LOCATION: Church Road, Hove
AVAILABILITY: Monday - Friday, 9am - 8pm
PRICE: £65 per session
SPECIALISMS:
Anxiety, Stress, and Burnout
Trauma
Bereavement & Loss
Neurodiversity
Depression
LGBT issues
Race, Racism, and Culture
Eating Disorders
Addictions and Compulsive Behaviour

Training

Having spent the first part of my career working in and around prisons, and with people returning to the community, I decided in 2017 to re-train as a therapist. I undertook a 5 year training in Integrative Counselling and Psychotherapy with the Minster Centre in London, focusing on contemporary relational approaches, and particularly on depth-oriented work. Since qualifying, I have been working in mental health services in the NHS, and running a small private practice where I tend to do longer-term, more open-ended work. I have a wide range of experience with different presenting issues, and I work with diverse clients of all ages, backgrounds, ethnicities, classes, genders, and sexualities. If you're interested in what I do, and want to discuss working together, or have any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out.

Approach

My training is integrative, which brings together psychodynamic clinical approaches with a humanistic ethos. What this means is that I think deeply about the difficulty you bring in the context of your early life, while also recognising the uniqueness of you and your experiences. I don't believe that any of us can be treated out of a text-book, and that each therapeutic process is necessarily a creative endeavour. I don't claim to know what will happen, but I do have lots of experience in helping you navigate the feelings that arise.

I also know that therapy is only as good as the working relationship we build together, so I prioritise that in the first instance. I pride myself on being genuine and real. I always remind myself that I've sat where you've sat, and I bring a deep respect for my clients, and for the process.

Anxiety, Stress, and Burnout

There are many different types of anxiety, generalised and social being two of the most common, but I work with anxiety in all shapes and forms. Sometimes just having a space to discuss the difficulties you are experiencing is enough to help you feel more contained and grounded, confident and secure. I combine approaches that offer direct and immediate symptom relief, with exploration and understanding root causes, to help you build more resilience, and skills for coping with stress and anxiety in the future.

I also work with specific phobias like emetophobia, agoraphobia, fear of flying, and other more focused anxieties.

Sometimes people come to me with feelings of overwhelm, and finding that their usual ways of coping are not working for them. This might be struggling at work, or difficulty balancing competing responsibilities. I have extensive experience working in these areas, and offer space to slow down, and reflect on what is driving these feelings. I take a supportive approach that both boosts coping skills, and helps you gain insight into the underlying root causes and factors.

Trauma

Trauma can be wide-ranging, but broadly speaking are overwhelming experiences of a distressing nature that significantly compromise your sense of self and security. Sometimes these are single-events, while other times it's a more chronic experience of unsafety and abuse.

It may be difficult to identify a specific trauma, but it can show up in symptoms like chronic nervous system dysregulation, patterns of unstable relationships, excessive people-pleasing or perfectionism, addiction, low self-esteem, harsh self-criticism, and other symptoms. Sometimes it's just a nagging sense of not quite being fully alive, or fully present. A vague sense of something wrong, or missing.

As a fully-trained psychotherapeutic counsellor, I treat a wide range of problems. We start with whatever is troubling you, and develop a clear picture of the problem together, focusing on helping you feel more grounded and steady in yourself. From there we might work in a more exploratory manner, moving at a pace which is safe and manageable, and helping you grieve and heal from the losses you have experienced.

This work tends to be slower than other interventions, but is deeply resourcing, helping you cope with stresses more effectively, and get more joy and fulfilment from your life and relationships.

Bereavement & Loss

Losing a loved one can be one of the most difficult and painful experiences there is, leaving you feeling utterly bewildered and disoriented. It can be hard to talk to friends and family about it, and particularly after the initial period. We live in a very death-phobic culture, and the consequences of this can be very isolating for those who have experienced loss. I am not afraid of meeting you where you are, and holding a space in which you can over time, safely and manageably come to acknowledge the full force of the loss you have experienced.

The space I offer is focused on you to feel whatever it is you are feeling at the moment, without needing to be any kind of way for anyone. I recognise the complexity of grief experience, and that no two experiences of loss are the same, as well as how loss can connect to all other kinds of areas of your life. Together we can honour the depth and significance of your loss, and find a place for it within your life that allows you gradually to find a way to carry on.