An Opportunity
You are here, and that means that you are already stepping into a fertile environment for clarity, psychological healing and change.
Welcome
Counselling and Psychotherapy provides an opportunity for you to be reflective in an atmosphere of warmth, compassion and understanding: a confidential space where the focus is upon you, your dilemma, distress, or whatever it is that is impacting your life right now; a space to explore your triggers and motives, hopes, dreams and desires; a way to connect with what really matters to you so that you can go forward.
The Covid pandemic has changed the way counselling, psychotherapy and change-work are practiced and experienced. I want to say there have been some real benefits to working online so don't be put off. Exploration at depth still takes place, in the comfort of your own space, without the challenge of getting to and from appointments, travel time and the expense of parking. We have also found that some clients feel less of the intensity and pressure that being 'in the room' can create. Above all else the work is still confidential, boundaried and effective.
Please note ALL all sessions are online via Zoom or FaceTime. I can also work with you via your insurance companies: Vitality, Aviva, Aetna, WPA, Bupa and AXA.
Here is a very useful article on what therapy is and how it may help you: Click here to read:
& some patterns of behaviour create.
Be treated as a whole person rather than as a cluster
of symptoms or problems.
Take a journey that can lead to
greater understanding, clarity & self-awareness.
Understand yourself as part of wider family, social and political
contexts that influence your own being in the world.
Create a space in your life to make changes
with confidence & support.
What kind of practitioner am I?
Bringing together my training as a counsellor and psychotherapist, experience as a personal development trainer & life-coach, and prior background in philosophy, I offer a kind of one-to-one personal consultancy, exploring dilemmas and challenges that you may experiencing. My approach is informed by philosophical and therapeutic concepts that prize your autonomy; have faith in your capacity for change; place value on the experience that you have being you at any given moment. My core training is Person-centred counselling originating from the work of psychologist Carl Rogers, however, I am also informed by Cognitive Behavioural, Gestalt and Psychodynamic practice and theories.
As a vocation, my approach is also representative of how I live my life - prizing openness, curiosity, and hospitality. Whilst first steps can feel daunting, I do believe that you have the capacity to dig deep, explore and investigate, and that all of us need a little help sometimes.
It just needs to be awakened, brought to life. Intimate talk brings it to life."
- Zen Master John Daido Loori
Experience
I am a BACP registered, accredited counsellor and psychotherapist with over 12years experience in aiding people through the struggles that life throws up for all of us. I have worked in NHS, University and private practice settings. I am also currently part of the staff counselling service at Anglia Ruskin University and a tutor at The Institute of Continuing Education at Cambridge University. Here are some examples of issues I work with:
(inc romantic, friendship, family, work-related)
decision making & life choices
anxiety, panic & stress
divorce and separation
depression
bereavement & loss
gender and sexuality
self-esteem & issues of confidence
trauma
abuse - present & historical
health & illness
My work is open to anyone over the age of 18years who is struggling with life at the moment. I can also work with clients via their employer insurance companies: Vitality, Aviva, Aetna, Bupa, WPA, and AXA.
*What experience are you having in your body
that stops you from living as fully as you would like to?
*What is happening in your relating with others
that isn’t as rewarding as you would like it to be?
*What are your hopes, aspirations, dreams and desires?
How many sessions will you need?
The number of sessions is entirely in your power. Sometimes one session is enough to ignite something for you. For counselling some clients find that 6-12 sessions are enough to address their concern and find a way through. Others find longer term work is of help to identify and address more ingrained issues and habits that seem to impede their life somehow. There are other clients that see this work as a personal development consultancy and use the work as part of their own self-care and development long-term and we can find ourselves working together for many years. I tend to work in an open-ended manner and do not fix you to a time-frame so that you can be flexible and get what you need, when you need it.
I am always open to discussion about tailor-made longer sessions if this is something that you are interested in, and fees will be adjusted accordingly.
However you choose to work with me know that you are undertaking a serious commitment to yourself and your life.
Coaching
Coaching is a very 'here and now' approach to change work to look at what it is you want and what is stopping you. You want something; you want to be somewhere; you want to feel something particular about your life - it's focus and achievement; you want to understand how you may get there. Working in the here and now, with goals and structure is a valuable way of engaging in what matters to you. Often during this engagement something a little deeper may reveal itself and my experience in the therapeutic field, means that I am aptly qualified and experienced, to deal with such matters and support you through them should they arise. If you are wanting just coaching for a specific issue or task, the format is the same: fifty minute sessions or bespoke sessions if you prefer. Click here for costs
Couples Counselling
Couples therapy can provide invaluable insight into the workings of your relationship, whether familial, friendship, romantic, marriage, heterosexual or same sex. How we relate to one another has a profound impact on our wellbeing and function in the world and choosing the option to look at it more deeply is a courageous step. Couples come to counselling for all kinds of reasons and do not have to wait until crisis point of staying or leaving is reached. Couples counselling is offered to any couple wishing to take a deep look at their relationship and its workings.
Whilst the past necessarily influences the present, my approach with couples is to work in the here and now and explore the intricate dynamic between you such as - what habits of relating do you have individually and together? What patterns have you fallen into? What matters to you most? How do you hear one another? Where are you not hearing? What do you want from each other? What are you experiencing in your body as you relate to each other? These are all possible questions that may be implicit if you choose to embark upon couples counselling, and I look forward to exploring with you whatever seems difficult in your relationship right now.
Supervision & Reflective Practice in Cambridge
I offer clinical supervision to counsellors and psychotherapists, and also to anyone, in any profession wishing to engage in a supervisory reflective practice. I have worked with counsellors and therapists from many sectors and also GPs, teachers, occupational health therapists and speech therapists in a supervisory capacity. Click here for more details.
About Me...
Experience
I began my early career in the NHS as a Personal Development Trainer, followed by starting my own company in training and marketing. After a career break to establish my family and undertake academic study and research, I worked as an independent Philosophical Counsellor and Life Coach and this work still underpins my practice as a counsellor and psychotherapist. As a Counsellor I have worked with clients in an NHS GP Medical setting and established a substantial private practice in Shrewsbury before relocating to Cambridge in 2015. I have worked with insurance companies to support clients referred from EAP schemes and Occupational Health departments. I am also part of counselling & wellbeing team for staff at Anglia Ruskin University.
As a counselling lecturer, I have taught counselling/therapy to qualified practitioner and degree level, and have delivered CPD workshops in Philosophy for Therapists and Trainees. I currently teach at Cambridge University's Institute of Continuing Education and teach on a variety of courses that run at Madingley Hall.
I am also a writer and have published reviews and articles in Self & Society (journal for humanistic psychology), The Journal for Existential Analysis (SEA), the journal for Person-Centered Experiential Psychotherapies (PCEP), and I have recently co-written and co-edited with Manu Bazzano, a collection of essays about philosophy and therapy - Therapy and the Counter-Tradition: The Edge of Philosophy (2016) and contributed in Re-visioning Person-Centred Therapy: Theory and Practice of a Radical Paradigm (2018). My new book Fifty Minutes was published May 2020.
Professional Affiliations
MBACP (Accred) accredited member
BACP Register accredited by Professional Standards for Health & Social Care
Associate Member of Adlerian Society UK and Institute for Individual Psychology (ASIIP)
Member Association Humanistic Psychology
Qualifications
Post Graduate Diploma in Supervision: Cambridge Supervision Training (ASIIP accredited);
Certificate in Supervision: (ASIIP accredited);
Certificate Cognitive Hypnotherapy (BPS approved)
Couples Training: The Relational Academy, Cambridge;
Post Graduate Diploma in Clinical Counselling (BACP accredited);
Diploma CBT (Oxford College);
MA Humanities: Literature
BA (Hons) in English & Philosophy;
Certificate Training & Development - Institute of Training & Development UK
As part of on-going commitment to my work I also engage in a minimum of 30 hours continued professional development training per year covering such issues as sexual diversity and identity; ethics; coaching the unconscious mind; trauma work; writing for therapy; motivational interviewing.
