About me
Thank you for looking at my profile.
I am an experienced, fully qualified and accredited psychotherapist and work with clients facing a range of life-issues including anxiety, stress and depression, including post-natal depression; trauma and abuse; grief, loss and bereavement; and relationship challenges, both at home and at work.
I work with clients of any age from 18 years onwards. I have also been supervising therapists for 4 years and am open to working with therapists of any modality.
My clinical practice days are currently Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. I work on-line and in-person; in-person meetings will be in central Inverness at the Relationships Scotland-Counselling Highlands office on View Place.
I aim to offer, above all else, trust and safety in our working relationship, focussing on understanding and supporting your specific needs. I do this through an empathetic, non-judgmental, accepting and supportive environment in which to jointly explore the nature of our psychotherapeutic work. Every working relationship is unique and I am therefore conscious of and sensitive to the differing therapeutic needs of each individual and use an integrative approach to meet these.
I enjoyed working with people across different organisations and in many different countries around the world, including managing and leading small and large teams of people. Having studied for a degree in psychology, I was looking for something that dealt with the human condition at a much deeper level, that reflected the interconnectivity of life and was attuned with Eastern philosophies as these resonated with my experience of life. I subsequently started my psychotherapy journey in 2005 with a foundation course in Core Process Psychotherapy and subsequently completing a Master's degree in Mindfulness-based Psychotherapeutic Practice. I have since completed a number of other academic and professional qualifications in psychotherapy, psychology and healthcare, including a PhD.
Core Process Psychotherapy (CPP), my main training modality, offers us the opportunity to seek meaning beyond symptoms and to bring a fuller engagement with living life. CPP has its roots in a Buddhist understanding of human experience in combination with the techniques and developments of Western psychology - you can find out more about it here; https://www.counselling-directory.org.uk/core-process-psychotherapy.html
Training, qualifications & experience
I have been in clinical practice for over 15 years. Prior to that, I had many other working life experiences including spending time living and working overseas and working in large organisations and corporations.
I qualified and accredited as a psychotherapist with a master's degree in Mindfulness-based Psychotherapeutic Practice through the Karuna Institute and Middlesex University, and completed my doctorate at the University of Edinburgh. I have other relevant qualifications including:
- a BSc(Hons) Psychology
- an MSc in Occupational Psychology
- a Pre- and Perinatal Educator Certificate
- a Certificate in End-of-life Care
- a Professional Diploma in Management
- a Masters in Business Administration.
- I also hold a Diploma in Contemplative Supervision through Karuna Devon.
- I am currently studying criminology and psychology with the Open University.
I am accredited via the Association of Core Process Psychotherapists (ACPP) with the UKCP (full clinical member 2011162584) and a registered member of BACP (member 373617). I am entered on UKCP's supervisor register as a recognised supervisor. I am also a member of the British Psychological Society and a member of the Association For Prenatal And Perinatal Psychology And Health (APPPAH).
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.
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
Other areas of counselling I deal with
My specialist interest and experience is in womb-life and birth, also known as pre- and perinatal psychology, a multi-disciplinary approach to experiences in prenatal life from pre-conception through to the initial 12 months of life post-birth.
I have completed thousands of hours of CPD related to womb-life and birth through psychotherapeutic experiences called regressions as well as a variety of educative trainings including my PhD. The lens of pre- and perinatal psychology posits our experiences from preconception (though familial epigenetics and intergenerational trauma) through conception, womb-life and birth can leave "imprints" that influence ad shape our personality structures and relational ways-of-being. As well as personal regression experiences in this field, I trained as an integrative baby therapist, and have worked with clients where appropriate using the skills and experience I have. I am open to enquiries about working with this speciality.
My doctoral thesis focussed on the stories told to me by eleven women of their womb-life and births, and sometimes of the pregnancies and births that they had experienced with their own children. These eleven women had participated in a variety of educative trainings, and psychotherapeutic experiences called regressions, to explore the nature of their womb-life and birth through the lens of pre- and perinatal psychology. The stories they told showed how womb-life and birth experiences can, for some people, impact and inform our personality, ways-of-being in the world and our relationships as children and adults.
Therapies offered
Fees
£65.00 per session
Concessions offered for
Additional information
I offer concessionary rates based on weekly attendance for NHS workers and other "blue light" workers (police, fire, RNLI etc) as well as military and veterans: [Blue Light Card and Defence Discount Service cardholders]. Please enquire for more details if this applies to you.
When I work
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Further information
I have had the wonderful experience of working with people of many different nationalities, from many different countries and cultures around the world and have a basic working knowledge of some European languages, having lived in mainland Europe for over 6 years. I therefore have a deep appreciation of other cultures and expatriate life.
