About me
My fascination with how art can tell stories began in childhood as I watched travelling theatres perform in our local village hall. I later learned that our bodies remember our stories, and that creativity can help us understand, express, and heal the parts of our stories that need attention.
Creativity allows us to speak with a language beyond words.
Attachment informed EMDR offers potent healing and transformation.
Integrated Trauma and Attachement Treatment Model (ITATM) is a fast and profound experience that helps our nervous system, body and mind undertand that the past is over.
Given the right conditions, our bodies and minds will move towards wellness. Just as a cut will heal given the right conditions, so too will our hearts, minds and sense of self. We come to therapy because our feelings and thoughts, behaviours and self-beliefs get in the way of being present in our lives and relationships. And when the world is unarguably hard - with relationships, jobs, not to mention political and ecological crisis - we come to therapy because we want to be better able cope.
Effective therapy turns towards the body - our nervous systems to be precise. As we grow, our nervous systems form in response to our environment, to key events, and relationships. Though we may have grown up and things may have changed, our nervous systems often need help to learn more adaptive ways of responding to what is happening now rather than things that happened in the past.
Creative, attachment-informed EMDR and ITATM support a gentle journey of discovery.
With care, patience, and warmth, we reveal, and rewire, the nervous system and the stories that shaped it.
We allow a new and empowered story to complete the chapters, so we can move forward and live a future we want.
I am still excited by what therapy can do. I am honoured by my role as a therapist, accompanying people on their journeys to move beyond a life of anxiety, self-doubt and pain, to a life of the real stuff - of self-esteem, of pride in who we are, of radical self-compassion, and the ability to ask for what we need in relationships…
... and sometimes, simply the pleasure of the odd grumpy day! Because therapy can’t take away the challenges in life and it shouldn't stop us feeling genuine anger, confusion, and grumpiness when things are hard. Because therapy isn’t about taking away feelings, it's about helping us enjoy the wonderful complexity of being a human no matter what blows our way.
How do we get started?
If you're interested in therapy with me, we will speak on the phone or via email to arrange a free 30 minute meeting. This first meeting will be an informal assessment. It is a chance for us to think about how, and if therapy together, may work. It is a chance for you to ask questions about me and the therapy I offer. We will have the chance to talk about what brings you to therapy, what you are hoping for, or what worries you.
This initial meeting is free of charge and will last about 30 mins.
Cost
A 60 minute session is priced at £85.00.
An initial 30 minute meeting is free of charge and can be on the phone, in person, or online.
I offer a limited number of reduced rate places to those on low incomes - please ask. I will help if I can.
What do you need to know?
I am an HCPC registered Arts Psychotherapist with a distinction at Masters level, and an Advanced Diploma in Arts Psychotherapy Practice.
I am trained to level 2 ITATM with Lori Gill and have ongoing consultaions with her.
I am trained to Level 3 EMDR with an accredited EMDR Europe Trainer, and have regular supervision with an EMDR consultant.
I am registered with the Health Care Professionals Council (HCPC) and adhere to their safeguarding and ethics frameworks for good practice.
I am an enhanced member of the British Association of Art Therapists (BAAT) and adhere to their guidelines for ethics and good practice.
I have Professional Indemnity Insurance with Howden Insurance Group.
I am registered with the ICO.
I undertake Continued Professional Development (CPD) in a variety of areas.
I have experience working with people who suffer:
Bereavement and Grief - Attachment wounds - Anorexia Nervosa - Bulimia - Anxiety, including Health Anxiety – Depression – Dissociation - Those affected by cancer - PTSD - Developmental Trauma, Childhood neglect and abuse of many kinds - Those affected by stroke and cognitive impairment - 'borderline personality' diagnosis (BPD) symptoms - Challenges with parenting, including those whose children have experience of the care system.
Mental Health Diagnosis
Diagnosis are a cluster of symptoms in a manual.
I do not get hung up on psychological diagnoses but understand that they mean different things to different people. I approach each person's symptoms as a valid response to life experience, not a 'disorder to be fixed'. I believe it is possible to face our symptoms with curiosity so we better understand them, and move toward a life more aligned with our needs. A diagnosis can be helpful as it may point towards helpful medication, or a treatment pathway. It may be that I feel you need the support of a mental health team and that, as a sole practitioner, I am not adequate to meet your needs. We will always discuss what feels best.
Increased understanding of Autism and ADHD is bringing to light greater self-understanding and, whilst I celebrate the stretching of our neuro-dominant culture, I see the challenge that masking and being misunderstood takes upon a person. I welcome neurodiversity and your personal story. I think I am neurotypical, but I am not sure.
Privilege
I am a white, able bodied, sis-gendered woman. I recognise the privilege these distinctions have given, and continue to give me, alongside enduring toxicity and 'othering' that continues to oppress and hurt so many. It is important to address the power imbalance that the therapy relationship can hold and to face subjects that society wants us to shy away from. I hope that, step by step, we can remove the blocks that power imbalances create, and ReHumanise the world in which we live.
Please drop me an email if you’d like to find out more.
Training, qualifications & experience
Qualifications
- Levels 1 and 2 ITATM with Logi Gill of the Attachment and Trauma Treatment Centre for Healing (ATTCH) with ongoing consultations.
- Levels 1, 2 and 3 EMDR Therapy with the EMDR Institute.
- Masters - with distinction - Arts Psychotherapy Practice - Arts Therapy Northern Program, Sheffield
- Advanced Diploma - Integrative Arts Psychotherapy - The Institute for Arts in Therapy and Education (IATE), London
- Level 1 Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy
- Level 1 Theraplay
- Level 1 Dyadic Art Psychotherapy
- Fundamentals in Psychosynthesis - The Institute of Psychosynthesis - London
- Ba (Hons) Technical Arts and Special Effects. University of the Arts, London.
Additional training
Attachment Informed EMDR; EMDR and suicidality; Healing with Breath and Sound; Play therapy; Somatic Internal Family Systems Therapy (IFS);Sensory Integration (BUSS model); Sandtray therapy; Clayfield therapy; Hakomi Therapy; Working in clinical practice with DID; Working in clinical practice with ME and fibromyalgia, Working in clinical practice with bereavement and grief; Clinical Somatics; Adoption through a racialised lense, Racial Equity with Ravideep Kaur, Safeguarding.
Experience
- Therapeutic Director of Growing ME CIC www.growingme.co.uk - 6 years.
- Art and EMDR psychotherapist in private practice - 8 years.
- Trauma and Attachment Therapist - Chrysalis Associates, Sheffield - 2 & 1/2 years
- Child and Families Psychotherapist - Cavendish Cancer Care, Sheffield - 2 & 1/2 years
- Art Psychotherapy - Catharsis, Derbyshire and South Yorkshire - 1 year
- Art Psychotherapist Share Psychotherapy, Sheffield - 1 year.
- Art Psychotherapist -Sheffield Eating Disorder Service - 1 year.
- Therapeutic arts facilitator - Kids Company, London 3 years.
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 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.
The British Association of Art Therapists
Areas of counselling I deal with
Photos & videos
Fees
From £85.00
Additional information
Current availability: online only available at this time
Initial assessment/meeting free; 30 mins.
Standard fee: £85 for 60 mins
I am able to offer some reduced rates to some people depenent on circumstance: please ask.
Talk to me about your goals, and time-frames, and how you want therapy to fit in your life. Therapy can achieve the same goals with different approaches.
Many people are looking for long or medium-term therapy, which allows for a slower and in depth relationship to evolve within the work. Whilst others prefer time-limited sessions that encourages focused therapy with clear goals.
For shorter term work 6 - 10, 15 or 20 session blocks can be booked at an agreed price, which can bring costs down per session. These can be intense (twice weekly) or standard (weekly).
When I work
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