Finder

Specialises in

• Applied Relaxation
• Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR)

• Mindfulness based CBT
• Short Term Psychodynamic Therapy

• Solution Focused Brief Therapy

Offers

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

About me

I have more than 25 years experience of working therapeutically with adults and young people who are in crisis, or struggling with relationships, thoughts, feelings, experiences in their bodies or behaviours.

We start with a detailed and comprehensive assessment where we make, as far as possible, a clear picture of your current situation, get a sense of how this has come about. From there we should be able to work out a viable path towards a better future.

We work together to find an approach that will work best for you.

My initial training was as an Art Psychotherapist. From there I did intensive work in an in-patient adolescent unit - one that tried very hard to keep young people with their families and out of psychiatric hospital wherever possible. From there I lived and worked in a Crisis Centre for adults - we made every effort to surround distress with human relationship and understanding. During this time I undertook a psychoanalytic training. This is one the first western approaches to really try to listen to, and understand, the misery we make for ourselves.

After that I managed a therapeutic community for older adolescents in North London, continuing to learn about how our relationships in groups, families and communities can make a big difference to our understanding of ourselves and the world.

Following moving to Leeds in the early 1990's I have held senior roles in the NHS, voluntary sector and in private practice. I have continued to train and develop understanding of how we construct our experience of our world and each other. The relatively recent development of effective approaches to trauma, such as EMDR, Somatic Experiencing, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy) have been the focus of much of this. All these have in common, our learning to place mindful attention, in a carefully measured way, with the brain and body reactions that trauma sets up in us, and which we may stay "stuck" in for many years, if not helped to notice and change.

I 'm delighted to see a current popularity of mindfulness, and mindfulness based approaches to psychotherapy, having had a mindfulness practice since the early 1980's. These relatively simple methods, may, when judiciously taught and supervised, make a very useful practice for many, as the research increasingly demonstrates.

I divide my time between short term work with individuals, often trauma focussed, longer term work with individuals with either a complex trauma focus or an attachment/relational focus, occasionally with couples.

Clinical supervision with colleagues and trainees is about a third of my practice.

Areas of interest

Anxiety; Stress; Bereavement; Depression; Eating disorders; Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD); Anxiety disorders; Trauma; Major trauma; Medically unexplained symptoms

Specialist interests and expertise in the following physical conditions

• Gastrointestinal disorders
• Musculoskeletal conditions

• Pain management

• Psychophysiological disorders