About Me

I have been a counsellor for a number of years and feel very privileged to be in a position to make connections with people and accompany them on their counselling journey.  I enjoy academia and have been and am to this day dedicated to my studies and reading in Transactional Analysis and other Psychological Theories.  I find it greatly rewarding to use my knowledge and skills to help people like yourself gain better understanding of themselves, and thus to make changes.   

 

I think it is useful to know a little about who choose to talk to about your personal affairs, so here is a bit about me:  

 

My career has been a bit of windy road rather than a straight line in one direction.  I was accepted into university to study psychology, but I could not envisage the end result and subsequently found myself employed as a machine assistant in a magazine mailing warehouse.  I still lacked clarity in what my calling in life might be, and spent a number of years working as a PA for various organisations, including an International Company.  A combination of stress, a crippling anxiety disorder and unhealthy coping strategies in my late 20s gave me the push to turn my hobby into a career, and I enjoyed some blissful years working as a rider and groom in the equestrian industry.  Then along came my first child and I embarked upon my counselling degree.  And this is how I found myself here after years of training - in this wonderful stage of my life, working as professional counsellor and being a mum to two lively (and very lovely) boys! 

 

As most counsellors will tell you, there is much evidence to show that the quality of the therapeutic relationship holds significant importance and influence towards the success of counselling.  This is why I want you to be able to imagine what it might be like to be sat in therapy with me. 

 

There are so many wonderful, but different characters with whom I have made strong connections along the way. I feel very lucky.   This ability to connect to others is what I carry around with me, like something precious wrapped up in my pocket.  And I bring it in my pocket when I am counselling.  People seem to be comfortable talking to me and letting me see who they are.  I want to get to know them, to understand them, to help them … and I think … they feel this.

 

My experience includes work with a charity to provide counselling to those who had suffered sexual and domestic abuse and for a separate organisation supporting problem gamblers and their families.  I have continued to work for one of the organisations, alongside private practice, but I now work with a large variety of different issues and presentations.

 

Psychological theories and psychoeducation are a passion of mine:

• Transactional Analysis

• Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) (insert weblink)

• Gestalt 

• Neuroscience

• Attachment.

 

Transactional Analysis was written to be understood by ‘laymen’ and I may be able to share parts of it with you. These may help you to make sense of how your past has shaped you into who you are today and to possibly aid a greater understanding of others around you.