I am a fully qualified and professionally trained psychotherapist working with individuals and couples.  I am accredited by the UKCP (The UK Council for Psychotherapy) and a member of the BACP (British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy) and abide by their ethical framework for good practice.  I attend regular supervision, in both individual and group settings, and pursue an ongoing programme of continuing professional development.

 

The therapy I practise focuses on certain key aspects of our lives in an attempt to understand what precisely hinders us from being our authentic selves.  

So we might look at how our personality and relational patterns influence how we see ourselves and others.  This means examining past experiences, particularly those early ones with our caregivers, and exploring the dynamics that dominate our interpersonal relations.  We look at the past not merely to stir up old pain, but to understand how the past is playing out in the present, which in turn means we can create new ways of living and relating in the future.

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We focus on feelings and the expression of emotions, and look at the ways we attempt to avoid distressing thoughts and feelings. Recurring patterns and themes emerge over time, and our unconscious life may start to take shape in the form of fantasies, dreams and our increasing ability to express ourselves more spontaneously.

 

Virtually all of the contemporary research points to the strength of the therapeutic alliance as the main factor in determining the success of therapy.  Safety and confidentiality are givens in the client therapist relationship.  However, therapy is not merely a chance to share our thoughts and feelings with another person, or create a new narrative about our lives, or process our painful emotions.  These are all important components of something more profound, which is the active construction of a new way of experiencing ourselves with another person. 

 

To put it simply, all our pain, ultimately, comes from interpersonal difficulties.  What has been lost or broken in relationship can only be recovered and repaired in relationship.  As your therapist, I enter into, and participate in, your relational patterns, so that by experiencing them together, we can understand, update and re-work them.

 

I have worked in organisational settings, such as the Terrence Higgins Trust, CGL (Change, Grow, Live) a substance misuse organisation, Lewes Low Cost Counselling, the Samaritans, and as a group facilitator at the Brighton Women’s Centre.  I now work primarily in private practice, and see a mixture of individuals and couples.  I hold a Masters in Psychotherapy, and a Post-Graduate Diploma in Humanistic Psychotherapy.  I am also a qualified teacher and have a degree in English Literature and Russian.

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