I am a Chartered Clinical Psychologist with 19 years’ experience working with children, adolescents and their families in the NHS, and with adolescents and adults in private practice. I have particularly specialised in working with trauma, but equally work with the whole range of issues that people bring to therapy. I am based in central London but also work online with clients who live in all parts of the world, and am registered with the BPS and with the HCPC.
Often people come to therapy having realised that their ways of coping no longer work or are holding them back in some way; this can manifest in feeling low, anxious, self-critical or caught in repetitive or painful patterns in relationship to themselves or others. Others come following a difficult life event, a loss, transition or breakdown of some kind, that they want to understand and work through with some help. Psychological therapy offers a safe, confidential and non-judgemental space to explore what is going on.
I am trained in a range of approaches and therapeutic techniques (including EMDR, Mentalization-Based Therapy, Cognitive Analytic Therapy and Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy) but the foundations of my practice are psychodynamic and systemic. That is to say that I understand each client as bringing their own unique story that has been shaped by their early life and relational experiences, and by the families, cultures and other systems in which they they have lived. In my work, I attend to the unconscious dimension of the client’s experience and my own; the underlying feelings and ideas that shape how we relate to each other and the expectations we may hold. I use this to enrich and make sense of what each client brings, and to help them develop greater awareness of themselves and insight into what is going on for them.
Therapy is a collaborative process, and in our early sessions we would work towards some joint understanding of what you need and how we might work together. When I work with children and young people, it is essential to work closely with their family members and potentially with school and other systems around them. We would agree a contract of sessions and ensure we can review this together as the work progresses.
In addition, I am qualified organisational consultant and work with groups and organisations to understand and work through challenges, difficult dynamics and opportunities for development. I offer clinical supervision to people in the therapeutic and helping professions, and reflective practice to groups.