About me
Are you struggling to understand why your relationships feel painful, stressful, overwhelming, like you're failing, or beating your head against a wall?
Do your emotions feel frightening, confusing, too much or shut down and numb?
Many of us are not taught how to understand our emotions or how they affect us in our relationships, yet we are expected to know what we are doing. We all relate to others all the time. I'm here to support you to understand your emotional self, from understanding relational trauma, narcissistic abuse, neurodiverse emotions, how you felt growing up and more, guiding you in how you can feel safer and more confident in supporting your emotional needs.
Couples Therapy
When working with couples, I work with Emotion Focused Therapy, understanding attachment histories, and learning the dynamic that has formed within the relationship, to help break negative cycles and create positive, safe and rewarding connections. I use somatic tools (working with your emotions in your body) to regulate emotions, supporting more effective communication and emotional connection. I bring in tools, information and worksheets from the Gottman Institute to guide reconnection at home.
Individual Therapy
As a relationship therapist, I often work supporting clients individually through relationship issues and recovery from domestic abuse. Relationships can be painful and confusing. From relationships with partners, parents and friends. It can be hard to know if difficult behaviours are attachment issues, emotional immaturity or narcissistic abuse. It can be difficult to understand our own feelings, why we say or do things we don't want to, that hurt ourselves or others. Common feelings I hear from people are feeling damned if I do, and damned if I don't. Feeling confused and uncertain, never knowing how to get it right. Feeling like sharing how you feel would rock the boat and just cause problems. Like, your emotions are not as important as everyone else's. Feeling that your feelings are too big for other people. The relationships in our lives can leave us with many painful feelings. I work with various approaches to help bring clarity and understanding, and heal pain with safety and connection.
I am an Edinburgh-based counsellor, currently working online only, available for clients across the UK. I work with couples and individuals. I welcome diversity, including all body sizes, abilities, races, sexualities, genders, working inclusively with GSDR (gender, sexual and relationship diversity), religions and political values. I have personal experience with Neurodiversity; I welcome, and have experience with, all clients curious, questioning, and diagnosed neurodiverse.
My Training and Approach
I’m trained in working with an integrative approach. I favour working with a trauma-informed approach, using the felt sense and somatic techniques, EFT tapping and regulation tools to help understand and regulate emotions. I may also explore parts of self when that feels right for the client.
What Happens in Sessions
Everyone is different, my approach is to get to know my clients, their history and needs, exploring as we go to get a sense of what works best to connect with and process their emotions.
If it feels right for the client, I will guide clients through reconnection and exploring emotions in the body by bringing felt sense meditations, examples of these can be found on my Facebook and Instagram pages.
I bring self-compassion into the work, with the knowledge that real change comes when we change our relationship with ourself. I do this work at the client's pace, understanding that deep wounds take time to heal and, for some, self-compassion can feel hard to find.
Working with the body and self compassion can create lasting change with many mental health struggles like anxiety, depression, low self-esteem and confidence, anger and recovery from abuse.
What to Expect Next
I'm available through email or phone call. I will offer a free 10-minute phone consultation for you to chat, share and get to know me, to see if I feel like the right therapist for you. If you'd like to proceed, we can discuss times that work for you and then set up an initial session.
Training, qualifications & experience
- COSCA Foundation Certificate in Counselling Skills
- Level SCQF 9 Diploma - COSCA / Relationship Scotland Couple Counselling
- Diploma in EFT Tapping - Centre Of Excellence
I have experience working with couples and individuals. I work with clients with trauma histories, neurodiversity (adult ND or parents of ND children), LGBTQ+ couples and individuals, clients recovering from, or seeking understanding of, domestic abuse in childhood and/or in relationships. I work with clients with CPTSD, anxiety, depression, self-esteem issues, dissociation, attachment issues, and relational issues, as well as other trauma-related issues.
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
Photos & videos
Fees
£50.00 - £65.00
Additional information
- £50 for Individuals
- £65 for Couples
When I work
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Further information
I have a diploma in EFT tapping technique. I will bring this into my work if a client finds it helpful.
My passion is working with the felt sense, nervous system regulation, and vagal toning. Bringing in understanding of how the Vagus Nerve affects our emotional regulation. Connecting interoception, how our brains scan our environment for safety and attunement, and attachment interruption, creating insecure attachment. I connect with how that is felt in the body, increasing the window of tolerance to stay with that emotion. I use inner child work, when appropriate, to connect with and bring healing to past traumas. I find self-compassion models highly effective in working with clients, starting very slowly, meeting a client where they're at, slowly shifting their internal sense of self, and communication with the self.
