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Subject to availability, I offer:

 - online sessions on Tuesdays and Wednesdays

 - face to face and online sessions on Thursdays and Fridays

Online appointment times:

Tuesday 10 - 4.50pm (inclusive)

Wednesday 10 - 4.50pm (inclusive) 

Thursday 11.20 am – 4.50 pm (inclusive)

Friday 10 am – 3.30 pm (inclusive)

Face to face and online appointment times:

Thursday 11.20 am – 6pm (inclusive)

Friday 10 am – 3.30 pm (inclusive)

I may be able to offer some flexibility, depending on my appointment diary at the time of your enquiry.

Background

I am an integrative therapeutic counsellor, with a background in education and the arts. I have worked with a wide range of people - children, teenagers, university students, corporate managers, individuals in addiction recovery, and those in prison and in the wider community.

The common thread running through my work has been a deep commitment to connect with and understand others, while valuing each person’s uniqueness within our shared humanity. When facilitating expressive writing classes with people in addiciton recovery, I realised that accompanying others in their search to understand themselves had become the most meaningful aspect of my work. I recognised the importance of my own self self awareness in this process, and went on to train as a therapist whilst undergoing my own therapy.

Since qualifying, I have worked with private clients, hospital staff at the BRI, and students in both a state school and a private boarding school. I have also taught and supervised trainee therapists on the UWE Certificate and MA programmes. I am now focusing solely on my private practice. 

Integrative Therapy 

As a therapist, I draw upon the theory and practice of Person-Centred, Psychodynamic and Gestalt psychotherapies. Applied sensitively, a combination of these particular modalities can yield powerful results that simultaneously align with and catalyse a person’s individual readiness for healing.
Please see my practice description below for a brief outline of the main features of each approach, and how these might manifest if we work together.

A note on pace

The processes I outline here may sound intense when condensed into a few paragraphs, so I’d like to stress that you would lead the pace of the therapy, and that, whilst I may offer opportunities for self-challenge or creativity, I would never expect you to work in a way which doesn’t feel right for you. The beauty of an integrated approach is that the therapy can be tailored to your unique preferences and needs. 

A Person-Centred Approach forms the bedrock of my practice: I trust that we each have a tendency towards growth, and that  growth can be realised given the right conditions. I offer an authentic, compassionate, accepting space, in which I shall respect your authority on yourself. To aid mutual understanding of your experience, I will reflect back to you all I hear, highlighting any discrepancies that emerge between your learned, assumed identity and your ‘real’ self.

Psychodynamic Therapy honours the impact of the past upon your present. We’ll explore your current difficulties in the context of past events and relationships, and uncover unconscious processes that shape habitual responses. Your experience of me, and our relationship, may at times be the focus of this work.

Gestalt Therapy attends to the here and now, using live, embodied experience to inform and develop awareness. Anything we notice can become the subject of further exploration so that we both 'peel back the layers' and enable space for growth.

Gestalt also embraces creativity: I might invite you to use drawing/writing as a means of expression, or to experiment with posture, words, voice or role play to experience different ways of being. You may choose to arrange small objects (figurines, model animals, stones etc) in a sand tray to symbolise a situation, relationship or dream. Such interventions can deepen therapeutic work, as these methods help you to move beyond the confines of a familiar verbal narrative.

Safety

The therapy will be tailored to suit you. I will consistently monitor the depth of our work, keeping a steady eye on what feels safe and appropriate for you moment by moment.

Transformation

In my fourteen years’ combined experience as therapist, client and university lecturer in the above psychotherapies, I have found this integrative approach to be gentle yet profound in facilitating self-awareness, healing and change. If you choose to work with me then I hope that you may discover the same.

The first, introductory, session is an opportunity for us to meet, and to get a sense of how it might be to work together.

I'll outline some basic practicalities at the start of the session, such as confidentiality, and will ask you some (optional) questions as a means to gather some relevant information.

The rest of the session will be an open space for you to ask any questions you may have, and for you to begin to share some of what has brought you to therapy.

Towards the end of the session, I will check in with you to see how the session has been for you.

If working together feels feasible, and we plan to meet again, I will email you a copy of my privacy statement and an agreement for you to sign before the next session, so that we can feel confident in our mutual understanding of the terms of working together. I can give you a hard copy of the documents if you prefer.

There will be absolutely no pressure for you to continue working with me. I fully respect the importance of finding a therapist with whom you feel comfortable.