Practitioners

In our work together, I aim to hold a safe, supportive space where we can gently explore what might be causing you pain or difficulty in your life.

It might be that you don’t know where to start. Perhaps you feel overwhelmed, empty or numb and can’t quite pinpoint the cause. Strong feelings of shame, or fear of judgement, can keep us from expressing ourselves. All is welcome and valid to share.

My practice draws largely from the psychodynamic approach. This gives attention to how our early relationships lay down patterns which shape our present way of relating to ourselves and others. This may explain why we can find ourselves caught up in familiar situations. As if the past is repeating itself.

We all adapt to our environments as best we can, developing ways to survive emotionally and psychologically. Some of these adaptions, however, may go on to become maladaptive, restricting our capacity to feel alive and narrowing how we live our lives. Much of this may be happening outside of our awareness at an unconscious level. Within our relationship, we can start to recognise some of these patterns, and the therapy can be a vehicle for change.

I also recognise that we don’t live in a vacuum. We are all influenced and impacted by wider issues in society impinging in ways which may be hard to fully recognise or articulate. This can affect our wellbeing and our capacity to be in the world.

There are many ways we might help ourselves and therapy may open a door into understanding deeper aspects of our self – helping to bring about greater insight, aliveness and self-compassion.

About Me

• I undertook my therapeutic training at the University of Edinburgh. I’m a member of the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy. I abide by their ethical framework and I receive regular supervision.

• I started out in the helping professions as a teacher and I have over ten years of experience of working with young people.

• As a therapist, I have experience of longer and shorter-term work with adults and, in particular, within universities with students.

• I have worked with a range of issues including anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, loss and bereavement, childhood trauma, transitions, spirituality and with those who have struggled with aspects of their identity or with a lack of meaning or belonging in their lives.