My Approach

I work with a wide variety of clients from a diverse range of backgrounds, presenting symptoms and challenges. I see each client as an individual engaged in their own personal struggle with what it means to be human in a particular situation, body, family, culture, sexual and gender identity, society and time.

I am informed by the following theoretical approaches:

ATTACHMENT THEORY

Attachment theory understands the enduring lifelong human need for relationships ‘from cradle to grave’. Our early attachments with our caregivers shape our adult selves, our relationships, and our sense of security in the world.

An attachment informed approach to therapy uses these understandings to create a new attachment environment where these relational knots can begin to be untangled and worked through.

AN UNDERSTANDING OF TRAUMA

Psychological trauma happens when an event, or repeated experiences are so overwhelming that the ability to process them is compromised. It is at the root of human suffering, and its impact can manifest in anxiety, depression, flashbacks, dissociation, PTSD, addiction, disordered eating, anger issues, self harm and suicidality. A trauma informed approach understands the enduring effects that being overwhelmed has on the nervous system, the mind, and the body, particularly when the experience was severe, when it was repeated and especially when it happened in childhood.

Experiences such as not having your emotional needs met, being neglected, rejected, hurt and abused can lead to ways of self-protection that serve to perpetuate suffering.

Processing trauma can be a profound and life changing experience. We may not be able to change how trauma affected our past lives but we can begin to change how it impacts on our present and future.

PSYCHOANALYTIC PERSPECTIVES

Psychoanalytic psychotherapy is a therapeutic process which helps us understand and resolve our difficulties by increasing awareness of our ‘inner world’, our unconscious patterns of relating, laid down early in life, and how these influence our past and current relationships and our sense of ourselves.

A psychoanalytic approach aims to help people to understand and change complex, deep-rooted and often unconsciously based emotional and relationship difficulties and inner conflicts, working through painful experiences to alleviate suffering and bring about deep and lasting change.

Put simply, the more we understand and accept our unconscious patterns and feelings, the less we are likely to be constrained by them, and the greater freedom we can have to make choices and be open to new experiences.

RELATIONAL APPROACH

One of the greatest benefits of therapy can be the positive change in how we relate to the significant people in our lives, and most importantly, how we relate to ourselves.

Research clearly shows that the most important ingredient in a successful psychotherapy, far more influential than the type of therapy, is the quality of the therapeutic relationship. This very much fits with my experience, and I see the therapy relationship itself as the foundation of positive change. To this end I aim to approach each client with honesty, openness, respect, kindness and sensitivity.

I respect and value equality, diversity, and inclusion, and I aim to have an accepting and unbiased attitude in engaging with areas of difference such as race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, class, ability, culture and nationality.