Clinical Advisor

I joined  Whole Works in the early 2000s, looking for a place that would reflect & support my core sense of how I worked as a psychotherapist and as a person. My life & training is informed by what is best described as a model of wellness at the core of everyones’ being. To facilitate that connection, and to work with what obscures this, is at the heart of my work.

Before becoming a psychotherapist in the mid 1990s, I taught in primary schools and travelled extensively to North Africa, America, Nepal & India. The stepping out of a Western, Euro-Centric mind set gave new dimensions to my life. I also took time out to bring up my own child.

I moved to Scotland to study with Akong Rinpoche, the Tibetan Buddhist Lama who co-founded Samye Ling Tibetan Centre in Dumfriesshire & later developed Tara Rokpa Therapy. I began this work with him in the early days of Tara Therapy and then with the Karuna Foundation. Later I completed the full 4 year UKCP accredited Tara Rokpa Therapy course within the Constructivist College. Tara Rokpa Therapy is also a group process with groups worldwide, some of which I visited and presented the various stages of the  therapy work.

I experienced a sense of being seen & heard at the Whole Works and this has continued over the time of my working & has continued into my retirement.

The Whole Works has been very important in informing me of what it means to be an effective and caring therapist, open and deeply committed to being alongside those who come to us for help. Since retiremnt, my visits to the Whole Works less ’a going back to’ but more of a ‘moving forward with’ wthinin a place that us constantly alive & intrinsically healing. For me it is also challenging, a place to reflect & to consider what we are all doing to help & support those in the Edinburgh community that cross our doorstep.

I was invited to be part of the Advisory Group in 2016.