Hello and a warm welcome

How I can help

I take an intuitive, compassionate and creative approach to therapy. First and foremost, however, I offer a calm, respectful and empathic space to talk - and feel really heard. Throughout our time together I will stay consistently alongside, supporting you to gently explore and make sense of whatever is happening for you. Together we will find a way to move you through your difficulties at a pace that feels right for you

I am interested in hearing your whole story, not just easing your emotional and physical symptoms. I look to understand what has happened to you, but also what perhaps hasn't happened or is missing. In my experience it is this approach that brings about the most effective and long-lasting change - for both mind and body - when working with anxiety, trauma and loss.

Whatever you bring to therapy I will work within my professional competencies and capacity to support you. I am passionate about championing emotional wellbeing and resilience - considering your mental, emotional and physiological needs as a whole. I have an active interest in the mind-body relationship and how anxiety, stress and trauma is held within the body and autonomic nervous system. For this reason I use a combination of traditional 'top-down' (talking) therapy with'bottom-up' (body and breath-based) somatic approaches to best support healing, resolution and growth.

However we agree to work, it is important to me that we build a healthy and empowering therapeutic relationship together, and that you have autonomy and choice within sessions. Our life stories, identities, skin colour and abilities may present both differences and similarities, but I will endeavour to stay open, curious and attuned to your lived experiences and needs, supporting you to access your personal power to the best of my ability. I value individual responsibility and choice but acknowledge the impact of social inequities on this, so am open to making reasonable adjustments to my practice where needed. I own my continual personal development to ensure my services remain as accessible as possible.

When you choose me as your therapist, I will do my best to come alongside you in life, seeing you, hearing you and supporting you to express and meet your needs, whilst growing in self-awareness, resourcefulness and emotional resilience. It is my hope that our time together will support you to move forward in life with positivity, hope, meaning, purpose and self-compassion.

How therapy will work

Whether we are working in-person or online we will agree a regular time and day, to be your 'space' for as long as you need. This is usually weekly, sometimes fortnightly. 

The length of therapy will be agreed between us. You may only require a few solution-focused sessions to work with a specific problem or goal, to learn coping and emotional regulation strategies, or for me to be alongside for a short while to ground and 'hold' you steady in uncertain times. Alternatively, you may benefit from us spending longer exploring the roots of your difficulties at a deeper level. 

As our journey together continues, I will invite curiosity and self-reflection, gently bringing awareness to any unhelpful thoughts, perceptions, defensive or unhealthy patterns that may be holding you back. Together we will explore these and look to find new, healthier ways of being. 

Longer term therapy, when working at relational depth and at the right pace, can help you to find a sense of inner safety. This supports the releasing and processing of deeper, painful and often distressing emotions to bring a sense of wholeness and change. Here, we might work more creatively, bringing in other trauma-informed approaches to access parts of the mind that sit outside of conscious awareness. This safely supports deeper level exploration and understanding to ultimately change any unhealthy, unconscious processes and behaviours. It is often these unconscious patterns, usually developed in childhood - helpful perhaps then, but no longer serving us in the present - that keep us stuck.

I am a strong advocator of ‘one size does not fit all’. Instead, I adapt and integrate a blend of what, over the years, I have found works best from the different psychotherapies I practice. Together, we will discuss and agree how to best move you toward the outcome you seek, and regularly review this. Whatever the length and nature of therapy, unless otherwise agreed, sessions are 1 hour.