How I Work
How I Work
My approach is Humanistic Integrative, relational and trauma-informed. Fundamentally, I believe that you are the expert in your own life. I'm not here to tell you how you should feel, what you should do or who you should become. Instead, I'll work alongside you.
We can be curious together about your experiences, relationships and the patterns that may have developed throughout your life. I bring warmth, compassion and curiosity to my work, but counselling with me isn't about agreeing with everything you say. When it feels useful and our relationship allows it, I may gently challenge you, invite you to look at something differently or help you notice patterns that can be difficult to see from the inside.
I believe the relationship between counsellor and client matters enormously. Therapy should be a place where you can gradually feel able to bring the parts of yourself that perhaps don't always have somewhere else to go. That also means being able to talk about what happens between us. I try to practise non-defensively. If I've misunderstood you, got something wrong or something has happened between us that feels important, there should be room to talk about that too.
I don't believe our difficulties exist separately from the world around us. Our relationships, families, communities, workplaces, institutions and wider society can all influence how we understand ourselves and what possibilities are available to us. Questions of power and control can therefore be important in therapy – within relationships, families, workplaces and institutions, as well as within the therapeutic relationship itself.
I won't assume that every difficulty you experience originates somewhere inside you. Sometimes understanding our experiences also means looking at the circumstances in which they happened.
Equity, diversity, inclusion and intersectionality are central to how I work. Our experiences of sex, gender, race, culture, sexual orientation, disability, neurodiversity, class, age and other aspects of identity can intersect and shape how we experience ourselves and how the world responds to us.
I do not claim to be 'culturally competent', I don't believe anyone can be, but I am culturally responsive. I aim to offer a relationship where we can explore what matters to you openly, respectfully and with curiosity.
I have particular professional experience around trauma, abuse, violence against women and girls, women's safety and safeguarding.
You may be living with the impact of something that happened recently, or experiences from childhood or earlier adulthood that continue to influence how you feel about yourself, your relationships, your body or the world around you. You may know that what happened to you was abuse or violence. Or you may feel uncertain about how to describe your experiences. You don't have to use a particular label. And you won't be expected to talk about what happened before you're ready.