About me
Feeling stuck, anxious or low, and not quite sure why
You may feel anxious in a way that never quite switches off, or flat in a way you cannot explain to anyone. You may keep ending up in the same arguments, the same jobs, the same dynamics with different people, and be able to see the pattern without being able to step out of it. Or it may be simpler and harder to describe than that: things look fine on paper, and you cannot work out why they do not feel that way.
Many of the people I work with are the capable ones. The ones who hold things together at work and at home, who other people lean on, and who somewhere along the way stopped being asked how they are. Being the person who copes is its own kind of exhausting.
None of it means there is something wrong with you. These patterns made sense once. They were how you learned to cope, usually early, and usually because they helped at the time. What was learned can be understood, and once it is understood, you have a choice you did not have before.
How I work
I am an integrative counsellor, which means I draw on more than one way of working and shape the therapy around you rather than fitting you to a single method. My practice is rooted in Person-Centred Therapy and Transactional Analysis, and I work at relational depth.
A great deal of the work is simply space. Most people have nowhere in their life where they can say what they actually think and feel without managing someone else's reaction. There is nothing you need to achieve here and nobody keeping score. You set the pace, and nothing you bring is too small. If it is weighing on you, it is serious enough.
Alongside that, I pay close attention to the patterns in how we relate to ourselves and to other people, which are often learned early and tend to run the show without us noticing. The voice that says everyone else is managing better. The part of you that says yes when you mean no. The habit of being fine until you are suddenly not. Transactional Analysis gives us a clear and practical language for noticing these, and for finding some choice in them.
I am also attachment-informed, because the ways we learned to connect, to please, to withdraw or to protect ourselves in our earliest relationships tend to repeat in our adult ones, often in ways that catch us off guard.
I bring a calm, grounded presence to sessions that comes in part from my own long-standing meditation practice, and there is no pressure here to be positive or to have it worked out.
What I can help with
- Anxiety, worry and overthinking
- Depression and low mood
- Low self-worth and self-criticism
- Feeling stuck, lost or directionless
- Relationship and family difficulties
- Identity, meaning and life transitions
- Bereavement and loss
- Shame, anger and loneliness
- Work-related stress and burnout
If you are autistic or have ADHD, diagnosed or not, I adapt how I work rather than expecting you to fit the usual shape of therapy. We work out together what actually helps.
A little about me
Before I trained as a counsellor I spent six years as a teacher, four of them in a specialist school. Teaching taught me how to explain difficult things clearly, which I still care about a great deal. I would rather you left a session understanding something about yourself than simply feeling better for a few days.
I came to the UK from Iraqi Kurdistan as a child, and I know something of what it is to feel like an outsider trying to translate yourself in order to belong. I offer counselling in English or Kurdish.
Sessions
I work online across the UK, over Google Meet. Sessions are 50 minutes and usually weekly, at the same time each week.
The fee is £60 per session. I hold four concessionary spaces at £45 for students and people on a low income. Please just ask whether one is available. There is no form and no need to explain your circumstances in detail.
Getting in touch
You do not need a diagnosis, a crisis, or a neat explanation of what is wrong. "I don't feel right and I don't know why" is more than enough to start with. You are welcome to book a free 15 minute call, with no pressure and no obligation, simply to see how it feels to talk.
Training, qualifications & experience
Qualifications
- MA Integrative Counselling, Leeds Beckett University
- PG Dip Philosophy, University of Leeds
- BA (Hons) Philosophy, University of Leeds
- Postgraduate Certificate in Education, Sheffield Hallam University
- Qualified Teacher Status, Gorse SCITT
- Level 3 Certificate in Counselling Skills, Kirklees College
- Level 2 Certificate in Counselling Skills, The Skills Network
- Level 2 Certificate in Understanding Autism, Craven College
Professional membership and standards
I am a Registered Member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (MBACP 420361). I work within the BACP Ethical Framework, hold professional indemnity insurance, attend regular clinical supervision, and hold an Enhanced DBS certificate on the Update Service.
Clinical experience
My clinical training included over 100 supervised counselling hours across two placements. The first was at North Point, part of the Leeds Mental Wellbeing Service, an NHS-linked service where I worked with adults presenting with anxiety, depression, bereavement, relationship difficulties and financial hardship, using CORE-10 outcome measures to track progress. The second was with UKCN, an online counselling service, where I worked with adults on anxiety, identity, relationship difficulties and neurodivergence.
I now work in private practice online across the UK.
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
Fees
£60.00 per session
Additional information
Sessions are £60 for 50 minutes, by bank transfer, card or PayPal. I hold four concessionary spaces at £45 for students and people on a low income. Just ask if one is free. There is no form and no need to explain your circumstances.
Further information
Before counselling
Before training as a counsellor I spent six years as a teacher, four of them in a specialist school for young people with complex needs. That work gave me a grounded understanding of neurodiversity and emotional development, and taught me how to explain difficult things clearly, which still shapes how I work.
