Practitioners

How I Work

I aim to hold a safe space where we can gently explore what might be causing you difficulty. You might not know where to start or feel overwhelmed, empty or numb. Strong feelings of shame or fear of judgement can hold us back. All of this can be a rich source of communication about what might be going on in our internal and external worlds.

My practice draws from the psychodynamic approach. This gives attention to how our early relationships lay down patterns which shape our present way of relating.

We adapt to our environments as best we can, developing ways to survive emotionally and psychologically. Some of these adaptions may go on to become maladaptive however, 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.

In our work, I will be interested in your experience growing up and how this may be influencing you in the present. I’ll be interested in how you’re relating to me and how this might link to other, perhaps more problematic relationships in your life.

Our sense of self can also be impacted by systemic issues. This can affect our identity and capacity to be in the world. I welcome exploration of this.

I started out in the helping professions as an English teacher. I see creative literature such as poetry and stories as ways of expressing and making meaning of the human condition. Our work together is a way of exploring, expanding and enriching the story we tell ourselves so that it might become more livable – a story which is dynamic, insightful and compassionate and which helps free us up to the possibility of more fulfilling ways of living.

About Me

• I am a COSCA certified counsellor and psychotherapist
• I have worked with a wide range of adults on many issues including anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, lack of meaning, loss and bereavement, relationships. childhood trauma, intergenerational trauma, sexuality, transitions, belonging and spirituality.
• I offer short-term and longer-term work.
• My doctoral research draws on themes related to how the qualities of our primary attachment as an infant may shape our current ways of being in close relationships and particularly within a therapeutic relationship.