This professional is available for new clients.
This professional is available for new clients.
About me
I am an established psychotherapist having worked in the NHS and private practice for over thirty years. I provide consultations for psychological and personal issues. For example, anxiety, depression, addictions and relationship problems. I can offer psychotherapy on an open ended basis or for a set number of sessions according to your situation and need.
What is psychoanalytic psychotherapy?
Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy is an exploratory relationship which seeks deep understanding of a persons experience with the aim of achieving lasting and beneficial change. It involves mutual discovery that avoids assumptions and adheres to strict boundaries including confidentiality and not meeting outside sessions. The process of unraveling and making sense of experience can bring enormous relief , particularly with painful feelings that you may have buried in an attempt to protect yourself. It's these repressed experiences that often appear in disguised form as symptoms. Psychoanalytic psychotherapists have undergone rigorous and deep training which includes having been in psychotherapy or analysis themselves. This is considered to increase a therapists empathy and understanding of the experience of those in their therapuetic care.
What Conditions can it Help?
Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy is a mainstream treatment sometimes available at NHS clinics usually for a limited number of sessions. It can help people with a wide range of presenting problems, from mild symptoms of stress to severe and enduring emotional problems. Sometimes it is seen less as a medical intervention and more of a developmental process often enabling individuals to live more creatively. However it's routes lay in biology and recent studies in neuroscience have demonstrated it's efficacy.
What Benefits can be Expected?
Often psychotherapy will help people in ways that surprise them. It can bring into focus aspects of life that hitherto have not been expressed or have remained unconscious. For example, careful attention and being held in mind by your therapist can help with identity, confidence and making choices in your life. Sometimes it can pinpoint a void, that which is missing in life. Sometimes people experience cure and the relief of symptoms. Due to the complexity of human beings none of these things are guaranteed and I remain wary of the therapist who over-estimates his or her powers of healing. Often it is the client that finds the answers, but the therapist is sometimes skilled at tuning into an individuals suffering and providing the conditions for change and healing to take place.
Process
I find that it usually takes between one and five consultations to know if you wish to enter into psychotherapy, this is normally known as an assessment phase. I see people once or twice weekly depending on the depth of therapy required. Sessions are usually at the same time each week and last for 50 minutes. Sometimes people choose to lay on the couch others choose to remain seated face to face.
Training, qualifications & experience
Qualifications
- University of Kent, Master of Arts in Psychotherapy.
- University of Kent, Master of Clinical Science in Psychotherapy.
- Society of Analytical Psychology, Diploma in Psychotherapy Supervision.
- Institute of Group Analysis and Birkbeck College London, PGC in Group Analysis.
Experience
30 years in the healthcare professions which included:
- Psychotherapist at the Priory Hospital.
- External consultant to an NHS trauma service.
- Lead psychotherapist at an NHS hospital.
- Addictions service group programme director.
- Clinical supervisor for Bromley Community Counselling Services.
Professional Membership
- UKCP United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy.
- CCOPPP Canterbury Consortium for Psychoanalytic and Psychodynamic Psychotherapists.
- BAPPS British Association for Psychoanalytic and Psychodynamic Supervisors.
- APP Associate member of the Association for Psychotherapists in the NHS .
- IGA Associate member of The Institute of Group Analysis.
- GASI Group Analytic Society International.
Member organisations
Being registered/accredited with a professional body means an individual must have achieved a substantial level of training and experience approved by their member organisation.
The UK Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP) is a leading professional body for the education, training and regulation of psychotherapists and psychotherapeutic counsellors. Its register is accredited by the government's Professional Standards Authority.
As part of its commitment to protect the public, it works to improve access to psychotherapy, to support and disseminate research, to improve standards and to respond effectively to complaints against its members.
UKCP standards cover the range of different psychotherapies. Registration is obtained by training or accrediting with one of its member organisations, or by holding a European Certificate in Psychotherapy. Accredited by the Professional Standards Authority.
Accredited register membership
The Accredited Register Scheme was set up in 2013 by the Department of Health (DoH) as a way to recognise organisations that hold voluntary registers which meet certain standards. These standards are set by the Professional Standards Authority (PSA).
This therapist has indicated that they belong to an Accredited Register.
Areas of counselling I deal with
Other areas of counselling I deal with
I have an additional specialist interest in staff support groups and clinical supervision for health professionals.
I can offer clinical supervision via Skype.
Therapies offered
Upcoming events
Fees
£80.00 per session
Additional information
Individual psychotherapy: £80 per session
Couples: £90 per session
Group Psychotherapy £80 per month
Individual Supervision: quote on request.
When I work
Day time and evening appointments available.