, autism), which may require a more comprehensive, longer-term therapeutic approach to create meaningful change. The decision about which therapeutic approaches are most suitable—and the appropriate length of therapy—should be based on a comprehensive psychological assessment. This should take into account your current context, available support, personal history, and preferences for therapeutic methods.

Read more about how maladaptive daydreaming overlaps with other challenges here.

I offer a free 15-minute introductory video call to help you decide if I’m the right psychologist for you. During this call, we’ll discuss your needs, what you’re looking for in therapy, and how I might support you. This is also a chance for you to ask any questions about my approach or what to expect from working together, with no obligation to book a session afterwards.

Book a free introductory call with me

Some of my lovely client reviews...

Hear from my clients and NHS colleagues about their experiences working with me. (Names are pseudonyms to protect anonymity.)

Wanda was very caring and seemed to understand my problems. There was nothing that was unhelpful at all. I feel that I was gaining a lot of self-help skills as the sessions were going.

Alex (54) - support with OCD

London

Ella - support with Maladaptive Daydreaming

London

Alice (27) - support with ADHD and insomnia

London

I truly believe that attending these CBT sessions have been life-changing. Wanda was incredibly understanding from the very beginning, explained the issues that I was having and gave me so much helpful information and guidance that going forward I now feel so much more confident in my ability to create long-lasting habits and to achieve my goals. Wanda also explained things so thoroughly and paid such close attention to everything that I told her. It has been so affirming and encouraging to be understood like this, and to be given tools catered to me that really do work.

I'm so grateful to Wanda and I hope that I can continue to build on what we've worked on and apply these strategies to lots of different areas of my life. Thank you again!

It was helpful feeling that I was able to speak freely about the problems I have been experiencing without feeling judged, Wanda gave great tips on how to move forward and gave me an insight into the reasons behind why I got burnt out. We structured the sessions as we went along, which was very useful rather than pre planning the "topics". It always felt like she was fully focused and she truly has excellent listening skills and an excellent memory. I have been equipped with valuable tips on how to move forward within my role in the team.

This is my first experience with having therapy and I was nervous at the beginning, as I did not know what to expect, but Wanda made me feel at ease from the start. Thank you Wanda, I am truly grateful for the support the service has offered.

Sara (45, midwife) - staff support around burnout, working relationships and stress

London

This was my first experience of therapy and I am so glad I found Wanda. She is extremely good at what she does and helped me to pinpoint the issues I was facing and to provide really effective ways to manage them and to shift my perspective. I looked forward to our sessions and found them really effective in a short time.

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Individual Therapy Sessions

Personalised online therapy sessions with me.

Group Therapy Options

Join supportive group sessions focused on shared experiences and difficulties with other individuals. (Coming soon...)

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Not Sure if Therapy is the Right Step Yet?

It’s completely normal to feel uncertain.

You may have never shared your experiences with maladaptive daydreaming with anyone... or you have had difficult experiences when you confided in others or therapists. My research has shown that the majority of people with maladaptive daydreaming had at least one difficult disclosure, and this included therapists...

That is why it can be helpful to go to a psychologist who is active in maladaptive daydreaming research and is trained to work with various other mental health difficulties.

Therapy can seem like a big commitment—emotionally, financially, and mentally. Exploring the decision to pursue therapy can be a significant step in personal growth.

I’m not here to tell you that now is the perfect time for therapy, because the decision to start is deeply personal. If you’re still weighing it out, take your time to reflect on what feels right for you.

That said, don’t let the fear of "giving up maladaptive daydreaming" hold you back. Maladaptive daydreaming is a psychological phenomenon that takes place in your brain, which means that completely stopping is not entirely feasible. You may also find that daydreaming has lots of benefits for you. In therapy with me, we can strike a balance between harnessing your creativity and imaginative capabilities without feeling ashamed for this ability, and at the same time, we can improve your quality of life, reducing excessive daydreaming and work on other challenges that get in the way of being present the real world.

If you find yourself avoiding the thought of therapy because it feels overwhelming, it’s easy to get caught up in other distractions.

If you’d like some space to think it through, I invite you to sign up with your email. When you sign up, you’ll receive helpful insights, resources, and tips to support your journey as I develop these—whether or not you’re ready to start therapy just yet.

You are welcome to book an introductory call with me if you are in two minds about starting therapy now. We can discuss your situation and think together whether it feels right. It's tricky to know when it is the right time, but I can give you my clinical advice whether I believe I would be able to support you at this point in time. It is important to note that I do consider my client's circumstances, and I do not offer therapy to everyone. This is to ensure that the therapy experience with me will be helpful and meaningful.

Follow @BeyondMaladaptiveDaydreaming

on Instagram

Follow me on Instagram for practical tips, insightful resources, and engaging challenges on maladaptive daydreaming! I am aiming to build a supportive community of immersive daydreamers. Whether you're contemplating change, want to take action, need motivation or want to learn more about maladaptive daydreaming, I am hopeful that the account will be useful.