About Me
I completed my 4 year training with the Metanoia Institute, London & Edinburgh Gestalt Institute, and work as a UKCP (United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy) accredited psychotherapeutic counsellor. I have been working in this field for over 9 years and adhere to the code of ethics of the Gestalt Psychotherapy and Training Institute (GPTI), which is a member organisation of UKCP. This includes ongoing supervision of my work and continuing professional development (CPD).
Qualifications:
BA in Psychology
GPTI Diploma in Gestalt Psychotherapy
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Six ideas I value in my work
Awareness
Therapy aims to deepen our capacity to be with ourselves. We begin by approaching our familiar patterns, compulsions and states of feeling & thought with curiosity, hone our senses and slowly learn to be with the parts of ourselves that are in great pain and distress. In doing so we also discover our resources, our softness, our aliveness.
Early Experiences & Attachment
Our attachments at the start of life often create the patterns that define the way we relate to ourselves and others later on. Deprivations, inconsistencies, abuses in this period leave their marks even if their memories have faded from our minds. In therapy, we stay aware of this background, and explore, when it is relevant and alive, how & why we are repeating these earlier patterns.
Creative Adjustment
To make what's unbearable bearable, we adjust. We develop habits of ruminating, find methods of staying in control or staying a victim, we develop love addiction, alcohol, drug, food addiction. We find ways to cope; and often seek therapy when the ways in which we self-protect don't serve us anymore. Our adjustments, however harmful they now seem, are in fact creative feats and contain within them a great deal of energy & wisdom. To reclaim this energy and our power of choice, we begin to acknowledge the good in these adjustments and slowly experiment with new possibilities.
Paradox of Change
The paradox here is that change happens only if we can fully accept and invest in who we are, as we are. Instead of pushing for change, we arrive in the present moment with an intention to allow what is here to teach us what we need to experience deeply, to be able to know ourselves deeply. We don't reach for immediate fixes or strive after goals, which often brings us back to where we have started because our relationship to ourselves hasn't shifted.
Dialogic Relationship
Although aspects of teaching & learning are always involved in therapy, the foundation for gestalt therapy is growth & awareness through relating. This means that a therapist firstly brings themselves to the relationship not as a teacher or corrector, but as an equal, ready to receive the other in all their complexity, with an awareness of how they themselves are part of what emerges in therapy.
Phenomenology
Therapy can be a powerful way to find and express our unique qualities of experience & perception. Exploring these not as concepts such as anger or jealousy, but as black voids in our chests or burning lava at the tip of our fingers, is one of the ways in which we can deepen awareness and connect with our life force. When we describe rather than explain, we slowly begin to learn to be with ourselves. A dialogic relationship as I've described it is only possible & effective if I as therapist don't assume meaning. Instead, we work together to remove all barriers to our own experience.
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What I do
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I offer weekly, regular sessions and work with individuals aged 18+, from all backgrounds. The sessions last 50 minutes.
My fee is £65 per session. I reserve a number of sessions for low-cost counselling for students and people who are out of work.
You can contact me via e-mail and telephone to arrange an initial session, which will be free of charge.
In this session, we will together refine the reasons why you are seeking therapeutic support and your expectations from our time together. We will also get to explore if what I offer meets your expectations and needs.
Who I work with
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In my practice, I have had extensive experience supporting my clients to work through:
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Deprivations experienced in childhood, including physical, emotional or sexual abuse, abandonment, neglect and bullying
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Early or recent traumas
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Self-harm, self-defeating thoughts, suicidal tendencies
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Chronic and acute anxiety, experiences of severe or sudden panic
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Overwhelm
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Experiences of de-personalization or dissociation
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Numbness or feeling cut-off
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Issues related to being an adopted child
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Lack of inspiration or sense of agency
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Grief
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Difficulties coping with loss or separation
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Loss through abortion & miscarriages
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Struggles in making or maintaining relationships
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Loneliness
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Complex feelings and impulses around food & eating
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Difficulty finding nourishment or feeling connected
My practice is situated in central Bath, at Practice Rooms.
My work hours are Monday to Friday from 9 am to 8 pm.
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