Professional Qualifications & Background

​I’m an integrative psychotherapist, which means I integrate many different ideas and approaches from psychotherapy onto a relational framework. The relational framework in my case is very much rooted in person-centred therapy, and I particularly like to integrate ideas that reference the mind-brain-body connection.

 

In counselling we never stop learning: from our clients, from other therapists, from the literature, training courses and from life. Our personal qualities and our previous lives are intrinsically a part of what sort of therapist we become. I personally particularly love to read about psychotherapy and my book collection is pretty huge! I always offer psychoeducation but also know that it’s important to ‘hold theory lightly’ as noone is 'textbook' and much of therapy is more about experiencing. I have also always loved art and I see life as a profoundly creative experience. Therapy mirrors life in this respect, and I am always looking for ways to bring creativity into the room. Creative approaches engage the right brain, while words engage the left brain (this is a simple way of putting it) and wellbeing grows out of good left-right integration.

 

My earlier ‘lives’ have been in the biological sciences, patient empowerment and motherhood. I see these as part of a continuous thread – I see the patterns of nature that underlie human growth and development as something beautiful to be cherished and nurtured, not dominated or coerced. I care for scientific evidence, but I know that some of the most important human experiences cannot be simplistically measured and invite a different approach for best results. Thinking of life as it really is, with all its messy complexity ... it's about processes, relationships and patterns as much as it is about the material. This, to me, is the essence of the ‘Web of Life’.