About me
Weekly depth psychotherapy in South Manchester and online. I offer individual and group therapy.
Most people arrive at therapy because something isn't working and they've run out of ways to think about it on their own.
Sometimes there's a clear reason — a bereavement, a relationship ending, a change you didn't choose. More often it's harder to name.
Perhaps some of this sounds familiar:
- You keep arriving at the same place by different routes
- You struggle to make sense of your dynamics with others
- You don't feel good enough
- Shame holds you back
- You've been anxious or stressed a lot of the time
- You're facing a big change and can't get your bearings
- You're managing, but only just
- Life feels empty, without meaning or purpose
Many people come with nothing more specific than a sense that something is off, and no idea where to start. That's a perfectly good place to begin.
What depth psychotherapy is
Depth psychotherapy works from the view that much of what troubles us isn't sitting on the surface. Early in life we form a script — how to be, who we are, what others are like. It was built to protect us from what was overwhelming at the time, and it goes on running long after the original threat has gone. We adapt to the environment we grew up in, and then take that adaptation everywhere. Psychotherapy is where those patterns become visible, and in becoming visible, become open to change.
How I work
My core training is in Transactional Analysis, and my practice is psychodynamic and existential. Psychodynamic means I'm interested in what isn't immediately obvious — the parts of your inner life that operate outside your awareness but shape your choices anyway. Existential means I'm equally interested in what you're facing now: freedom, limitation, loss, mortality, and what you want your one life to be for.
I work relationally, aiming for a space of warmth, shared responsibility and profound respect. I don't sit outside your experience assessing it — I'm in the room, affected, and willing to think with you about what happens between us. Deep listening matters to me, and I think this work goes beyond empathic listening: I'll ask questions and challenge as well as support you.
Life isn't lived in a vacuum. How we feel, relate and suffer is entwined with the world around us, so I hold both your inner life — your dreams, patterns and history — and the external contexts of identity, power and inequality that shape your experience.
I came to this work after fifteen years as a solicitor, which taught me a good deal about how people cope, what they hide, and the cost of holding it all together.
What I work with
Some examples:
- Repeated patterns where you feel stuck
- Anxiety, including social anxiety, and stress
- Processing earlier experiences
- Life changes and transitions — children leaving home, menopause, coming out, a relationship ending, bereavement, changing career or city, redundancy, retirement
- Low self-esteem and self-confidence, including a sense of being an imposter
- Relationship difficulties with partners, friends or family; affairs and betrayals; separation and divorce
- Work difficulties, including disciplinary processes and redundancy
- Attachment difficulties
- Bereavement, grief and loss
- End-of-life, including caring for someone who is ill
- Questions of meaning and purpose
Who I work with
I work with folk from different walks of life. My practice is rooted in an interest in intersectionality and the many layers of our identity, named or not. That may not be why you're seeking therapy, and that's fine too.
🏳️🌈 Many of my clients are from LGBTQ+ communities. I'm registered with Pink Therapy and have specific training in gender, sexuality and relationship diversity (GSRD) therapy, including relationship diversity such as consensual non-monogamy, and kink.
I work with a deep sense of compassion for those navigating life with autism, ADHD and/or other forms of neurodivergence.
🌿 I have an ecologically-minded practice, which means I consider place, planet and the non-human in my work. If that matters to you, it's welcome in the room.
Training, qualifications & experience
Qualifications and training
Certified Transactional Analyst (Psychotherapy)
Postgraduate Diploma in Integrative Transactional Analysis (Level 7, four years)
Postgraduate Diploma in Advanced Counselling and Psychotherapy (Distinction, two years), including advanced training in models of grief and loss
Diploma in Therapeutic Counselling (accredited by BACP, two years)
Further training includes:
- Certificate in Psychodynamic Psychotherapy
- Somatic Transactional Analysis
- Certificate in Delivering Group Therapy
- Certificate in Interpersonal Neurobiology: Polyvagal Theory and Beyond
- Certificate in Diversity within Contemporary Relationship Therapy: working alongside trans, non-binary and questioning clients; polyamory, polygamy and arranged marriages; kink; bisexuality and sexual fluidity; neurodivergence, sex and relationships (one year)
- Couples Institute Developmental Model of Couples Therapy: integrating attachment, differentiation and neuroscience (one year)
My psychotherapy qualification required four years of taught training to Master's level, a UKCP mental health familiarisation placement, over 750 supervised clinical hours before certification, one hour of supervision for every six clinical hours throughout, and weekly personal psychotherapy for a minimum of four years.
I train regularly. Recent workshops include trauma-informed practice, existential psychotherapy, working with suicidal ideation, anxiety and social anxiety, autism and ADHD, menopause, imposter syndrome, fatphobia, mindfulness and the breath, and equity, diversity and inclusion.
Experience
Over 15 years as a solicitor before changing career
LGBT+ helpline volunteer
Volunteer and freelance youth worker
College counsellor
Volunteering in adult counselling and psychotherapy services
Workshop facilitator in secondary schools
Member organisations
school Registered / Accredited
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.
BACP is one of the UK’s leading professional bodies for counselling and psychotherapy with around 60,000 members. The Association has several different categories of membership, including Student Member, Individual Member, Registered Member MBACP, Registered Accredited Member MBACP (Accred) and Senior Registered Accredited Member MBACP (Snr Acccred). Registered and accredited members are listed on the BACP Register, which shows that they have demonstrated BACP’s recommended standards for training, proficiency and ethical practice. The BACP Register was the first register of psychological therapists to be accredited by the Professional Standards Authority (PSA). Accredited and senior accredited membership are voluntary categories for members who choose to undertake a rigorous application and assessment process to demonstrate additional standards around practice, training and supervision. Individual members will have completed an appropriate counselling or psychotherapy course and started to practise, but they won’t appear on the BACP Register until they've demonstrated that they meet the standards for registration. Student members are still in the process of completing their training. All members are bound by the BACP Ethical Framework and a Professional Conduct Procedure.
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.
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
Therapies offered
Fees
£53.00 - £63.00
Concessions offered for
Health Insurance/EAP
Additional information
My website includes information on my current availability.
Reduced rate for UKATA and UKCP trainees.
Groups starting this autumn:
- Chorlton, Monday evenings 6.30–8.30pm, 12 sessions from September 2026, £27 per session. Open to anyone with at least three months' prior weekly therapy.
- Didsbury, Tuesday evenings 6.30–8.30pm, 30 sessions from October 2026, £30 per session. For TA trainees and recently qualified therapists.
- Online, Monday afternoons 1–3pm, 30 sessions from October 2026, £30 per session. For TA trainees and recently qualified therapists.
Before we meet
Getting in touch is often the hardest part. It's very common to feel hesitant, or to have drafted the email several times.
Contact me to arrange a first session and I'll confirm the time and send you what you need — the address, or a link if we're meeting online — along with my contract. I no longer offer a short introductory call. I found it didn't give either of us a real sense of the other, and a full session does that far better. That's why the first session is half fee.
On the day
The session lasts 50 minutes. We'll talk about what's troubling you, some of your history and circumstances, and what you're hoping might be different. You don't need to prepare. There's no correct order to tell things in and you don't need a coherent account. If you find you can't say much, that's fine too — we'll go at your pace. I'll ask some practical questions about your current support, your health, any previous therapy and any medication, and you can ask me anything you'd like to know.
Afterwards
The first session is an assessment for both of us. I'll tell you what I think, including whether I believe I'm the right person for what you're looking for. If I'm not, I'll say so, and I can usually help you find someone who is. You don't need to decide anything in the room. If you'd like to go ahead, we'll agree a regular weekly slot and begin. If you decide not to, that's completely fine and you're under no obligation.
The research is consistent that the quality of the therapeutic relationship is one of the strongest predictors of whether therapy helps. Finding the right fit is worth the effort, even when the right fit isn't me.
When I work
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Further information
I work with a relational lens aiming to create a space of warmth, shared responsibility and profound respect.
Life is not lived in a vacuum. The ways we feel, relate, and suffer are deeply entwined with the world around us. I provide a therapeutic space that honours both your internal world – your dreams, patterns, and inner life – and the external contexts of identity, power, and systemic inequality that shape your experience.
I offer mainly long-term working, but do sometimes work on a medium or short-term basis. I see clients on a weekly basis.
I have extensive experience working with LGBTQ+ and GSRD (Gender, Sexual, and Relationship Diverse) communities.
