About

About Me

I am a qualified psychotherapist with experience in the voluntary mental health sector. I am also a fully qualified Relate counsellor with many years of experience helping couples and individuals with their relationships.

My experience includes working in a range of settings: an assessor and counsellor for individuals and couples in a London Relate centre, in a community-based psychotherapy centre offering long-term individual therapy, and working with parents in local children’s centres offering short term relationship-oriented therapy. I now run a private practice in Upper Norwood.

Previously, I qualified as a body therapist and ran a practice for over 25 years. My experience in bodywork has informed me of the profound connection between the body, the mind, and our emotional wellbeing.

When not working, I consider time well spent tending to chickens and all things horticultural in my garden, or whipping up a creative storm in the kitchen.

How I can help

How I Work

I draw from a number of therapeutic models and theories to which I have been exposed in my extensive training. My particular interest lies in the body/brain connection. When trying to tackle a personal issue, we can get caught up in thoughts that go round and round in a cycle of unproductive contradictions and dead ends. I work with you to break this cycle by engaging with the wealth of information stored in the body that gives depth and meaning to our experience of ourselves.

In recent years I have also been using my knowledge and personal experience of the Internal Family Systems (IFS) model to inform my practice. Here, the mind is viewed as being composed of various subpersonalities that each possess their own particular qualities and perspectives. This view is now being supported by new developments in neuroscience. In my experience it is most useful to understand the confusing (and sometimes distressing) internal contradictions that we all experience.

I work in an interactive manner, being as fully engaged with the process as my clients. Much of what we explore is based in the here and now: the personal expectations and values that shape perceptions and influence choices. Sometimes it is also useful to reflect on past experiences and how they inform current thoughts, feelings and behaviour.

Whether the focus is on the present or past, we draw on the qualities of kindness, open enquiry, curiosity and a dash of humour to foster a greater capacity for self reflection and awareness.

This compassionate approach gradually loosens the grip of internal shame, fear and anxiety, so that barriers can be lowered on even the most challenging issues. For it is only from this non judgmental position that we can begin to have an honest dialogue about the very aspects that cause pain and confusion.