About me
I work in person in Paisley, and wherever you are online.
I try to take a low expectations, high hopes approach to life and therapy. What that usually means for people I work with is that they are free of pressure to perform, to say the right thing or to keep climbing up the ladder of self-betterment. We’re two people, getting together, talking about what’s going on for you.
My theory of change for therapy is - the more we can accept and show understanding to ourselves, the closer we’ll get to a good life.
That’s why when we’re together, I really want to offer you time where you can show yourself. Time where you can say the thing that matters to you and talk honestly about how it feels to live your life. At your own pace and in a way that feels right for you.
Whatever has brought you to looking at therapy, my hope is that we can create a space for you to explore what’s happening with loads of curiosity and understanding.
Training, qualifications & experience
I have a Masters Degree from the University of Strathclyde in Counselling in Psychotherapy and a COSCA Certificate in Counselling Skills from Glasgow Caledonian University.
I have delivered over 2,000 hours of counselling with people from all sorts of backgrounds and walks of life. I also run a voluntary counselling service in Paisley and have supported two trainee counsellors through their placement.
I think I’m a great therapist for the moments when the bubble of comfort and certainty in life has burst - either because of events outside of your control, or because you’ve had enough of life as it is and needed to burst it yourself.
My whole life, I have loved being with people who are questioning how they see themselves; their ways of thinking; the relationships in their life and what they want from the world. I also love being with people who are able to, or who are learning to, accept themselves as they are. The magic in therapy happens, I think, when we’re doing both.
I think that is what therapy is about for me - creating the warm and non-judgmental space for you to explore self acceptance and to reach new levels of self awareness.
I think that’s in part because of my training, and in part because I’ve had loads of those moments in my own life. Climbing to the top of the mountain, then realising the view wasn’t what I thought it would be. Making clanging mistakes and having to work with the idea that I might not be perfect. Finding myself in the middle of something and thinking “I don’t actually like this or want to do it - how TF did I get myself here?”
That approach means I’ve worked with people who want to explore grief; relationship changes; family difficulties; parenting; career uncertainty; sex and sexuality; health diagnoses and loads more.
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
Therapies offered
Fees
£60.00 per session
When I work
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I am available in person and online at the times of day outlined.
Follow the link to get my up to date availability and book a session:
https://calendar.app.google/vWWmM3ht14CpzT4dA
Further information
Before training as a therapist, I spent a decade in the charity sector, working with people who had experience of injustice, supporting them to talk about their experiences to politicians, journalists, and public servants. During my time I saw how powerful it was when people felt heard - and how much could shift when someone felt that their voice mattered. My undergraduate degree is in politics and social policy, and lots of that involved asking the same questions of the world as I now help people ask of their own life:
- How did it get to be like this?
- Who wins and loses from the way things are?
- Can it be changed - if so, how? If not, why not?
My commitment to listening and disrupting things comes from my own experiences. Growing up, I understood what it meant to feel unseen. I went to school at a time when Section 28 banned teachers from ‘promoting homosexuality,’ which meant that even acknowledging the existence of same-sex relationships was forbidden. At home, my mum worked three insecure jobs to keep us afloat financially, and I understood from an early age that the systems around us weren’t built with people like us in mind. I also have experience, now and throughout my life, in getting things wrong and then facing myself. That stuff is hard and it has made such a difference to me to have supportive people on my side during it.
These experiences shaped how I see the world. They made me committed to creating spaces where people feel safe enough to be honest, where they don’t have to perform or prove themselves, where they don’t have to carry shame that was never theirs to begin with.
I was awarded a BEM in the 2021 New Year Honours for my work during COVID however I don’t use the letters after my name here, because I don’t want to give the impression it was to do with counselling.
