About Me
I believe that every individual is unique and important and has the right to be heard and supported when struggling with mental health or general life problems, whether these be long or short-term, so I am passionate about providing a calm, safe, non-judgemental space for you to explore and work through such difficulties, to gain understanding and enable you to find answers and peace of mind or more effective ways to manage your mental health.
In addition to working privately I am a volunteer counsellor for St. Christopher’s and for Bromley Bereavement Service. Prior to life as a counsellor, I worked for a bank, including in training and coaching and working with EAPs (Employee Assistance Programmes) to enhance the well-being of colleagues. I believe this time spent in a pressurised, working environment helps give me insight into how you may be finding work stressful, experiencing performance anxiety or have work-life balance worries and problems.
I also have had my own personal therapy and have experienced how hard it can be to start counselling and begin exploring difficult and painful feelings, which is why I feel it is important that we build a relationship in which you feel safe & supported.
I am a Registered Member of the British Association for Counselling & Psychotherapy (BACP) and I work within their Ethical Framework for Good Practice. I am fully insured and have on-going clinical supervision. I am committed to continuing my professional development and keep up to date with relevant reading and research in order to ensure that I offer the best service to you.
Professional Qualifications
· CPCAB Diploma in Therapeutic Counselling
· CPCAB Certificate in Counselling Studies
· CPCAB Certificate in Counselling Skills
Specialist Training
· St Christopher’s Bereavement Services training
· Working with Anger training
· Intimacy workshop
· Supporting families bereaved by Suicide workshop
· CBT training
· The Link between Medication & Mental Health workshop
How I Work
I am able to offer you professional and confidential counselling in a place you can feel safe to explore your problems. I regard our counselling relationship as very important and it is very different to the type of relationship you experience with friends, family & colleagues. It is based on your experience of your problems and I will not give you advice, judge you or tell you what to do, but instead accept your experiences and feelings for what they are and work together to make sense of them.
Counsellors are trained in various therapeutic models and I work Integratively drawing on different therapeutic approaches, which means that I adapt the way I work to your individual needs. So we may consider not only what’s happening now in your life, but what has happened in the past that may be, often unconsciously, linking to your present difficulties.
This can help you connect to less conscious reasons for how you relate to people or why you feel stuck in your present problems. Or we may work together to highlight and understand the relationship between your thoughts, feelings and behaviours and how you are thinking and acting can sometimes trap you into unhelpful emotional states and behaviours, and how to recognise and challenge unhelpful thoughts to develop new ways of coping.
We may also look at how you see yourself, how you believe you should be and how you feel others see you, and how these feelings impact on your self-worth and the way you relate to yourself and others.
