I blend integrative, mind/body and creative approaches to suit both individuals and couples
I am interested in stories and patterns, and making connections between how underlying beliefs or previous experiences are influencing your life now.
I am client-led: that means I will work with whatever issues come into the room. Some people like to focus on a particular topic or experience and others are interested in understanding the underlying issues or habitual behaviours that might be behind challenges they’re facing.
Some clients appreciate practical support and if this feels right for you I can suggest strategies or tools to help you learn better self-regulation, how to get more from your daily life, and what it takes to thrive in your relationship/s.
I trained to work with children and young people, which has given me a sound foundation for my work with adults in that it enables me to recognise the younger parts of an individual that might be requiring some attention.
It also means I can offer a range of creative ways of working, other than just talking; if it feels right for you we can experiment with an art therapy approach or using cognitive behavioural style exercises to better help you get clarity, check out options or explore your fears and hopes.
Working with Couples
I work with couples to gently help them look at the ways in which they find themselves lost from each other. Together we find ways to think about what issues are arising for them. At other times we might want to explore how their present day relationship is being impacted by the origins of their earliest relationship patterns.
Either way, my aim is to offer them relational, practical and heart-opening ways to find their way back into warm and loving connection.Working with the Body
Therapy invites therapist and client to closely observe feelings, sensations and experience in the body, which hold more ‘truth’ for us than the mind’s stories we tell ourselves over and over.
There is a lot of crossover between the fields of meditation and psychotherapy, and even with conscious movement practices such as 5 Rhythms, or yoga.
Simply working with the breath can have a massive impact on our capacities to function. I bring this interconnection between body and mind into sessions, encouraging clients to pay attention to the intelligence that exists in their bodies.
Working with Systems
All of us belong to many systems, be be it couple, family, organisation, societal, cultural, race etc. Unconscious dynamics exist in a system and can underlie much of how we act and feel. I work with individuals (and run family constellations workshops) to bring awareness to these unseen entanglements. This enables people to move into a better and more open hearted place in that system, allowing more healthy expression of their life energy and allowing more genuine connection with others.
Ongoing training
I continue to pursue threads of interest. As required by my profession, and as a member of the BACP (British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy) I am committed to investing in further training to deepen and grow my capacities as a therapist and as a person. My CPD (continuing professional development) strategy weaves in strands from various approaches, from psychological to spiritual and philosophical.