Counselling and Body psychotherapy
Finding a therapist can be daunting for lots of reasons, particularly if it's your first time coming for therapy. On this page I say a bit about how I work therapeutically and the variety of clients I've worked with over the past 21 years. My hope is that what I say will give you a flavour of the way I work so you can start to get a sense of whether it might resonate with the way you work and what you're looking for in coming to therapy at the moment.
I am registered and accredited with the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) and a senior accredited member of the National Counselling and Psychotherapy Society (NCPS). I practice in accordance with both organisation's ethical framework and code of ethics. On this page you can find out more about the practicalities of coming for therapy.
The therapy relationship. I see the quality of the relationship between the client and the therapist as important as a sound theoretical and experiential training and grounding in different therapeutic approaches. Being receptive to each new client coming for therapy is an art, and is at the heart of the way I work. Each person coming for therapy is unique and therefore the process of working therapeutically with each different person is unique. What I find most important for therapy to be useful and effective is to create between us a respectful and collaborative relationship which supports the therapeutic and healing work to happen. And, of course, it's a confidential space.
Clients. I work with women, men, and those who identify as non-binary, gender fluid, or gender neutral / agender, living through a range of experiences. I count myself as fortunate that people who come to see me tend to be from a multiplicity of cultural backgrounds, varying ages, and working environments (from those who are self-employed, un-employed, retired, training as therapists themselves, bringing up children, between places, working in the public, private and not for profit sectors). In terms of sexual orientation I have worked with clients who see themselves as gay, straight, bi, celibate, queer, and/or unsure.
What clients bring. 'What's therapy for?' is a question I return to again and again, because it can be about very different things for different people at different times. For some, therapy is about meaning-making, for example, after a shocking, or perhaps a long, drawn out bereavement. For others it's figuring out how to rebuild life following ill health or a change in life circumstances, or newly arriving in England. Maybe it's healing the trauma of an abusive past, or living with depression, or seeking more clarity or balance in the midst of stressful lives.
An integrative, relational, body-based approach. I work integratively, which means that I draw upon an integration of quite a few different counselling and psychotherapeutic traditions and approaches. I was originally trained in the Humanistic tradition and have since integrated approaches from the psychodynamic tradition, in particular, theory and practice which includes a live awareness of the body; its gestures, movements as well as paying caring attention to where we might feel more stuck or confused (find out more about body psychotherapy.) The particular body psychotherapy tradition within which I have trained is known as Embodied-Relational therapy. I have also trained as a healer and am fascinated by different energy models and the more energetic, less verbal aspects of this work. I have also trained, and continue my training, in pre and peri natal somatic psychology and am fascinated by how the experience from pre conception, conception, through our gestation and onwards to our experience birth and our early days on planet earth shape us in the present day. Having been a practising Buddhist for 28 years I also draw upon my experience of mindfulness and loving-kindness, the practice of ethics and practising Buddhist/Dharmic teachings regarding the nature of self, body-mind and how to live.
Indoors and out. I offer therapy sessions both indoors and outdoors, given that both are valuable contexts for learning and therapeutic change and are part of my deepening engagement as an ecopsychologist. For some clients being outdoors offers the conditions to be more aware of the immediacy and vibrancy of their aliveness, reflected back through the elements and other people and beings. It can also feel more challenging, given that who or what will be encountered is less known. Working outdoors can take many forms: simply going outside and noticing what changes in the therapy, going for a guided walk or holding a ceremony or ritual in a place which has meaning to a client for a particular reason. You can read a bit more about 'Wild therapy' here.
'Spiritual' accompaniment. Perhaps because I am a practising Buddhist and interested in healing in faith contexts some clients come to see me with an interest in mindfulness and/or spiritual accompaniment, others because of the themes of the books I have authored. I put the world 'spiritual' in inverted commas here, as it can mean such different things to different people - spiritual is a broad church! I've worked with quite a few activist clients, or folk who are socially engaged, and interested in meditation or some form of quietening, in balancing being and doing - perhaps recovering from burnout - knowing when to rest and when to act.
'Meditating with character' meditation mentoring. Since the publication of my first book'Meditating with Character' I have found that clients sometimes want to do one to one work exploring the book's somatic themes. These are concerned - in an experiential way - with our embodying and disembodying tendencies with the aim of feeling more 'at home' in our own skin and in our relationship with others and the wider world. I like to think of 'character structure' - a key aspect of the book - as a celebration of how we have each found our way to being incarnate, and the universality and yet the distinctness of each of us humans roaming the planet.
'Other than mother' and the parenthood decision. Since the publication of my second book 'Other than Mother' I have very much appreciated working with clients in the midst of the parenthood decision - the pros and cons and the possibility and potentiality of conscious conception. I love supporting clients and couples in this decision-making process - whatever they ultimately decide. If they decide to start a family I am glad to support them, given the impact of consciousness and care on the next generation in this intimate area of life. If they decide to remain childfree I am happy to see the unfolding of their creativity rather than procreativity.
The bigger picture. I am increasingly engaged in how the wider social, economic, ecological, and political backdrop and other than human life influence clients and the therapeutic relationship. This interest weaves together my prior academic training as a social scientist, my practical work on sustainable development projects in sub Saharan Africa, my experience to date as a therapist and my facilitation work with activists, engaged Buddhists, those working for social change. I am a member of Climate Psychology Alliance and the UK's Psychotherapists and Counsellors for Social Responsibility (PCSR), and a former member of PCSR's steering group, and editor of PCSR's in house magazine 'Transformations'.
Therapy as a microcosm of this bigger picture. I'm acutely aware that happens in the therapy relationship is a microcosm of this 'bigger picture' discussed in the paragraph above. I'm engaged in how my various identities (educated, middle class, educated, CIS gendered, heterosexual, white with a rich heritage) influence and shape how I relate to another being in the moment. I'm painfully aware at times of my privilege in having the time and resources to even train as a therapist, given that it's a trade which is often still off limits for many potential clients, because of the cost and time involved.