Why did I train to be a counsellor?
Following many years in paid and voluntary roles helping people to feel better about themselves, and more connected with their community and the natural world, I trained to be a counsellor. During my own experience of counselling I learnt how to be kind to myself, and how I want to live my life. I hope to offer the same opportunity to others.
How do I work?
Building a safe and genuine therapeutic relationship between myself and my clients is at the heart my approach, but it is not always enough to help people feel better. So in addition I offer, in collaboration with you, a range of theories and interventions tailored to your unique needs. I am particularly interested in compassion, living a meaningful life and the role of psychoeducation.
What experience and training do I have?
Many of my clients choose me because of the skills and experience I have developed over my professional life. I’m a counsellor and a manager at a charity offering counselling to adults who have experienced sexual abuse. I’ve volunteered as a bereavement supporter at Cruse and I’m trained by SANDS to support parents who have experienced a baby death during pregnancy or after birth. I’ve been educating, empowering and counselling adults during pregnancy, birth and early parenthood for over 12 years.
Whilst I bring significant experience in these areas of work, I work with a wide range of issues. Anxiety, low mood, poor self esteem, complex relationships, difficult decisions and loss are very familiar to many of my current clients.
Read about my wider professional development and training here.
Trauma informed counselling
I am a trauma informed counsellor with an interest in how the mind and body remember trauma. If you have experienced trauma, and wish to address this in counselling, we will take a paced approach to the work, starting with understanding what helps you to feel safe and stable. This is very important to avoid retraumatisation. There is never an expectation that you will talk about what happened to you, but once you feel safe enough, this may be something that you want to do. Some clients prefer to focus on how the trauma is impacting their lives now, this might involve exploring triggers and understanding the brain’s response to trauma, or finding ways of living meaningfully with the legacy of trauma.
Allyship and education
I am invested in being an ally to marginalised communities and am passionate about educating myself. My intention is to be anti-racist and anti-disriminatory, and you can see this reflected in my training and on my Facebook page. I will make reasonable adjustments to all clients with protected characteristics.
Other important information about counselling
Confidentiality is essential to the therapeutic relationship and I ensure this through General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) compliant processing of your information.
I am accredited by the National Counselling and Psychotherapy Society, and work to their strict ethical standards and policies.
Perinatal
I’ve had over a decade of experience working with adults (men, women, LGBT+ and solo parents) as they navigate pregnancy, birth and early parenthood. I know a lot about the challenges of getting pregnant, giving birth, feeding babies, adapting to new roles, grieving past lives, and struggling with the reality of providing 24/7 care. I have been trained by SANDS to counsel parents (including dad’s & non-birthing mums), and family members, who have experienced the devastation of a baby dying during pregnancy or after birth. I’ve worked for NCT (the UK’s largest parenting charity) as an antenatal teacher, breastfeeding counsellor, trainer, supervisor, baby massage teacher and crisis supporter. I’ve worked for the NHS as an antenatal teacher and peer supporter, and worked in family centres run by local authorities. I am also a volunteer doula for vulnerable families.
Have a read of my Counselling Directory article on birth trauma.
Grief and bereavement
As a bereavement volunteer at Cruse. I experienced how each person’s grief journey is complex, unique and lifelong. Using grief theory, and a strengths-based approach, I offered clients the opportunity to explore how life can be lived whilst grieving.
Sexual abuse
I offer counselling to survivors of sexual abuse at a local charity. Clients may have lived for many years in silence and counselling offers an opportunity to be heard and to experience a safe relationship with the counsellor. Some clients want to talk about the abuse itself, others will focus on how it has affected their lives, and how they want to move on from the physical and emotional hurt they have experienced. I use Janina Fisher’s model of working with trauma, but draw widely from the trauma informed research to ensure the work is sensitive, paced and reparative. A very popular pyschoeducation tool that I often use early in trauma work is the window of tolerance.
