I came to therapeutic counselling and advocacy work after first working as a social researcher in Sydney and Glasgow, Scotland. In these jobs I consulted with different community groups about their experiences of accessing health care, housing and support services. This work taught me a lot about what people really need from helping relationships – respect, empathy and no judgement, clear and jargon-free communication, and resources that are adapted to different cultures and lifestyles. I loved the interviewing involved, where I got to listen deeply to people and help represent their different experiences and views. My consultative work in the area of gender-based violence and its impacts on children and young people, together with my personal experience of supporting a close friend who was dealing with the aftermath of abuse in both her marriage and childhood, led me to re-train as a Counsellor with the aim of making a bigger difference in people’s real life situations.

Through my roles in domestic abuse advocacy, general counselling, trauma counselling, parent counselling and family therapy, I have extensive experience of supporting women, men, children and young people impacted by violence and abuse, separation and co-parenting, childhood trauma and adversity, loss and change. My clients are from diverse socio-economic, ethnic and cultural backgrounds, spiritual faiths, sexual and gender identities. And I have worked with people in transition to a new sense of self, environment or culture.

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Over the years I have learnt so much from clients and developed my specialist knowledge and training in what heals traumatic stress, what works in parenting and how to strengthen family and couple relationships.

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I work in an integrative way, combining my original training in person-centred and humanistic therapies with other approaches that are relevant to your specific needs. These include attachment theory, family systems theory, emotion focused therapy, narrative therapy, empathic anger management, creative arts, and somatic or body-based approaches to processing difficult experiences, emotional regulation and trauma recovery. As well as working with your thoughts, emotions and beliefs about the world and other people, we may explore your bodily sensations or 'felt sense' of a problem or situation (an approach known as Focusing) or find physical ways to soothe and regulate your nervous system.

You can read more about my therapeutic approach here