Approach

Starting therapy can feel daunting. Sharing private thoughts and feelings, especially if you have been judged or invalidated in your experience can feel scary and challenging. My aim in therapy is for us to build up to sharing and developing an understanding of the authentic you, to provide a validating space for you to just ‘be’, to share what you need to share, in your own time and space. I often describe my work as a canoeing expedition! We work out what our canoe needs to look like, shape our sessions to meet your needs, and ensure safety and boundaries are in place. We start our journey, but you are leading the way and controlling the speed. I might point out a few landmarks as we travel down that river, but it is your choice as to whether we stop and look at them for a while. Sometimes the canoe journey feels meandering, gentle, familiar somehow. Sometimes we might not know where it will lead us. Sometimes we revisit parts of that journey again and again because that feels like what is needed to fully process. Other times it can feel like we have hit the rapids or even hit some rocks, and we can work together to figure that out. The important factor is I am there, in that canoe, not leading, not directing, but noticing, validating, offering up insights to aid and support your journey. No one else’s journey will be exactly the same as yours.

A lot of my work tends to be a mix of psychoeducation and psychotherapy. There is a tremendous amount of pathologised, negative, false, and stereotypical information about neurodivergence, which can add to clients’ trauma and view of themselves. That means sometimes facing into the uncomfortable for us as we understand and become more aware of how shame has mishaped us.

I would describe myself as a holistic psychotherapist, because I believe not one approach fits all, and looking purely at our mind and feelings is too narrow. I trained in person-centred therapy, and this modality forms the basis of my approach. Relational work, somatic, creative (usually around music or artwork), polyvagal studies have all added to the psychotherapeutic approach. Yet for me, it is also imperative to be aware and understand the physiological and the impacts of systemic and social factors as well.