Therapist

It was a long time ago, why does it still hurt?

For a lot of us, stressful or abusive childhood experiences might be coming up to be healed in therapy and I am very sensitive to how vulnerable that can feel. 

We may feel ashamed that we are 'still going on about it', that we should have dealt with it by now. Or we may feel torn between anger and loyalty, afraid that addressing certain things would mean betraying our family.  

I have dedicated a whole page to how counselling and psychotherapy may help with childhood trauma, which you can access by clicking below

Have you lived abroad for a long time and you're starting to question where home is to you?

There are many reasons for leaving your place of origin or returning to it after a long absence. Some may be practical, others personal. Often it's a combination of both.

As a migrant myself, I know that straddling different cultures can have advantages and be very enriching. But it also may lead us to question our values, our identity and our sense of belonging. At its worst, we may feel displaced and isolated, at odds with ourselves and those around us.

Therapy can be an opportunity to find out what really matters and grow the inner 'roots' we all need to connect meaningfully with the world around us.

Does thinking about your own needs feel selfish or somehow shameful to you? 

Finding a balance between giving and receiving can be difficult, especially when it entails questioning engrained beliefs from childhood.

If your life and/or your work revolve around being of service and supporting others, it is important  to give yourself space to reflect and feel supported too! Therapy can be such a space.

I work with people in the 'helping professions' - social workers, health care professionals, counsellors, psychotherapists, medics, carers and educators - and I am happy to offer concessions to counselling and psychotherapy students and trainees in these fields.

Do you struggle to give yourself permission to play and experiment? 

Creativity is as crucial to our well-being as a healthy diet or exercise. We all have different ways to express it in our lives but a lot of us may have received messages that it's a 'waste of time' or that we are not good enough to bother!  This can have a deep impact on our enjoyment of life and our sense of self-worth.

When working with artists and people who don't dare call themselves such, therapy will often draw on imagination as a key resource in psychological healing. In therapy we can learn to give ourselves permission to express our creativity in a non-judgemental, discovery oriented way. Giving space to this playful curiosity can energise both our inner and outer lives and help us find new solutions to old problems.

Still wondering what you want to be when you grow up? Afraid that if you don't know by now, you're a lost cause? 

While more and more demands are being placed on people to perform in hyper-competitive study and work environments, the rewards for doing so seem to be less and less certain. On top of that, the constant  barrage of social media fuels unrealistic expectations which no 3D human being can live up to. So how can we craft a life that has meaning for us?

Faced with a veritable anxiety epidemic, coping with daily pressures and finding our own direction can be tricky. Therapy can provide a neutral and supportive context to explore these questions and help us develop a more realistic and authentic sense of who we are and can be.