About me

My background and training

I didn’t start my working life as a therapist. Before training in counselling and coaching, I spent nearly 20 years in further and higher education, including almost a decade teaching at university.

That experience still shapes how I work. I’m endlessly curious about how people learn, change and make sense of themselves – and I’m much more interested in helping you understand what works for your brain than telling you how you’re supposed to think, feel or behave.

My own later understanding of being ADHD, autistic, dyslexic and dyspraxic also changed how I understood much of my life. That lived experience informs my work with neurodivergent clients, alongside my professional training – but I won’t assume your neurodivergence looks anything like mine.

I’m a qualified integrative counsellor and a registered member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP). My counselling training is integrative with psychodynamic foundations, which means I draw on different ways of understanding people and relationships rather than trying to fit everyone into one therapeutic model.

I’ve undertaken additional specialist training in LGBTQ+ affirmative counselling, as well as a Diploma in Coaching and Positive Psychology. I’m also currently undertaking further specialist training in therapeutic support for people affected by narcissistic abuse, building on my experience of working with adults who grew up with narcissistic, controlling or emotionally unavailable parents.

I’ve also trained in alcohol-free performance coaching and Alcohol Assessment and Brief Intervention, supporting my work with people who want to understand or change their relationship with alcohol.

My experience includes counselling within an LGBTQ+ mental health charity, alongside my private practice, and I’ve been supporting people to change their relationship with alcohol since 2017.

So yes, I’m properly trained and take my professional responsibilities seriously. But I’m also a human being sitting in a room with another human being – and that’s the bit of therapy I think matters most.

How I work

I’m not a therapist who sits silently and expects you to do all the talking.

I’ll listen carefully, ask questions, tell you what I’m noticing and help you make connections. Sometimes I’ll gently challenge you. Sometimes we’ll laugh. And sometimes neither of us will have a clue where we’re going for a bit – that’s allowed too.

My approach is integrative, which basically means I have different ways of working and we can use what actually helps you. I don’t believe there’s one right way to do therapy, and I’m not interested in squeezing you into a particular model.

Sometimes we’ll look backwards. We might explore your childhood, relationships and experiences that shaped how you see yourself and other people. Understanding where a pattern came from can help us recognise why it keeps showing up now – and decide whether you still need it.

Other times we’ll be much more interested in what the hell do I do about this now?

That’s where my coaching background can be particularly useful. We can move between understanding something and finding practical ways to change it: trying things out, solving problems, working out what you actually want, or finding ways of doing things that work better for your brain.

If you’re neurodivergent, I won’t assume therapy itself has to be neurotypical. You don’t have to sit perfectly still, maintain eye contact, remember what happened last Tuesday on demand, or produce an insightful answer because I’ve asked you an insightful-sounding question.

We can talk, draw things out, map patterns, crack out some clip-boards and paper, or spend half the session trying to untangle the enormous knot that’s currently occupying your head.

You don’t have to be good at therapy.

If your mind goes blank, we’ll work with that. If you don’t know what you want to talk about, we’ll find somewhere to start. If something I’m doing isn’t helping, I want you to tell me.

Therapy with me is collaborative. We’re two people trying to understand what’s happening and work out what might make life better for you.