About me
I am an experienced counsellor and offer a warm, safe and supportive therapeutic space where we can explore concerns at your own pace. Together we can create some space in your life for you to value yourself and gain some understanding, to facilitate clarity and foster meaningful transformation. Some people contact me wanting to work with a specific issue, whereas others come to counselling wanting space to review where they are and bring some balance back into their life. I can help you to be curious and reflective, allowing you to make sense of your situation, gain clarity and live with more ease and connection with yourself and others.
My therapy room is in a peaceful location, 10 minutes from Bumpers Farm roundabout in Chippenham and 15 minutes from Chipping Sodbury, South Gloucestershire.
As an integrative therapist, I am able to draw on a range of approaches including IFS (Internal Family Systems), Person Centred, Gestalt, Psychodynamic and creativity. I am interested in meditation, mindfulness and compassion and like to work somatically with the whole person, which includes the connection between the mind and the body – as trauma, anxiety and stress can manifest itself physically in the body and nervous system.
A period of difficulty (although sometimes painful), can be an opportunity to give yourself the time and space to discover more about you. Patterns and adaptions, that helped you to fit into your families, workplaces and social relationships, may not be serving you in your life now and can become exhausting to your emotional wellbeing, physical wellbeing and mental health. Internal Family Systems therapy offers a powerful, yet gentle and compassionate way to turn towards these patterns. You may have beliefs about yourself that are limiting and weigh heavy in you. This isn't about fixing yourself, it's about building a more compassionate relationship with the parts of you that try to protect, manage or make sense of what you've lived through.
I have experience working with a diverse range of difficulties, such as: depression and stress; anxiety and panic attacks; domestic abuse; sexual abuse; bereavement and other life losses; addiction; difficulty adjusting to life changes; feeling overwhelmed and not knowing why; living according to the expectation of others; low self-esteem, negative thoughts and self judgement; self-harm and suicide; past or present relationship and family difficulties; trauma and attachment trauma; chronic pain; chronic illness; getting caught up in overthinking and not being able to switch off your brain
I help people through bereavement and we all experience loss in our life, but loss is not only experienced when someone has died. We can be impacted by divorce or loss of a partnership, loss of health, loss of a sense of who we are or a loss of direction in life, redundancy and retirement, a sense of loss when children leave home and many more. It may feel like the ground beneath you has opened up and you are separated from life as usual. It may be a place of uncertainty between what is no longer and what is yet to come. It is important to take time to grieve these losses and this space can be a fertile void.
As part of my training, I have had counselling myself and know how challenging it can be to cross the threshold, put trust in someone else and to allow all of yourself to show up. It can take courage to be curious.
‘Healing may not be so much about getting better, as about letting go of everything that isn’t you – all of the expectations, all of the beliefs – and becoming who you are’ – Rachel Naomi Remen
Training, qualifications & experience
My background is teaching music and education, including working with children with additional needs.
I have experience in bereavement counselling and provided one to one counselling at Longfield Hospice for adults who have been bereaved by the death of parents, partners, siblings and children. My clients also included those with a life-limiting illness and carers of people who have Parkinson's, Dementia and cancer.
I have worked with Southside Family Project, a family support charity, where many of my clients experienced domestic abuse, emotional trauma, depression, anxiety, low self-worth and relationship difficulties. Here I developed an interest in how emotional trauma can affect the body, which may lead to chronic illness and depression - the legacy of which is just starting to be recognised.
I respect diversity in our community and am climate aware.
I have an interest in developing my work with chronic pain and chronic illness and those who have experienced trauma and childhood trauma.
Professional Qualifications
- Diploma in Counselling (Level 6), University of the West of England (UWE)
- IFS (Internal Family Systems) trained therapist with the IFS Institute (Level 1)
- Essential Elements of Counselling Young People, University of the West of England (UWE)
- Certificate in Counselling, University of the West of England (UWE)
- MBACP (Accred) - I am an accredited member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy
- Internal Family Systems IFIO (Couples Therapy) - 6 month couples training with the IFS Institute with Toni Herbine Blank and John Palmer
- Internal Family Systems for Trauma, Anxiety, Depression and Addiction with Dr Richard Schwartz and Dr Frank Anderson
- Integrative Trauma Treatment blending IFS, Sensorimotor, Mindfulness and Psychoeducation with Janina Fisher
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
My regular fee is £60 per hour
I understand that finding a therapist that feels right for you is very important and as such I offer a free 30 minute initial session where we can meet to discuss what led you to contact me and how we might work together.
I am fully insured and an accredited member of the BACP (British Association of Counsellors and Psychotherapists). I abide by their ethical framework and values and undertake supervision and professional development regularly.
