I blend integrative, mind/body and creative approaches to suit an individual's needs
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, such as helping 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 Young People
I have been working therapeutically with children and young people since 2006. I provide a warm, reassuring and calm space, that enables the young person to feel safe to explore what is going on for them. My approach with younger people remains client centred, and blends a number of ways of working, from thinking and talking together, to playing and creating, weaving in helpful strategies from other disciplines and includes an element of pscyhoeducation, particularly about the brain and nervous system, as a way of helping to normalise people's experience and providing some useful tools and information to manage challenging emotions.
I work with 14 year olds and over in private practice online and in the Hassocks clinic. Get in touch if you're a parent or caregiver who is thinking about getting support for your child and we can discuss your needs in more detail.
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
As required by my profession, and as a member of the UKCP (UK Council for 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.
