How I can help you

I work with adults experiencing a wide range of challenges. My approaches and theories, being pluralistic and integrative, are naturally very diverse as I bring the psychotherapeutic approaches and psychological theories that might best benefit you at any given moment.

As I am person-centred and humanistic, while I may have access to many professional theories, I believe you are the expert of you and a part of you will know where you need to be going and who you need to become. My role is to hold up metaphorical mirrors to facilitate that journey.

Areas I specialise in

Fertility Issues, embryo loss, still born and baby/child loss

I provide relational counselling for infertility and miscarriage; I am trained and have substantial experience of supporting clients with fertility issues, IVF, embryo or child loss, having trained with the Foundation for Infant Loss Training (2023). I offer compassion and space to process the challenges of the journey you might be experiencing and an unconditional warmth where you can process what is happening and what you might need moving forwards.

Grief and loss

I have substantial experience of working with grief and loss in its many forms, whether that be grieving the death of a loved one, mourning the end of a relationship, letting go of a toxic relationship, a lost childhood, a lifestyle or trying to come to accept the loss of a future hoped for life. We might work with radical acceptance, compassion-focused therapy, and learning how to validate and accept your emotions. We will work in therapy with the underpinning of the Kubler- Ross five stages of grief, but with the added awareness that this model can be activated any time loss is experienced.

Anxiety and related issues

I am very experienced in working with anxiety and depression in many different forms, panic attacks, OCD, Emetophobia, health or social anxiety, specific phobias, separation anxiety, generalised anxiety, PTSD or cPTSD. We will work with practical techniques to help you learn how to manage the symptoms of anxiety in the here and now such as grounding techniques and mindfulness.

Where appropriate, we may consider EMDR to help further reduce persistent and ongoing symptoms of fears, worries that interfere with your daily life.

Relationships, attachment and loneliness

I work with experiences of rejection and abandonment in all its forms, predominantly those experienced in childhood, but perhaps reawakened or “triggered” by current relationships or their endings. We can explore the difficulties you have in emotional relationships due to earlier childhood attachment traumas and how they are reactivated in current relationships and how to understand them if you are not yet ready to undertake couples' therapy.

I have almost completed my couples’ training and have developed skills based learning such as working with conflict, meeting partner’s needs, dealing with affairs, communication and difference.

Neurodivergence

Although I am neurotypical myself, I am committed to ongoingly enhancing my professional development to complement my substantial experience of working with different forms of neurodivergence including ADHD, autism, dyslexia and AuDHD.

I support late diagnosis, cultivating curiosity in possible diagnosis, looking at exploring practical techniques for balancing challenges with executive functioning, Dialectical Behaviour Therapy skills for emotional regulation, self-validating your different experience of the world and just allowing a safe space for you to explore what your experience of potentially being neurodivergent means for yourself and how it impacts your life.

I work with many clients supporting self-worth and self-confidence to strengthen and rebuild these elusive parts of your identity. We work on validating your sense of self, learning how to accept and validate your internal emotional landscape, even if it feels like you have large emotions. If relevant, we might explore boundary setting, advocating for self, exploring perfectionism, being curious about people-pleasing behaviours and exploring who your identity is free of the beliefs given to you in your childhood or the protective parts you learned to help you survive. We can work towards helping you feel happier, more at ease in your own skin by being more present and resourced to find your own solutions. We might draw on shadow work, reparenting your inner child and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy in supporting your journey if appropriate.

Identity and self-worth

Pregnancy and parenthood

I specialise in providing support for pre-pregnancy, pregnancy, birth trauma, post-partum depression, post-partum rage, or choosing to be child-free.

I also offer ongoing support for parents, experiencing behavioural or attachment issues with your children or hoping to break from the ways that you were parented and to learn how to not repeat generational trauma. I offer support on secure attachment parenting and a safe space in which to work on healing your inner trauma and childhood challenges, so they don’t impact the upbringing of your child(ren).

Perimenopause

Experiencing anxiety, rage, anger, frustration, low mood, intimacy problems or fluctuations of moods? I can help you learn how to validate your emotions and offer you a safe space in which to share your experiences and emotions and then discuss self-care strategies, exploring future hopes and emotional regulation or how to develop your sense of self to improve our emotional wellbeing.

I offer practical strategies for anger management, how to validate and release it and how to manage anxiety symptoms and low moods.

Self-Acceptance and Validation

I specialise in enabling clients to find self-acceptance and self-neutrality, by improving your inner relationship with yourself. When you do not have a loving internal relationship, you might not feel safe, even when life is safe. You might not feel worthy, even when you "achieve" enough to earn it. You might not feel loved even when others love you. Because your body does not believe it.

Developing a loving inner relationship, an attachment with yourself is essential as it shapes your nervous system. We do this in therapy by thanking your critical voice so you can try other ways of being with yourself which are more compassionate and accepting. We might also draw on inner child work or shadow work, in supporting your journey if appropriate, with the backdrop of a secure therapeutic relationship.

My training and approaches

My training is Integrative which means that I am familiar with a wide range of psychotherapeutic approaches and psychological theories. I can draw on different approaches to counselling, as and when we feel them to be most beneficial to you at different stages in your therapy and in our relationship.

My strengths are particularly working with:

Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT) coupled with Attachment Theory, Inner Child work and mindfulness

EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing) - I am trained in EMDR and I am practised in working with Attachment Focused EMDR. EMDR is an evidence based and highly successful psychotherapy treatment that will help you to process and recover from traumatic past experiences that are affecting your mental health and wellbeing in the present. Read more about EMDR therapy.

Gestalt interventions - helping you to become more aware of your thoughts, feelings and behaviours in the present moment

Transactional Analysis Theory - understanding patterns of communication and relationship dynamics

Solution Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT) - goal-setting and working towards specific outcomes where appropriate

Psychodynamic approaches - including Shadow work, exploring unconscious patterns and early experiences

These approaches are supplemented by mindfulness, Internal Family Systems (IFS) training, working with ego states, parts work and dissociation.

Additional professional development

I have undertaken professional development in:

• Polyvagal theory

• Somatic Body release for anger and trauma

• Mindfulness training

• Basic training in IFS (Internal Family Systems)

• Working with ego states, parts work and dissociation

• Pink training in defining gender, sex and relationship diversity working with LGBTQIA+ issues

• Training in race, prejudice and my part in the issues of difference and diversity

• Mother and daughter attachment theory

• Couples work (currently training on a couple's certificate)

Diversity and inclusion

I have substantial experience and demonstrate respect for differences in all nationalities, religions and spiritualities, cultures and races, sexualities, genders, and sexual preferences, and I am LGBTQIA+ affirmative. I am proud to have substantial experience of working with many of these distinctions and honour the work and differences between myself and you as the client.

As I work humanistically and with compassionate non-judgement, I will be working with you as the individual in front of me in the therapy room and I regularly do training in all these areas of diversity to keep challenging my blind spots, assumptions, potential prejudice, power and inherent privilege.

Intersectionality and social context

I appreciate the intersectionality of social identity and aim to promote social awareness and to challenge potential interlocking systems of oppression as they interact and overlap to create unique forms of discrimination and disadvantage as you may experience them, outside or potentially re-enacting in the therapy room.

I believe in the importance of therapy being held in the wider external system of society and its limiting potential should you as a client wish to explore this backdrop.

What clients say

They talk about experiencing a sense of release, gaining clarity, feeling stronger, and becoming more confident in themselves, their abilities and everything they have to offer. You can simply be curious about yourself with me and try to re-find and re-connect with the truest form of yourself.

Who I work with

I truly believe in supporting you to embrace your authentic self, to grow, and to thrive as the person you really are. As you can see from my testimonials, clients often share that they feel truly seen, heard, and connected with, and this allows a deeper sense of self-acceptance and self-actualisation.