About me
I am an integrative therapist, with a post graduate diploma in Psychosynthesis Counselling from The Psychosynthesis Trust, and a member of the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP). I also have a master’s in philosophy (MA) and a master’s in psychology (MSc). I have also studied and received qualifications in creative and performing arts.
My previous roles included working as a bereavement officer in a hospital, in which I supported families and next of kin of those who had recently passed away. I worked in this role during the pandemic and in major incidents too, adapting and transforming the role in one of the world's most challenging times. Offering sensitive guidance and practical assistance to individuals who were also experiencing one of their most profoundly confusing and difficult times was incredibly fulfilling and I hope to offer this same source of strength and resilience to you.
When people ask me about my therapy practice, the first question I always get asked is what I specialise in. I always find this a curious question, as I believe everything we bring to therapy is in some way connected. For example, you may come to therapy feeling stuck in your career. Through talking about this in therapy, this could also bring in the opportunity to explore your past relationships, your childhood, or maybe your beliefs about yourself and your current life situation. It can be very difficult to open up to all of these at once, so I invite you to bravely explore them at a pace that feels safe and comfortable to you.
How I Work
Now, that's not to say I don't have my familiar areas in therapy. As someone who has extensive experience in bereavement, I believe endings are an important topic for exploration, and one that is quickly avoided, especially in the UK. Endings could mean a sudden or unexpected death, a breakup or breakdown or maybe a new house or new job. Endings can even include someone who struggles to make decisions. (The suffix -cide in "decide" means to kill - same as in "genocide", "homicide" or "suicide"). I believe working with endings is important and, though scary, is something that can bring a lot of value in the sessions.
I also believe in authenticity. Maybe you want to learn who the real you is. Maybe you want to reconnect with the you that you’ve repressed in order to feel like you fit in somewhere else. Maybe you need to learn how to give yourself self love and acceptance before anything else. When we don’t feel like ourselves, or feel like we must become something “different”, that is when we feel most lost. As Bessel Van Der Kolk puts it, “the greatest sources of our suffering are the lies we tell ourselves”. I believe in this too, and so I feel working with the authentic self is an incredibly important part of therapy work.
Finally, I believe in selffulness. I have always found it baffling that we have the word "selfless", meaning you put other people's needs and wishes first, which we celebrate as positive. However, when asked what the opposite of selfless is, people say "selfish", meaning you consider yourself before others, which is bad. This often creates an internal belief that not being selfless, and so putting your own wishes and needs first, is wrong. I like to work with the goal in mind of living a more selfful life, in which we can learn to put ourself and our needs first when we need to, and see this as positive, rather than punish ourselves.
