About me
I am a Clinical Psychologist and BABCP Accredited Cognitive Behavioural Psychotherapist with over 20 years’ experience. I worked for many years in NHS community mental health teams and specialist trauma services, and over the last ten years I have built my independent practice around core values of compassion, collaboration, and common humanity.
How I work and what to expect
My approach to therapy is client-centred, warm, honest and empowering. I place great importance on the development of a safe and supportive therapeutic relationship which I believe to be the key to successful therapy. In the first few sessions, we work together to identify your goals for treatment and the most helpful and appropriate way to achieve these. Throughout the therapy, I will work with you to help you develop a better understanding of your difficulties, and to learn strategies and skills you can use to help you improve your current wellbeing and to protect yourself against similar difficulties in the future. During therapy, we will frequently review our progress to make sure things are moving in the right direction, and to discuss anything that you would like to change about the work.
My clinical practice is strongly evidence-based and I draw on a range of therapeutic models according to the particular needs and preferences of each individual person. I often use a cognitive behavioural approach (CBT) in combination with other models including mentalisation-based therapy, compassion-focused therapy, and compassion-focused therapy, and all treatment plans are based on an individual formulation and guided by your needs and preferences.
What sorts of problems can I help with?
I am skilled in the assessment and treatment of a wide range of psychological difficulties. I work mostly with adults, and have a special interest in perinatal and parent-infant psychology and the particular issues faced by prospective, expectant and new parents. I am especially interested in working with new families and supporting people with the transitions into parenthood, but I am very open to hearing from people facing other kinds of difficulties so if you think I may be able to support you, please don't hesitate to get in touch.
How can therapy help?
People come to psychological therapy for many different reasons, and it can be helpful in several different ways. For some people, it's about finding a safe place to explore or make sense of painful feelings and experiences. Other have a specific problem they want to address. You certainly don't have to be in crisis to seek therapy, therapy can be very beneficial when people are just curious about themselves. Whatever your reason for seeking help now, I would like to acknowledge the courage required for you to take this first step.
If you have any questions at all, or are wondering whether therapy might be able to help you, please don't hesitate to get in touch.
Training, qualifications & experience
Key Qualifications
- Doctorate in Clinical Psychology (2007, University of Manchester)
- Postgraduate Diploma in Cognitive and Behavioural Therapies (2009, University of Manchester
- PhD in Experimental Psychopathology (2004, University of Manchester)
- BA Hons 1st Class in Experimental Psychology (2001, University of Oxford)
- Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education (2011, University of Sheffield)
Other Training
I am committed to maintaining and updating my knowledge and skills, and I attend regular professional training events. Examples of some of the recent training I have undertaken are below:
- The Impact of Hormones on Women's Mental Health (2026)
- Working with Death Anxiety (2026)
- Birth Debriefing: The Evidence (2026)
- Developing as a Clinical Supervisor in CFT (2026)
- Silent Wounds: Separation, Anxiety and Cumulative Attachment Trauma (2025)
- Working with Dissociation and the Self (2025)
- Compassion-Focused Therapy after Baby Loss (2025)
- ACT for Perfectionism (2024)
- Working Psychologically with Babies and Families (2024)
- Perinatal OCD: The Role of Psychotherapy (2023)
- The Biology of Love and Connection: How Early Relationships Shape the Brain (2023)
- Introduction to Sensorimotor Psychotherapy (2023)
- Enhancing Embodiment in Trauma Treatment (2023)
- Clinical Applications of Polyvagal Theory (2023)
- Responding to unexpected and traumatic death: cognitive approaches to traumatic grief (2022)
- Compassion-focused therapy for grief (2022)
- ACT for self-esteem (2022)
- CBT for birth trauma and tokophobia (2022)
- Advanced schema therapy for complex PTSD (2022)
- CBT for Menopause (2021)
- Adapting CBT for Online Delivery (2021)
- Mindful parenting in difficult times (2021)
- Working with troublesome mental imagery across disorders (2021)
- Video Interaction Guidance - Accredited Practitioner (2019)
- Compassion-focused therapy for perinatal distress (2017)
- Compassion-focused therapy for shame-based trauma (2016)
Experience
I began my career in clinical psychology in 2004, and have worked in the NHS for over ten years. Most of my experience is in providing a specialist community-based psychological assessment, therapy and consultation service for adults who are experiencing mental health problems. I am skilled in the assessment and treatment of wide range of emotional difficulties, and I have a particular interest in perinatal mental health and wellbeing, and infant mental health. This area is the main focus of my private practice, but my background is in more general adult mental health and I am very open to working with people who are not currently contemplating or navigating fertility and parenthood.
I have a keen interest in clinical research and worked as an academic clinical psychologist at the University of Sheffield (2009-2011) and as a research tutor on the Doctorate in Clinical Psychology programme at the University of Oxford (2016-2022).
I am also an experienced clinical supervisor, and am on the British Psychological Society's register for supervisors of applied psychology practice (RAPPS). I provide supervision to a wide range of psychological practitioners in both NHS and private settings. 
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 BABCP is the lead organisation for Cognitive Behavioural Therapy in the UK. Membership is open to anyone with an interest in the practice, theory or development of CBT. BABCP also provides accreditation for CBT therapists. BABCP accredited members adhere to the Standards of Conduct, Performance and Ethics in the Practice of Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies, and are willing to be scrutinised in this adherence as required.
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.
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
Other areas of counselling I deal with
Perinatal mental health
Parental mental health across the lifespan
Infant mental health
Fertility and infertility
Pregnancy loss perinatal bereavement
Birth trauma
Perimenopause and menopause
Therapies offered
Fees
£130.00 per session
Health Insurance/EAP
Additional information
A 50-minute therapy appointment costs £130-150. There is also the option of a longer 90-minute initial assessment appointment at £200. The initial appointment is particularly important because it provides an opportunity for me to understand what is troubling you, for you to get a feel for what it would be like to work with me, and for us to decide together whether I am the right person to help you. I will always try to help you find an alternative psychological therapist where necessary.
When I work
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Further information
Where I work
I work from a very peaceful therapy clinic at Howbery Park, just outside Wallingford. This welcoming, discrete and confidential setting has easy access and free parking, and is easily accessible by public transport as well.
