My love for everything mind-related began in the late 1980’s when I first studied child psychology and was fascinated by attachment theory. I knew I needed to learn more about this and so after completing my A ‘levels - one of which was psychology, I began my foundation training in social work. My interest at that time was working in substance misuse community projects and working with children with physical and mental health issues.
A decade later, my formal academic journey began when I went to university to study the philosophy of mind and consciousness, the psychoanalytic tradition, and ethics at honours level.
The 2000’s saw me running small therapeutic groups and offering personal coaching privately and within the local community. During this time, I moved abroad and the ’South Africa Years’ were centred on learning to apply the new skills I had learned in advanced counselling, psychotherapy, hypnotherapy and Reiki. As well as starting a small private practice I worked with individuals and couples in the local community for several NGO projects, often alongside interpreters, and gained an interest with working with family groups. It was at this time that my teaching and assessing training began.
Upon my return to the UK after ten years away, I continued to practise Hypnotherapy and specialised in HypnoBirthing, however there was a need for my skills to be updated and to be recognised by UK standards and so I began the lengthy process of gaining my BABCP accreditation and BACP registration, first by gaining my COSCA certificate and SCOTACS Diploma in CBT and Groupwork & Advanced Clinical Skills. At that time my interest was still working with couples and families especially pre and postnatally, and I gained qualifications in Family Systemic Therapy.
More recently after over 35 years of studying and working in this field, there was a natural progression into teaching and training at course director and senior lecturer level. In relation to clinical work, I became a clinical supervisor and began supervising and mentoring therapists starting out on their own clinical practice. I also began managing and leading teams of other CBT therapists and Clinical Psychologists both clinically and operationally as well as working with the emergency services and government organisations.
To keep my brain working over lockdown, I completed my MSc in CBT specialising in trauma and complex trauma and re addressed my work life balance, with a move away from the fast pace of being and in house employed clinician back into private practice once more, working with private clients, private health insurance companies and EAP's.
More recently as an Accredited CBT Therapist I was able to complete my EMDR training as well as The Rewind Technique for Trauma. As personal and professional development never ends, I’m currently training in Schema Therapy, Narrative Exposure Therapy and Cognitive Processing Therapy this year.
Feel free to contact me if you have any questions about how CBT psychotherapy, clinical supervision or CBT training works. I also offer a free 10 minute initial telephone conversation. This enables us to discuss the reasons you are thinking of having psychotherapy, whether it could be helpful for you and whether I am the right therapist to help.
You can call me on 078 9009 6981 if you would prefer to leave a message or speak to me first. I am happy to discuss any queries or questions you may have prior to arranging an initial appointment.
All enquires are usually answered within 24 hours, and all contact is strictly confidential and uses secure phone and email services.
Please note I do not offer crisis support and all sessions are pre booked. If you are at high risk of harm to yourself (have thoughts, and a plan and means to carry this out) please contact your GP or 111 if out of hours, or The Samaritans on 08457 909090. Alternatively, if you are at immediate risk (have thoughts, a plan, means and intent) please go to A&E or call 999 urgently.