About me
I practise Psychodynamic Counselling and Therapy in Edinburgh.
People seek therapy for many different reasons. For instance, you might feel worried about an issue that you need to get off your chest. Or you might feel stuck for different reasons, leaving you feeling helpless or unhappy. Or you may feel that past or present experiences have left you unable to form meaningful relationships.
Sometimes feelings of unhappiness, frustration, anger, or sadness can feel overwhelming. However, through therapy, which involves dialogue, listening, thinking, and talking about feelings, your experience may start to change - to become more open. As a result, you may feel freer, and you may experience the world in a different way. Therapy allows you to safely reflect on past feelings and to express your feelings in the present, with the aim of living in a new way.
Training, qualifications & experience
- I completed my training at Human Development Scotland (Post Graduate Certificate and Diploma).
- I completed my placement at Safe Space, a charity that provides therapy and counselling for individuals who have experienced childhood sexual abuse (CSA).
- I am a member of COSCA and I adhere to their professional framework and ethical standards.
- I also hold a PhD in Philosophy from the University of Warwick.
My research in Philosophy has allowed me to develop a thoughtful and ethical practice.
My work has also helped me to think more clearly about society, ethics and morality, the development of the self, and the nature of experience.
I am a warm, compassionate, and patient therapist. I hope to support you to develop empathy towards yourself, to relieve your suffering, and to resolve emotional conflict. I also hope to allow you to develop greater autonomy and independence, to enhance your self-knowledge, and to support your capacity to relate to others. I will listen to you without judgment, and with careful attention, with the aim of allowing you greater understanding of your emotional experience—both past and present.
Member organisations
COSCA is the professional body for counselling and psychotherapy in Scotland, and seeks to advance all forms of counselling and psychotherapy and the use of counselling skills by promoting best practice and through the delivery of a range of sustainable services. COSCA Counsellor Accreditation is a pathway to entry onto the UKRC. It is a requirement of all individual and organisational members of COSCA to abide by its Statement of Ethics and Code of Practice and be accountable to the Complaints Procedure. Accredited by the Professional Standards Authority.
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
Additional information
Practical Considerations
- I offer one initial phone call (15 minutes) free of charge.
- Thereafter I charge £60 per session (50 minutes, one session per week).
Please contact me for my availability.
Further information
I work with adults, aged 18+. Since everyone experiences the world differently, nothing in therapy is predictable or known in advance. I am open to working with many different individuals. At the present time, I have experience working with clients with the following issues: sexual and physical abuse and trauma; disordered eating; depression; PTSD; parenthood issues; anxiety; bereavement and loss; suicidal ideation; and general discontent or unhappiness. I have worked at Safe Space in Dunfermline, a charity that provides therapy and counselling for adults who have experienced childhood sexual abuse (CSA).
I trained in Psychodynamic Theory. This means several things. First, it signifies that I explore how past experiences (for instance, in childhood) might affect the present. Sometimes, present relationships may reproduce the shape of a significant relationship from the past. Second, I am interested in mental processes that disrupt thinking and feeling, or which affect blind spots in perception.
Finally, I believe that a client’s significant relationships (past and present) may help to illuminate patterns of thinking, feeling, and acting. And of course, how we relate to ourselves is also an important relationship: perhaps the most complex of all.
