About me
Hello and welcome to Sage Therapy
I am an experienced integrative therapist. This means I draw on a range of therapeutic approaches and tailor our work to suit your individual needs.
Together, we can explore what is happening for you at this point in your life, make sense of your experiences, and consider how you would like to move forward.
Sometimes life can leave you feeling as though everything is a struggle. Busy lives can also mean that we lose sight of the importance of taking care of ourselves.
You may be experiencing anxiety or low mood, struggling with self-esteem, or finding that coping strategies developed earlier in life are no longer supporting you.
Perhaps an accumulation of experiences over time has affected your mental wellbeing and the way you move through your everyday life.
I can support you in developing healthier boundaries, understanding what you need, and creating space for personal growth in a safe, empathetic, and non-judgemental environment.
Building resilience
Resilience can be understood as our ability to adapt to challenging, adverse, or traumatic experiences.
We often criticise ourselves for reacting in ways we feel are inappropriate. However, looking inward and recognising patterns of behaviour can help us understand why we respond in certain ways.
Acknowledging that you did the best you could with the resources available to you at the time can create space for self-compassion and growth. It can also help you develop new ways of responding to life’s challenges in the future.
In our work together, I aim to:
Build on your existing resources and strengths
Support you in developing greater distress tolerance
Offer a safe space to explore and process difficult experiences
Help you understand the causes and effects of trauma
Support you in taking an active role in your personal growth and healing
Family history and patterns
We can explore your family history and consider whether behaviours, beliefs, or relationship patterns may have been passed down through generations.
The past can influence the present without us always being fully aware of it. Understanding these patterns can help you recognise what may be affecting you today and consider what you would like to change.
I offer a safe and empathetic space, free from judgement, where you can discover strengths that may have been hidden or overlooked. Sometimes we do not realise how strong we are until we make time to look within.
Ways of working
I offer therapy online and from a therapy room in Addlestone.
I also offer walk-and-talk therapy in Bushy Park and Richmond Park. Outdoor therapy can provide a more open and natural setting for reflection, exploration, and therapeutic work.
Training, qualifications & experience
Talking with a skilled professional about what is happening for you can open a new doorway into your life, offering a different perspective and new possibilities for how you experience the world.
I hold a Diploma in Integrative Counselling and Psychotherapy and have worked with a number of charities and organisations, including Together for Mental Wellbeing, Place2Be, Integrated Neurological Services, and Hounslow Youth Counselling Service.
With over 20 years’ experience in the mental health field, I have undertaken extensive training in trauma and developmental trauma. I have a particular interest in the connection between the mind and body, including how difficult experiences can be held and expressed physically.
My approach may incorporate breathwork, gentle movement, and other grounding techniques to support emotional regulation and help calm an activated nervous system. These practices can provide useful tools to explore both within and outside of therapy. I have experience supporting people affected by early childhood trauma and abuse, and have undertaken training in complex trauma and PTSD.
When we have spent a long time in survival mode, it can begin to feel like our default setting. Together, we can gently develop greater awareness of these responses and explore ways of helping you feel safer, more grounded, and better able to regulate your nervous system.
Mental health is an essential part of overall health, yet it is often overlooked. Holding difficult emotions inside can feel exhausting and may prevent us from living as fully as we would like. By nurturing both mind and body, we can begin to develop a more compassionate and nourishing perspective, create space for change, and move towards the life you want to build.
"The past has no power to stop you from being present now. Only your grievance about the past can do that." (Eckhart Tolle)
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.
Areas of counselling I deal with
Therapies offered
Fees
£65.00 - £100.00
Free initial telephone session
Concessions offered for
Additional information
My rate depends on location £65-£100 for 1-2-1 sessions
my sessions are 1 hour long.
Concessions available at therapists discretion.
When I work
mon-Saturday: Daytime and evening.
Further information
sometimes life can throw things at us that can leave us feeling bewildered and a little bit lost. At these times it can be the hardest for us to admit to ourselves that we may be stuck in a situation
in my practice I work in a way so you can gain acceptance and clarity of your situation, to support you in moving forward in your life
Mindfulness meditation for clients that suffer with anxiety.
Anxiety is where your thoughts take over and become all consuming which can affect your day to day living in a negative way. If we think about anxiety as being a build up of your experience, becoming curious about why it is so prevalent in the here and now and making space for it.
Mindfulness allows you to begin to be in control, clearing the mind and in time channelling your thought path in a more positive manner. You control your mind, it doesn’t control you.
Early childhood trauma.
Not everyone has a 'good enough' childhood.
Working with the inner child and attachment, we cannot undo the past but we can definitely give a space and work with the emotional wounds of the past.
I work with a mind-body approach in gently challenging old thoughts and beliefs that perhaps no longer serve you as an adult.
If you were taught to "survive" in childhood, it can be challenging to thrive in adulthood.
With lots of care and empathy I will work with honouring that little person that still resides in you, learn if they are still pulling the strings and work with resolve in the here and now.
We all have a story to make sense of, perhaps patterns of behaviour that are unhealthy and unhelpful for you in your adult life? I offer a safe space for you to open up and understand what is going on for you in the present, that may relate to your past.
Acceptance to move on.
Throughout my career what i notice is the majority can speak their story, yet the struggle is to accept and let go.
In my methods I will support you in gaining insight and strength to move forward in a more hopeful and positive perspective.
“To live is to suffer, to survive is to find meaning in the suffering.” (Friedrich Nietzsche).
You don’t have to do it on your own.
