My qualifications and trainings include:​

• Masters Degree in Humanistic and Integrative Psychotherapy (BCPC/ Middlesex University)

• Diploma in Transpersonal Couples Counselling and Psychotherapy (CCPE)

• Advanced Diploma in Embodied-Relational Therapy (ERT)

• Somatic Trauma Therapy (Babette Rothschild)

• Group Facilitation Skills (ERT)

• Breathwork Facilitation (Breathing Space)

 

Fees
I charge £80 per 50 minute session. I offer a limited number of reduced rate places for clients experiencing financial hardship. This is something we can discuss and agree together in the initial session. For couple therapy, I charge £125-£95 per 60 minute session.

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The best way to start is to come for an initial session for us both to get a sense of whether I am the right person to help you. If you want to make contact or find out more about my approach before booking a session, I offer a free 20 minute Zoom or telephone call.

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For more information about the different types of therapy I offer see below.

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Relational Body Psychotherapy
This approach takes account of the wholeness of our experience, that we have a mind and a body, and are
fundamentally relational and embodied beings. It involves an in-depth exploration of the unconscious patterns which underlie the difficulties people are experiencing in relationship with themselves and others. Many of our beliefs, reactions and defences were intelligent, adaptive strategies to survive our childhoods as best we could but as adults they become outdated and maladaptive, creating more difficulties than they solve and restricting the full expression of who we are. They mostly operate out of our conscious awareness and so are difficult to get hold. By exploring the patterns that keep turning up in our life situations and relationships, including what shows up in the relationship between the client and therapist, we can identify these defences and learn to meet them with increased awareness, understanding and self-compassion. New, more authentic and nourishing ways of relating to ourselves and others can then evolve.

 

This approach also emphasises working with the body as an invaluable part of the therapeutic process. The body holds our repressed feelings and experiences and can be a more direct, and therefore effective, way of releasing trauma-related stress and blocked emotional energy. Traditional talking therapies can focus exclusively on the emotional and cognitive aspects of clients' lives and leave the somatic experience out of the room. Acknowledging we are bodies and are not just ‘talking heads’ encourages an exploration of body-based experiences. While sessions often involve sitting and talking together, there is an invitation to connect with the body and explore non- verbal channels of communication such as sensations, movement, gestures, breath and images. This way of working can be valuable for anyone who wants to experience more vitality, well being and connectedness with themselves. 

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Relational body psychotherapy tends to take place weekly and is most effective when there is a longer term
commitment over months or years.

 

Somatic Trauma Therapy

My approach to working with trauma is informed by Somatic Trauma Therapy developed by trauma therapist Babette Rothschild, Somatic Experiencing,  and Polyvagal Theory. Recovery from trauma can benefit from a traditional ‘top-down’ approach that involves talking about and understanding traumatic experiences but it is now increasingly understood that it also needs to be combined with working somatically, from the ‘bottom-up’. Somatic Trauma Therapy emphasises the importance of body awareness in the treatment of trauma. Clients are taught to notice the physiological signs that signal they are moving out of their ‘Window of Tolerance’ (the zone in which they can process feelings and deal with stress effectively) into states of fight/flight/freeze which make it impossible to integrate traumatic memories and make use of therapeutic insights. When clients start to talk about traumatic memories in therapy, they often start to feel completely overwhelmed and out of control. Just like when learning to drive a car, this approach supports clients how to ‘use the brakes’ when processing traumatic memories so they know how to stop and avoid the risk of retraumatisation.

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I also work with key concepts drawn from Somatic Experiencing   such as titration and pendulation. What this means in practice is that clients are exposed to small amounts of traumatic stress at a time (titration) by moving between a stressful memory and a positive experience (pendulation) to help discharge emotions or traumatic stress stored in the body. This ensures emotional arousal levels in the nervous system stay at manageable levels and helps clients learn how to stay self-regulated.

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This type of approach to trauma therapy can help people affected by a single traumatic incident (e.g. an accident), post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or developmental complex trauma (e.g childhood abuse). It aims to empower clients to move out of helplessness and overwhelm and restore their sense of safety and resilience. It helps clients stop feeling they are stuck in the past and able to embrace life in the present.

 

Couples Therapy

I provide an opportunity for a couple to explore their problems in a supportive and safe atmosphere that facilitates mutual understanding and the development of their relationship. I find a two-fold approach tends to work best; supporting the couple to explore and understand the underlying dynamics of their relationship which are often being driven by their childhood experiences as well as coaching them to improve their communication skills. These include how to listen empathically to eachother, making requests rather than complaints, and conflict resolution techniques. The former works on a more psychological level and helps couples gain insight and understanding into each others internal worlds, whereas the focus on communication skills works on a behavioural level and helps them change what they say and do.