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I currently have availability

My face to face work is Monday and Tuesday. For online sessions I can be more flexible. 

My training was mainly person-centred which places the client at the heart of the counselling process. My role is to provide a supportive environment where you can explore your thoughts and feelings without judgment. This method emphasises the client's ability to lead the conversation and find their own solutions, rather than relying on the counsellor as an expert.

Over the years I have developed a more pluralistic approach, and I will now draw on theory and methods that seem appropriate to my work with you, including other approaches such as CBT and psycho-dynamic counselling; neuroscience and mindfulness. However, I will always explain why I might want to use a particular approach and will respect your decision to not want to go with that. 

I will offer time and space for you to think and talk about what is going on for you, without judging or rescuing you. I will listen respectfully and with empathy and my aim is to understand what you are going through as deeply as I can. I can then support you in looking at your life in a different way, feeling happier and maybe making some changes.

I will keep the sessions confidential, which means that I will not talk about our sessions with anybody apart from my supervisor, a qualified counsellor who helps me to do my job well. However, there will be times when I have to break confidentiality, I will explain that in more detail in our first session. 

What happens in the sessions?

A session is normally 50 minutes long and can take place online or face to face. We will usually start the session with a check-in (how are you today?) and set an ‘agenda’ (what do you want to talk about or do?). I often use mindfulness in the sessions, which can be everything from starting with a ‘mindful pause’ to doing a meditation or explaining a technique. Again, it is up to you whether you want to include this in the sessions. I will keep the time and warn you when our session is nearly over. At the end of the session, we will take some time to ‘wrap things up’ and maybe draw some conclusions.

Ending

Counselling is a time-limited activity, it will come to an end at some point. I offer open-ended counselling; there is no set number of sessions. We will talk about this in the first session, and we can negotiate how many sessions you think we’re going to need. We will review how the counselling is going on a regular basis and will decide together when it is a good time to end the sessions. 

If you decide you are interested in working with me, get in touch by sending me an email or using the contact form. I will offer you a free half hour session on-line where we can get to know each other and decide whether we want to work together. We can then arrange a first session, in which I will ask you some questions about yourself and we discuss the contract. The contract includes dates and times of the sessions, limits of confidentiality, charges for the sessions and how we work.

I currently have availability

Where I work:

I have a spacious room at Via Gellia Mill, Bonsall, near Cromford. I also work online, on Teams

My approach is mindfulness-based relational supervision creating a  breathing space for you; a space to reflect, to catch your breath, to work through or to just be. To create a breathing space, I will work to make you feel safe and understood, by offering empathy, boundaries, compassion and clarity. Every breathing space is a unique co-creation between me and the person or group I’m working with. 

I take a mindfulness-based relational approach, which support reciprocal learning and mutual transformation. This approach changes the quality of the supervisor-supervisee relationship and deepens our capacity to learn together. The conditions that support mutual transformational learning in supervision include:

• Creating a psychologically safe container for the work

• Offering opportunities to mindfully pause in the moment to connect to the body, enhance self-awareness and support a deeper reflection.

• My sharing that I may be feeling or sensing something in the field, either somatically or emotionally, and that we might use this information to deepen our inquiry

• Working with silence as a support for clarity of reflection, generative thinking and insight and practising this important skill to strengthen client relationship

• Learning to be comfortable with not knowing as a means to work with what is emerging

• Where relevant and appropriate sharing our personal life experiences with the intention to contribute to the learning

• Inviting mutual vulnerability and honesty and recognising our common humanity

• Using mindful techniques to help regulating dysregulated states that might result from the client work

• Compassion and self-compassion are important concepts in my practice.

I like to organise the individual sessions, loosely based on the cyclical model of supervision: starting with setting an agenda for the session, followed by space for collaboration, investigation. The next phase is the ‘bridge’ in which there is space for consolidation of the learning and the final phase is reviewing the session.

I'm also a tutor on counselling courses from Level 2 to Level 5 and have a particular interest in working with trainees.  

I offer a free half hour Teams session to discuss your requirements, explain my approach to working and we can see if we 'click'.