Therapists
Alongside my private practice, I work in the NHS and have many years' experience providing psychotherapy to both individuals and groups. Before training as a psychotherapist, I spent almost twenty years working therapeutically with adolescents in care and education settings. My approach is psychodynamic. Rather than focusing solely on symptoms, I am interested in understanding the emotional and relational patterns that sit beneath them. Therapy offers a confidential space where we can think together about your experiences, difficulties, and relationships, and explore how they may connect to one another. People seek therapy for many different reasons, including anxiety, depression, relationship difficulties, questions of identity, emotional distress, addiction, or a general sense that life is not unfolding in the way they would like. Whatever brings you, we can begin there.
Individual Psychotherapy: The ways we relate to ourselves and other people do not appear out of nowhere. They develop over time through our relationships, experiences, and, the environments and societies in which we grow up. Many of these patterns are helpful. Others can leave us feeling stuck, disconnected, anxious, self-critical, or repeating the same difficulties despite our best efforts to change. In psychotherapy we create space to think together about these patterns and what lies beneath them. There is no set agenda. We begin with whatever feels important to you and pay attention to the thoughts, feelings, memories, and experiences that emerge, including what happens within the therapy itself. Over time this can help you develop a clearer understanding of yourself, your relationships, and the difficulties you face, opening up possibilities for lasting change. Sessions are once weekly in the same place for 50 minutes. I offer a free initial 30 minute session so we can think about what you may need and whether I am best suited to help you. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out. Group Psychotherapy: Group psychotherapy brings together a small number of people who may be facing very different difficulties but often discover shared experiences and concerns. Many people are understandably unsure about speaking openly in a group at first. Yet members frequently find that hearing other perspectives, recognising themselves in others' experiences, and feeling understood by the group can be powerful and relieving. The group becomes a place where patterns of relating can be noticed as they happen rather than simply talked about afterwards. Together we can think about what is unfolding within the group and what it might reveal about life beyond it. Groups meet once or twice weekly for 90 minutes and usually include up to eight members.
Prior to training as a therapist, I spent almost 20 years' working therapeutically with adolescents, both in care and education settings; most of this within Therapeutic Community settings. My interest in how people developed and how they could work together to bring about positive changes in their lives, lead me to train in a form of psychotherapy that recognised this potential within all of us to heal and support one another.