This professional is available for new clients.
This professional is available for new clients.
About me
I am a fully qualified Art Therapist with 13 years of experience. If you are looking for a non-judgemental, empathetic, calming environment to explore your feelings, perhaps I can help. Situated in Leith, the therapy room is a confidential, safe space, stocked with art materials. Contact me and we can discuss what it is you are looking for. I am able to work within a talking therapies model, or you could give art therapy a try. Sometimes it helps to use the art materials to express things that can be difficult to put into words.
I have worked with a wide range of people, from infants to adults dealing with issues such as bereavement, childhood adversity, anxiety, panic attacks or depression. I can help you identify triggers if you are anxious and find ways to help you regulate. I find it helpful to explore what you have found helpful in the past as we can use that to guide us. I can help you build your resilience and self-esteem, support you to create healthy boundaries and build feelings of safety.
I have 23 years of experience in working with neurodivergent adults and children and also with people with disabilities in a variety of settings.
I have enjoyed working with the LGBTQi+ community.
I see each person as an individual and enjoy the process of getting to know you, what motivates you and what your concerns are. This is done in a caring and curious way, enabling you to learn about yourself in the process.
I am interested in how our early relationships shape how we interact with others and experience ourselves in the world. Together we can think about your early years and how your expectations were formed.
I am fascinated by dreams and enjoy thinking with you about your dream life and dream world. It can be interesting to make artwork in response to a dream to see where it leads or what opens up.
I feel it is important to help you to think about your emotional vocabulary and enable you to reconnect with your body, recognise the symptoms of stress and express feelings in a healthy way. We will explore what has helped in the past, enabling you to work out your own tailor-made strategies for coping with anxiety. I want to enable you to learn your own stress signals and be able to respond to them in a way that is beneficial.
I am interested in the unconscious and intuition and the effect past traumas have on our relationship with these parts of the self. Part of the work of therapy is often to re-connect with intuitive feelings so that they can be heard and acted upon.
There is no pressure to make artwork in the sessions. You do not have to consider yourself good at making artwork to find art therapy beneficial.
I am registered with the British Association of Art Therapists and a member of the Health and Care Professions Council.
Training, qualifications & experience
I have a Postgraduate Diploma in Art Therapy, qualifying in 2003. I have 13 years of experience working as an Art Therapist. I have worked with children in the NHS in a sexual abuse recovery service, in schools with the Place2Be , as a self employed therapist and also at Wellspring, Scotland. I have worked with adults at Number 21, a Crossreach organisation, as a self employed therapist and at Wellspring, Scotland, a charity.
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 HCPC are an independent, UK-wide health regulator. They set standards of professional training, performance and conduct for 16 professions.
They keep a register of health professionals who meet their standards, and they take action if registered health professionals fall below those standards. They were created by a piece of legislation called the Health Professions Order 2001.
Registration means that a health professional meets national standards for their professional training, performance and conduct.
Areas of counselling I deal with
Therapies offered
Fees
£60.00 per session
Free initial telephone session
When I work
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I have space on a Friday morning or a Friday evening for in person sessions or online/phone.
Further information
Art Therapy is a form of Psychotherapy that utilises the creation of artwork during the session as a means to discuss deeper feelings and concerns within a safe and confidential relationship. Your therapist will have specific training in working therapeutically within the visual arts.
The artwork created in the session can help to express feelings that may have been buried; to express the unconscious. In bringing the unconscious into the light it ceases to hold power over you, loosening it’s grip. The making of the artwork can provide a grounding and a connection with the self that offers further containment. There is an externalising within the artwork, so that what was held deeply within can be explored within a safe environment and trusting relationship.
Art therapy is not an art class or a diversional activity, though it can be playful. A range of art materials are available in the therapy room, from drawing materials, to paint, fabric, clay and natural objects. The sensory contact with the materials can offer an additional aspect to the work.