About me

Psychotherapy training and experience

I hold an MA and Advanced Diploma in Integrative Psychotherapy and Counselling from the Minster Centre in London, one of the UK’s leading psychotherapy and counselling training institutions. My training has been both extensive and thorough, including multiple approaches to psychotherapy and theoretical frameworks in human psychological development, including the psychoanalytic and psychodynamic, humanistic, existential, transpersonal, relational, attachment, and neuroscience/body-oriented.

I gained nearly five years experience in the NHS providing short term psychotherapy (12 to 24 weeks) in GP surgeries, plus a placement with a London NHS mental health trust. Prior to, and during psychotherapy training, I volunteered providing telephone support to adult survivors of childhood abuse at a national charity, where I was later employed as a supervisor.

I am a registered member of the BACP and abide by its ethical framework. (Read the BACP’s Ethical Framework for the Counselling Professions.)

My background

I grew up in Yorkshire and completed a BA (Hons) in English Literature at the University of Sheffield, where I also gained a PGCE. After teaching English and Drama in secondary education, I fulfilled a life-long dream to train as an actor, and attended the prestigious LAMDA, where I gained a postgraduate diploma. After a few years in the theatre, I decided upon a change of direction and achieved an MSc in Human Resource Management from The London School of Economics before entering a corporate career. In summary, my eclectic educational, training and working life has resulted in a wealth of experience across numerous fields in the corporate, public, arts and charity sectors.

The common thread throughout has been my fascination with what it is to be human, our stories, our relationships, and the meaning we seek in order to make sense of our lives.

Personal Development

My rigorous psychotherapy training programme required each trainee to engage in one-to-one personal psychotherapy throughout the course, which I believe is essential for anybody wanting to offer professional psychotherapy to clients of their own.

I engaged in years of meditation training through one of the Buddhist traditions, which gave me a strong foundation in the practice of mindfulness. I connect with my body and keep fit through yoga and resistance training, and I’ve always loved to dance. Worldwide adventure travel, especially hiking — in beautiful, wild and sometimes challenging environments — has provided me with experiences of awe and wonder that at one time in my life, I never imagined possible.

Engaging in psychotherapy, and other paths of healing, opened the door for me to make such life-affirming discovery.