About me
I specialise in weight-neutral counselling.
My particular passion is counselling people who, like me, are overweight, or as I prefer to say, fat.
Fat people face challenges that thin people do not. In the UK, thinness is prized. Fat stigma is real, and larger people are judged as lazy, greedy and immoral, amongst other things.
Many people, including many counsellors, don’t understand the discrimination that fat people experience on a daily basis. They also expect anyone living in a larger body to be unhappy with their size, and to be actively pursuing weight loss. This can make having counselling confusing and upsetting, and more difficult than it needs to be.
I specialise in counselling larger people regardless of why they want counselling. I have lived experience of at least some of the difficulties you face. I’m not biased against you. And I don’t think I know what’s right for you.
I'm an integrative counsellor, so I'm trained in various different modalities and I draw on them as needed. But I offer no tricks or techniques. Each session is simply part of an ongoing conversation between you and me, where you do most of the talking.
Training, qualifications & experience
- MA Counselling and Psychotherapy, University of Leeds
- Certificate in Counselling Skills and Theory, University of Leeds
- BSc (Hons) Psychology – Royal Holloway University, University of London
Aside from my private practice, I’ve counselled for a number of diverse organisations, including a faith-based charity and a women’s centre. I've been counselling for over 10 years, mainly working with women dealing with issues such as grief, trauma, abuse and poor self worth.
I’m a registered member of the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) and work in line with the BACP’s Ethical Framework.
Member organisations
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.
Areas of counselling I deal with
Fees
£50.00 per session
Concessions offered for
Further information
Please email or phone me if you’d like to know more or to book a session.
If you call and I can't answer, I won't call you back unless you leave a message with your name. I'll reply as soon as possible, usually within 24 hours on weekdays.
