About me
I am a Chartered Counselling Psychologist (BPS and HCPC accredited) with a lot of clinical experience. My work centres upon the aim of empowering people to create more fulfilling lives. I love what I do.
Given the variety of people and problems I encounter, I work flexibly. Meeting on a weekly basis or less frequently, I offer short term counselling to people experiencing temporary emotional distress such as can be triggered by life upheaval and change, relationship problems, or losses of various kinds. I work longer term with people suffering chronic problems, such as being affected by persistent stress, anxiety, or anger, recurrent bouts of depression, debilitating low self esteem, or repeated relationship problems.
Sometimes people do not know what type of problem they have, only that their life feels wrong, something is missing, they are doing things they shouldn't - or not doing things they should! With time and commitment these harder to name difficulties can also be understood and worked on.
Although I enjoy the flexibility and independence that private practice offers, I worked for many years in NHS settings, including roles as Senior Psychology Practitioner and Specialist MBT Practitioner, offering individual and group psychotherapy to people experiencing complex emotional problems, including personality disorder.
Despite having thousands of hours of clinical experience, I am constantly learning. Each new client comes with a unique challenge that will undoubtedly provide a fresh perspective. I read widely, participate in continuous professional development programmes, and, of course, am sometimes challenged by the problems that my own life - indeed, living - throws up!
My Style of Practice
I specialise in online therapy. I transferred to working online during the Covid 19 pandemic. Although there is an intuitive appeal to working face to face, I have found working online to be a very effective means of practice. Conversations go just as deep and meaningful; analysis and understanding are equally rich. Yet these benefits are in the context of a mode of meeting that can be readily accommodated to one's private life, various commitments, and location.
I prioritise the gradual formation of an honest and open, trusting therapeutic relationship, from where I assist a person in their efforts to really understand what they are experiencing inside, beneath their observable behaviours. My aims are to help my clients to articulate just what it is that they are feeling (which feelings constitute 'bad' or 'awful'; clarify how they are understanding ('interpreting') events; to bring into focus limiting or defensive patterns of relating to, or being with, others, including those closest to them; and to clarify the nature of their relationship to themselves.
It is from this place of fuller understanding that change is then possible: with the confidence and knowledge gained from a supportive and meaningful therapeutic relationship, to be in a position to make choices about, and commitments to, how one lives on a day to day basis or, indeed, the direction of one's life.
My psychological approach to practice is based upon a model that adopts a holistic attitude to people problems, seeing them as emerging from the many contexts of people's lives. These include ongoing close relationships, formative and developmental experiences, social/cultural situation, issues of gender and sexuality, anatomical and neurological endowment, and life phase/stage. The strength of being a psychologist in private practice is that it allows me to hold this broad understanding of the nature of people's 'problems in living,' whilst selecting my interventions to meet the needs of any particular client.
The breadth and length of my training enables me to draw upon differing psychological models to suit the character, problems, and needs of an individual client. This approach contrasts with both a standard counsellor or psychotherapy training wherein the practitioner normally focusses on one main model; also the 'treatment' medical model approach, used in health care settings where patients are offered a single module of therapy (such as counselling or CBT).
Getting Started
I believe that for therapy to be effective you need to feel:
- confident that you can (with time) develop high levels of trust in your therapist
- that your therapist has the ability to understand you at depth
- that your therapist can offer you a type of therapy that makes sense to you.
Booking up an initial consultation session will allow you to judge as to whether or not you feel that I can offer you these things.
Alternatively, feel free to request a short phone call or send me an email if you have any questions or concerns at this stage.
Training, qualifications & experience
I am a British Psychological Society accredited Chartered Psychologist (membership no. 234464 - which you can check at the BPS website). I am also a Health Care Professions Council Practitioner Psychologist (member no. PYL33170 - HCPC website).
My doctoral training was in Counselling Psychology and, amongst other educational elements, involved the gaining of a minimum of 450 hours of supervised, clinical practice whilst using specific models of therapy. (To put this in perspective, a typical counselling training spans two years and requires a minimum of 100-120 hours of clinical practice.) I have accrued thousands of hours of practice since qualifying. I attend continuing professional development training conferences and courses, regularly read relevant literature, continuously aiming to enhance my knowledge and skills for providing the best quality therapy.
I have a lot of experience of working with the three most common and researched models of therapy - humanistic, psychodynamic, and cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). I also have knowledge and experience of delivering other exciting and effective psychological approaches, including mindfulness, mentalization based therapy (MBT), and group therapy. My current interests and learning edge centre upon relational, psychodynamic ways of working and I have great appreciation for the vast knowledge base created by the many clinicians and researchers associated with this school of thought.
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.
British Psychological Society
The HCPC are an independent, UK-wide health regulator. They set standards of professional training, performance and conduct for 16 professions.
They keep a register of health professionals who meet their standards, and they take action if registered health professionals fall below those standards. They were created by a piece of legislation called the Health Professions Order 2001.
Registration means that a health professional meets national standards for their professional training, performance and conduct.
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
Photos & videos
Fees
£45.00 - £55.00
Concessions offered for
Additional information
My standard fee is £55 per session. I offer a concession to people on low income/unemployed. Sessions last up to an hour. If you have looked around at therapy options, you will be aware that accessing therapy can be very expensive. One of my priorities as a practitioner is to make therapy readily accessible and affordable. Working online helps me to achieve this aim.
When I work
I offer sessions mornings and afternoons during weekdays.
Further information
The easiest way to contact me initially is via email (the messaging service on this website). Alternatively, you can also call/text me on my mobile. You will likely need to leave a message as I keep my phone on silent when I am working - let me know your name, number, and convenient times to call you. Please feel free to email/text me any further questions.
