I am trained to offer therapeutic support to both children, young people and adults and have experience in working across the life span with children and adults with moderate to severe mental health difficulties which may exist alongside diagnosed or suspected neurodivergent needs such as Autism and ADHD. I am experienced in working with people from a variety of social, cultural and religious backgrounds, and endeavour to create a space where you feel able to talk about your experiences.
Psychotherapy with Children
When working with children I like to use creative materials as well as a talking based approach. As I work systemically, I typically offer parent sessions or sibling sessions if indicated alongside the sessions with the young person. I am keen to use feedback from children, young people and carers in my sessions to ensure we continue to work together well.
Psychotherapy with Adults
I offer individual therapy to adults. You may be looking for a brief intervention or we may meet for a longer period of time. My approach will be flexible based on your needs. I will actively seek your feedback to make sure that together we create a therapeutic relationship where change can be explored and to work towards your hopes/goals.
I draw upon systemic and Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy (EFCT) approaches in my work with couples/relationships. In relationships, communication can become strained, distance may grow, conflict and missunderstandings may become ever present or repetitive. There are many reasons for considering couples therapy; it could be for a specific issue or dilemma or something more broad.
Systemic and EFCT approaches work well together as they involve slowing down and looking beyond conflict itself by exploring patterns, meanings, and understanding around why we form protective behaviours. EFCT closely explores attachment styles and how these my influence responses, particularly when feeling under stress and can facilitate a deepened awareness awareness for each other’s needs. Also see the Frequently Asked Questions section on EFCT.
The sessions will include individual and joint sessions.
Family therapy works with the idea that the difficulties we experience are connected and shaped by our relationships and the contexts in which we exist. For example, in a family system, if someone is hurt or harmed it is very likely it is going to have an effect on other members of the caring system. Each family member in the caring system will respond or seemingly not respond in their own ways, it this may trigger a response in others. Rather than focusing only on individual difficulties, this therapeutic approach explores the wider context in which these experiences have developed, creating space for deeper understanding, slowing down and more a more sustainable change.
For more detailed information please see: https://www.aft.org.uk/page/whatisfamilytherapy
I can work with complex family systems, and families, blended families, families connected through kinship care and families where children have been adopted or fostered.
In my work with families I will use a combination of talking and creative methods. Sometimes I might see the whole family together and at other times see part of the family such as parents or children or siblings.
A short description of this service and how it helps clients.
I offer therapeutic sessions for foster or Kin (Special Guardianship Orders) carers which hold in mind your current experiences of caring for a child you might be have experienced developmental trauma and harm as well as your own attachment style.
These sessions can be talking focused and may also lean on elements of creativity. However you wish for the space to take shape, we will collaborate together.
We start with a free 20 minute call to talk through your questions, your hopes, and to see if we can work well together. After this I will send you an information and consent form, and confirm the date, time of the session.
This is where I will get to know you and understand what has brought you to therapy in more detail.
We will collaborate on a plan for working together. We’ll decide who should attend sessions, how often, explore the duration and history of your challenges, what has or hasn’t helped before, and work out potential approaches for future sessions.
We will meet on an agreed basis; weekly, fortnightly or monthly depending on your needs and mutual availability.
We will work together to create a safe base to explore and understand, challenge and reflect.
We will review our work together regularly, monitor developments an progress seen and agree on and ending.
I offer an initial 20 minute telephone call to talk through your reason for making contact and to see if we may be a good fit to work together. In that call you may wish go ahead and book in an initial session or you can take some time to decide. Either is TOTALLY fine.
If you do decide to go ahead I would usually like to meet 1-3 times to assess and get to understand your challenges in more detail. Within a systemic approach, we consider this assessment period to be part of an intervention.
If I am not able to help, because I do not have availability or if you decide or need a different type of approach I will always do my best to signpost you on to other colleagues or services who might be of interest/more suited to you.
Your child may be struggling and you feel that therapy might make sense. Many children and young people can be open to therapy to see if it may help, while others may not. There could be many reasons for this apprehension such as not knowing what to expect, the stress of coming to meet a unknown person/therapist or to perhaps further avoid the difficulty as it feels too painful. I would be happy to talk this through with you in a phone conversation to understand what might be happening.
During this call, we can think of some creative ways to help your child feel more comfortable about attending or it may be that we have some parent/carer sessions to support you as well or until your child feels able. Within a systemic approach we consider that supporting the system around a young person can also have positive effects on the wellbeing of others to feel more emotionally robust to cope with their child who may be suffering. I would work with the idea of supporting the carers to be able to support their young person. +
Yes! I work with children and adults across the lifespan. Adult children sometimes want to discuss issues they have from their childhood with their parent/carers as feel more able to do so as an adult or they may be at a transition point in their own lives (e.g becoming parents themselves, children moving out) and making connections to their past and or wanting to let go of others. Adult children and their parents may also find a relational approach like family therapy to be helpful in issues around family estrangement. This can be with adult children, their parents/carers or extended family members.
A systemic or family therapy intervention can be a useful approach to come together to make sense of this. Sometimes I see a parents/carers of a family while their adult child meets another systemic psychotherapist so we can stay somewhat connected without breaking confidentiality and the family receives the same therapeutic model for continuity.
Sometimes therapeutic relationships do not work, we may discover we are not a good fit, or a presenting need may need different expertise or therapeutic approach. I would always encourage you to have a chat with me about ending first, even if it is to simply say bye! It may e the therapy is evoking something in your attachment style and it might become a space for reflection about this.
If you decide you would like a different approach I will always do my best to signpost you on to other colleagues or services who might be of interest or use to you.
It is natural to want to check this out. I am trained in safeguarding adults, children and am DBS checked. I am registered with the UK Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP) and the Association of Family Therapy. I have never faced disciplinary actions or concerns. Please feel free to ask me more when we talk
When you want to end the sessions for whatever reasons, I ask that you bring this up with me two sessions before the end of our work. This will allow us to have a fitting and compassionate ending to the process.
Non – Violent Resistance (NVR) is a parenting and systemic therapeutic approach that aims to help families/carers manage violent or self-destructive behaviours in children, including child on parent verbal and physical harm. It emphasises the importance of maintaining a non-violent stance while addressing conflicts and fostering positive relationships.
Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy (EFCT) is a humanistic, evidence-based approach to psychotherapy, drawing from attachment theory to facilitate the creation of secure connection with self and others through its roots in the science of emotions and attachment. EFCT helps clients identify and transform the negative processing and interaction patterns that create distress and impact (romantic/loving) relationships.
I am always happy to discuss more about EFCT in a call and how it can help you.
Please also see https://iceeft.com/what-is-eft/ for more information and research.
What we talk about in sessions is confidential, however there are some circumstances that I may need to share information with other services. Typically this is if there is a a safeguarding concern; that I am worried about your welfare or of your child’s. I would always discuss this with you first.
If I am working with your child, I would not share the content of the sessions due to my confidentiality agreement with them. Your child can of, course share with you if they wish and they might consent for me to share with you as part of a session. We can always talk more about this.
