About me
My specialism is in grief, loss and trauma and I support individuals in-person from a comfortable and private space in Surbiton, Surrey, easily accessible for those in South West London. For those further afield, or with accessibility concerns or disability, I also offer online and telephone sessions.
We tend to think of grief as a response to someone close to us dying, but in fact, we feel grief for all kinds of loss. Sometimes loss can have traumatic elements within it, and other times it is trauma itself which leads to grieving. One of my wise teachers once said, 'Not all grief contains trauma, but all trauma contains grief'.
Grief, loss and trauma can be confusing and disorientating, left unprocessed, it can lead to symptoms like anxiety and depression. It can greatly impact how we see ourselves, others and the world around us. You don't have to struggle with this alone, having an experienced professional alongside you can really help.
Therapy with me flows through this process:
1. Awareness – we will talk about your experiences and pay attention to the thoughts, feelings and beliefs you hold, about yourself and others. We will discover what may be creating a sense of ‘stuckness’ or distress and we will look for recurring themes and patterns.
2. Acceptance – of who you are, warts and all! This is about true self-compassion, something that is alien to many of us and harder than it may seem. This is where grief may sit, and my role is to support you through it.
3. Agency – Once Awareness has been raised and Acceptance for yourself develops, you begin to make meaning from your experiences. This allows for change and growth to happen; it is when real choice, freedom, creativity and spontaneity become available to you. You decide which parts of your story still serve you, and which do not.
Our work together will always be collaborative. I strongly believe in the healing power of the therapeutic relationship, and it is for this reason that I turn up as a human first, therapist second. I will prioritise what is happening between us as a way of understanding what also happens ‘out there’ in the world for you. This takes courage, honesty, humility and integrity; this is my pledge to you.
More and more, my work has brought me in contact with the big transitions in life – and death. With women who are encountering pregnancy complications like infertility, miscarriage or termination for medical reasons; and with cancer patients at The Royal Marsden Hospital facing chronic ill-health, uncertainty and mortality. I find this work challenging, deeply rewarding and life-affirming.
I feel honoured and grateful to support people while they face some of their deepest, darkest fears. My strength as a therapist is in my ability to quietly bear witness to your despair and fear, to tolerate it with you, so you know you are not alone. I am forever amazed, humbled and inspired by the resilience, change and rediscovery of self people come to after such harrowing experiences.
If you have read this, and some part inside you feels compelled to respond – let’s talk.
Training, qualifications & experience
I am an Integrative Humanistic Psychotherapist and Psychotherapeutic Counsellor, accredited by UKCP and a register member of the BACP. I hold an MSc and two clinical diploma's. My framework incorporates humanistic, trauma and attachment theories to help me gain a fuller understanding of what is happening for you and what will help.
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.
Areas of counselling I deal with
Therapies offered
Fees
£85.00 - £90.00
Additional information
I offer a free 15-minute telephone call for us to explore what brings you to counselling at this time and how I can help you.
After this, we can then book an initial consultation. This will last 50-minutes and costs £90. This will be an opportunity for me to learn more about you and for you to get a sense of what it would be like to have counselling with me.
If we both agree, we can then begin to work together. Depending on how you decided to work with me, my fees range from £80 - £90 per session.
When I work
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