This professional is available for new clients.
This professional is available for new clients.
About me
At the risk of sounding like a character in an Aki Kaurismaki film, life is hard. We all struggle through with varying degrees of satisfaction and sorrow alongside an unhelpful underlying cultural suggestion that we should just get on with it, that hopelessness or grief, unhappiness or feeling low are hurdles which should be leapt over in pursuit of winning the race of life.
And yes, ultimately, we do all have to address the various problems of our life ourselves. But we don't have to do it alone.
I came to psychoanalysis because I was helped by it myself. An infinitely kind and intuitive stranger took my hand and walked with me from the dark pit I was in onto the rocky road of 'normal' life. So I know it works and I want to walk with others and show them it can be done.
Psychotherapy, if you commit to it sincerely, is not easy. It's not something that will always soothe you and it definitely is not handing all your problems over to someone else for them to solve. It is looking, with help and in company, at where you are, how you got there, where you might want to be, and how you might make that happen. An attentive stranger can often see things we can't see about ourselves, she has no vested interest in defining our identity as partners, family and friends - however much they love us - may do.
To undertake work with a psychotherapist is not a crutch or a cop out. It's one of the bravest and most profound things a person can do for themselves and those around them.
Training, qualifications & experience
I trained as a psychoanalytic psychotherapist at the Philadelphia Association. The ethos there is - well, it's a lot of things, but one of the main tenets is that mental distress - from mild anxiety to severe episodes of psychosis - almost always has at least some of its roots in the world around us. Of course, as in all psychoanalysis we think about the individual, their childhood, their mum and dad and the coastal shelf. But we also look at the difficulties resulting from being a unique individual in a world which often doesn't seem to have a place for us. Some of the judgements and barriers and infelicities put in our path simply because we may not fit into an arbitrary ideal way of being, doing, looking or feeling.
For my whole adult life until relatively recently, I worked as a journalist. The same kind of attentive listening and interest in people transfers quite well into this work, albeit with rather different motives and results.
As a journalist I was always interested in the other and in justice. I gravitated to work with labour organisations and became involved in campaigns for women's equality and justice. Among many other things (and the inevitable celebrities), I wrote about and interviewed members of the Guildford Four (people wrongly imprisoned for IRA bomb attacks) and was lucky enough to interview Nelson Mandela when he first visited London after his release from prison. Perhaps my interest in words makes a lot of sense given that psychoanalysis is often referred to as 'talking therapy'. I do believe words have power and are an essential bridge between the mysterious islands of ourself and the other.
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.
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 per session
Additional information
I offer online sessions for £75
When I work
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At the moment I have some availability before 11am on Mondays and Fridays and after 12pm on Wednesdays.
Further information
In addition to private practice I work at a Philadelphia Association house where people seek respite and peace with others when experiencing severe emotional or mental distress.
