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I am available for therapy from 9.30am to 8.30pm Monday to Thursday and on Friday to Sunday by arrangement.

I have a peaceful therapy room on Nelson Street, Southend, SS1 1EH, for face to face work with you.

Although I would love to work with you in person, we can hold therapy sessions over the phone or via video call if that means that therapy becomes accessible for you. I have lengthy experience of providing therapy in these ways and know how successful it can be.

I prefer to set a particular time and day for us to meet, but aim to be flexible in this regard, too, to help you fit therapy into your life as easily as possible. For example, if your pattern of working means you need to meet at different times each week, we can organise that. Sometimes a mixture of video call and face to face sessions might suit you best and we can arrange that, too.

Please contact me so we can talk together about how best to meet your individual needs.

First of all, thank you for taking the time to visit my profile.

I work individually with adults, adolescents and primary school aged children, and with couples and families where relationships are disrupted or difficult.

As it’s never too soon to start therapy if you’re worried about your child, I work with parents and the very youngest children, from birth to reception class age. I can accommodate five people in my spacious room, so we always fit and I have plenty of toys.

I also work with trainee therapists. 

My practice is based on the principle that it's OK to ask for help when you need it. Maybe you’ve found it hard to admit you're struggling or always asked family and friends for support. But sometimes it’s difficult to talk to the people closest to us – sometimes it's just easier to talk to someone outside your usual social circle - and that’s where I come in.

As a psychotherapist, I can offer you a different kind of support precisely because I am not involved and don’t know the people concerned. This helps me to stay calm and detached in a way that allows you to express whatever you need to, however you need to, without fear of causing upset.

My calmness and impartiality help create a safe setting for us to explore the roots of your thoughts, behaviours and feelings. And as we explore these, you will begin to understand where they came from. Once we’ve shed light on them, you are better placed to decide which are useful to you and which you’d like to change. We will work together to improve your sense of self, your emotional wellbeing and your relationships.

My aim is to give you a confidential space for 50 minutes once a week where you are the sole focus. 50 minutes without any other distraction where we reflect on, think through and start to make sense of what’s behind your current struggles. Whenever we meet, you will have the time and space to talk about whatever you want to, without any judgement from me – just empathy, compassion and kindness.

I trained as a psychotherapist at the Tavistock and Portman in London and provide therapy with psychodynamic principles at its heart.

Psychodynamic psychotherapy is a talking therapy which aims to help you explore the unconscious links between your past experiences and current difficulties with a particular focus on your earliest relationships. These relationships are enormously influential and reflecting on them can bring new insights to current problems.

It may seem odd to be asked to talk about your childhood or relationship with your parent/s, but so much of what we learn about how to be and relate to one another stems from that time. Patterns of thinking and behaving that started in early childhood are so deeply rooted that we don’t even notice them, but that’s what we’ll be doing together – thinking about how your early experiences have shaped how you think and feel now. Memories may spring to mind during therapy that you haven’t thought about in ages, and these can give us new understanding of what’s going on for you now in terms of what has brought you to therapy. We so often map old patterns of relating onto new situations and you and I can unpick those together. 

Although therapy often feels most comfortable and natural in person, we can hold sessions via voice or video call if you would prefer that, as I mentioned above. Sometimes speaking from your own home may feel like all you can manage and that is perfectly acceptable.

You may only be seeking a little guidance and start to feel the benefits of therapy after only a few sessions, but you can carry on as long as you wish. Some people regard it as another form of self-care and continue with it regularly. 

Therapists work in different ways and it’s important to find one who suits you, your child or your family.

Before we meet in person, I like to have a free, short phonecall with you where we can explore your reasons for seeking therapy and I can explain my approach to the work we will do together.

After this, the first full session is an opportunity for you to get an experience of what therapy sessions with me will be like. After that 50 minute session, you will have a good sense of whether my approach suits you and whether you find it helpful. It also gives us both the chance to decide whether we would work well together. If we both feel we do and are ready to move forward, we can agree a regular day and time for us to meet.

In work with under fives, the parent would always be part of sessions as the work is shared between parent and baby, toddler or pre-schooler.

With primary school aged children, I prefer to have at least two sessions with the parent or carer to take a full history before holding any sessions with the child. I would expect the child to want their parent/s to be present at sessions the first few times until the child gets to know me and feels comfortable with me.