About me
I am a fully qualified psychotherapist educated to MA level and with almost 20 years experience. I offer face-to-face, online, and telephone sessions.
I believe that our deepest yearnings are to be the person we truly are and to form strong, lasting relationships. However, life is hard, and these natural tendencies can become compromised or inhibited through difficult experiences. We can even lose sight of them altogether. When this happens, we often feel profoundly stuck. At worst, we can arrive at a profound sense of estrangement from ourselves and others.
All human life takes place in the context of relationships. As we can lose ourselves through problematic or abusive relationships, we can find ourselves again through more accepting and nurturing ones. It has been my experience that the therapeutic relationship can facilitate lasting change and growth. It does so by offering certain conditions - empathy, acceptance, and genuineness. These are essential to therapy, as it is through them that the client begins to feel safe enough to explore difficult thoughts, feelings and memories that may have been denied or suppressed.
As things currently stand in the UK and elsewhere, clients seeking help from a GP or Psychiatrist for mental health difficulties are likely to be diagnosed with a psychological disorder. I have worked with clients with an array of clinical diagnoses, including Depression, Anxiety Disorder, Borderline Personality Disorder, and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Such terms mean different things to different clients. It is my own view that these labels denote highly complex and practiced ways of relating to the self and others - ways of being that are always, on some level, rooted in the perceived need to defend or protect the self. Thus, when I embark on a relationship with a client, I try to encounter the person, rather than any diagnoses they may have acquired.
Training, qualifications & experience
Qualifications & Professional Membership
- MA (Distinction) in Person-Centred & Experiential Counselling & Psychotherapy - University of Nottingham
- BA (1st Class Honours) in Counselling & Philosophy - Newman University, Birmingham
- Postgrad Cert. in Integrative Counselling - Newman University, Birmingham
- Registered member of the British Association for Counselling & Psychotherapy (MBACP)
Prior to training as a psychotherapist, I worked in therapeutic homes for severely traumatised young people.
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
£60.00 per session
Additional information
- 50-minute individual session (face-to-face or zoom) - £60
- 50-minute couples session (face-to-face or zoom) - £70
Sessions typically take place once a week, or at a higher frequency if needed. Length of therapy differs according to the nature of the difficulties addressed. I offer short, mid, and long-term counselling and psychotherapy. I also offer double (1 hr 40 mins) sessions if needed.
