” Each of us has to discover what longs to live through us.”
Jung
I grew up in the Lake District, and read English at Cambridge. I then worked in theatre for a number of years, as a writer and performer.
After this I joined a team within a South London health authority that helped to run projects with ‘hard to reach’ groups, such as sex workers and drug users, to support better health in the community.
At this time I found having my own therapy so helpful and transformational that I decided to train and become a therapist.
In 1996 I began my 3-year training in Integrative Psychosynthesis at the ReVision Centre for Counselling & Psychotherapy in North West London. The approach I have been trained in has been influenced by the soulful, imaginative approach of Carl Jung. It also draws on a classic psychodynamic approach, which emphasises the importance of understanding how we have been shaped by our childhoods.
The humanistic tradition in therapy is also an important aspect of how I work; this enables a focus on what is happening in the here-and-now of each session, and places particular value on the therapist offering an authentic presence, whilst not taking a position of authority over the client.
Since gaining my diploma in 1999, I have worked in private practice, seeing a wide range of clients for both long and short term therapy. I have combined my private practice with working for a number of counselling services.
These have included a secondary school, a bereavement service, and Survivors UK which is a charity supporting male survivors of sexual abuse. I have also worked for many years as a tutor and supervisor on a number of therapy trainings.
I have been an Accredited Member of the British Association of Counsellors and Psychotherapists since 2001. In 2020 I became a Senior Accredited Member and Honorary Fellow of the National Counselling and Psychotherapy Society. I am also a Registered Member of the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapists.
I am an experienced group facilitator, supervisor and therapy trainer, and continue to combine these roles alongside my individual client work.
My book “Helping Male Survivors of Sexual Violation to Recover” was published in 2018. I am also the co-editor and a contributor to ‘”Transformation in Troubled Times.”