Finder

Specialises in

• Counselling

Offers

• Face-to-face consultations
• Video and telephone consultations

About me

I am a BACP registered and NCPS accredited counsellor with 11 years experience and I work with adults.

My approach in counselling is integrative and relational, employing a creative and eclectic blend of theories.

Experience:
I hold a level 4 Diploma in Therapeutic Counselling and I have also trained specifically in supporting people through loss and grief. In addition to my private practice I spent 6 years working as part of a team of counsellors providing a community based counselling service dealing with a wide range of issues. These include depression, anxiety, identity issues, low self-worth, post-traumatic stress, sexual abuse, bereavement, self-harm, suicide, addictions and anger issues.

My Approach:
I believe that the most important relationship we have in life is the one we have with ourselves; it shapes our sense of self and all other relationships. Our early experiences and relationships can impact on how our sense of self develops, how we experience the world and how we attach to others. The way I work acknowledges this and invites you to explore the impact of younger patterns of survival and coping mechanisms and how they serve you in your adult life.

My aim is to enable you over time to feel safe enough to share your emotional distress and express difficult feelings in a space that offers you compassion, a sense of human connection and understanding. Counselling is a step into the unknown and this requires building trust in the therapeutic relationship through compassionate understanding rather than judgment. You may have clear goals and know what needs attention in your life or you may arrive distressed and directionless, either way you are welcome.
I trust in the working therapeutic relationship and its ability to reveal patterns of relating, reaction and response. Together we can observe and explore how it is for you to show up in this relationship and gain a deeper and more conscious understanding of the aspects of yourself that need to heal or change. This can involve noticing what is playing out at a deeper level within your embodied felt sense. Practicing the ability to stay with and tolerate what you find there in terms of inner sensations, feelings, emotions, imagery and thoughts. This can help you recognise those parts of yourself that require your compassionate attention, encouraging the practice of being with yourself in a more whole and mindful way.
Understanding ourselves is key, so I will share various neuroscientific approaches such as polyvagal theory. These can act as lenses through which to view ourselves, giving us awareness of the effects of our young experience or trauma and its impact on our autonomic nervous system. When we have greater awareness of our own unique versions of fight, flight, freeze or connected safety, we are more able to work consciously with our reactivity and defensive patterning.
We can also explore defensive patterning through the lens of parts work. We can nurture a compassionate and supportive relationship with those parts of us that might be stuck in an old way of protecting us. These parts can be historically useful but no longer serve us well in our adult lives. Unburdening these protective parts can make way for freer more creative sense of self.
The emphasis is on a transparent and collaborative enquiry which is not prescriptive and does not overly pathologise your distress. Instead, I welcome and accept you as you are and support you to meet your emotional pain in a way that gradually enables you to witness your emotions and allow them to inform you rather than feel overwhelmed by them.

If you would like to discuss the possibility of working together, please email me to arrange a time for an initial phone call. This will give us the opportunity to look at availability and to ask any questions you may have.