My Services

Counselling For Adults

I work with adults with a range of problems that impact day to day life. For example, I work with people who are coming to terms with bereavement and loss, struggling in difficult relationships, experiencing loneliness, dealing with ageing, managing addictions, understanding and expressing anger, managing stress and anxiety, exploring gender, sexuality, and intimate relationships, and those processing experiences of emotional, physical, and sexual abuse.

There are so many reasons why people seek out counselling or psychotherapy. For example, sometimes life throws an unwelcome curve ball, and we can find ourselves reeling from the shock, or struggling to accept and adapt to the unexpected repercussions. Sometimes we’ve lost ourselves or we feel a bit stuck, knowing we want something different but unsure how to make a change. Past experiences of hurt can resurface in the present, causing pain, unhappiness, and discontent. Perhaps we notice patterns in relationships that are causing disharmony or holding us back, and we want to find new ways of being in relationships with others that will bring more joy and contentment. Worries and fears can manifest in anxious feelings, and this can make us retreat, lose sleep, and feel that we’re managing a constant sense of dread, or that we’re on the edge of panic too often.

• Adult counselling sessions are scheduled for 50-60 minutes and cost £55
• Usually sessions take place weekly.

Therapy For Children

Just like adults, children can struggle to deal with a traumatic experience or natural life events, like family issues and bereavement. Learning about friendships and school life are not always enjoyable experiences for children, and worry can be a way that children process these challenges and attempt to cope.

Children show us how they’re feeling through their actions and behaviour. Often difficult, or confusing behaviour is a sign of a child’s emotional distress. Feeling overwhelmed, anxious, angry, having regular melt downs, or being very quiet is often a direct response to what is happening in their lives.

Children can respond well to a playful and creative approach to therapy. I offer a range of creative resources and games to engage children in activities through art and play, as a way to help them open up and to express difficult feelings and experiences. Every child and family are different, so a plan of work will be discussed and agreed before the sessions begin.

• I work with children age 5+
• Sessions with younger children are usually face-to-face.
• Child therapy sessions are scheduled for 50-60 minutes and cost £50.
• Sessions usually take place weekly.

Counselling For Adolescents

Adolescents often experience emotional turmoil as their mind and body develops. An important part of growing up is working out who they are and who they want to become. This can be difficult with so many other pressures to deal with such as peer relationships, schoolwork, and social media. Natural life events like moving home, family issues, and bereavement can be an enormous blow to a young person in the process of adolescence, which can knock them off track. For some young people, world news and climate change can be overwhelming, igniting anxiety and a sense of powerlessness over the future.

Feeling low, anxious, or angry, and finding it difficult to manage and express emotions are often a direct response to what’s happening in their lives. Having someone to talk to outside of their family and friendship networks can be helpful. Having space and time to think about things and finding ways through difficulties that make sense to them builds their confidence and self-esteem.

I have a range of resources and activities suitable for teens and young adults that can aid the counselling process for those young people who find it hard to get started, or who are not so keen to talk.

• Counselling sessions for adolescents are scheduled for 50-60 minutes and costs £55
• Sessions for adolescents can be online or face-to-face.
• Sessions usually take place weekly.

Teachers, School Staff and Safeguarding Leads

Staff in schools are giving out every day. Teachers are under increased pressure to meet targets, to deal with challenging behaviour, to support parents and families, to ensure students achieve academic success, and to look after young people’s emotional well-being.

For safeguarding leads in schools today, holding responsibility for children’s safety is an enormous task involving the need to provide support and guidance to other staff, collaborate with external agencies, ensure that child protection policies and procedures are effectively implemented and reviewed, and be immediately responsive to a range of safeguarding issues on a day-to-day basis.

Counselling can help teachers and safeguarding leads to take a step back from the immediate pressures of their work and have space and time to process the stressful events and situations they’re managing. It can help to have someone to talk to outside of work and family, where confidentiality is ensured and where anything can be discussed without worries that sensitive information could be shared.

Counselling for teachers and safeguarding leads can be effective in managing stress, and ultimately can help to avoid burnout.

Counselling for teachers and safeguarding leads can be scheduled for:

• 1 hour at a cost of £50.
• 1.5 hours at a cost of £75.
• Sessions can be online or face-to-face.
• Some school staff need weekly sessions for a while, others may have a session every few weeks.

Parents and Anyone Looking After a Child

It is a reality that parenting can be a challenging, exhausting, and lonely experience at times. Keeping up with the changes that come with children’s development is tough and it can be hard to make sense of difficult situations and to figure out what to do next.

Many different factors can make family life difficult, and it should not be surprising that a parent, or anyone looking after a child can find themselves struggling, feeling stressed, unhappy and at a loss sometimes.

I offer parenting consultation sessions for people who want to explore any issues related to parenting and family life. For example, to make sense of challenging family or child related situations, gain a fresh perspective, understand what their child is communicating through behaviour and actions, explore ideas for new strategies and approaches in supporting their child through different developmental stages.

• Parent consultation sessions are scheduled for 1.5 hours and cost £80.00
• Sessions can be online or face-to-face.
• Frequency of sessions is different for everyone. Some people need weekly sessions for a while, others may have a session every few weeks.

Clinical Supervision for Counsellors and Therapists

I offer a warm, collaborative, and non-judgemental approach where you can reflect and explore the many different aspects of your work and professional development. I’m a humanistic therapist, and the person-centred approach is central to my work, though I utilise elements from a range of different approaches in response to client need. In my therapy work, I see adult clients, children, and young people. I use creativity in my therapy approach where useful and appropriate.

My supervisory practice is underpinned by the Hawkins and Shohet Model of supervision combined with Developmental and Cyclical Models. I work with supervisees who offer counselling to adults, children, and young people.

My intention is to help you feel safe and comfortable so that you can reflect on your successes and the aspects about your work that, perhaps, you are not so confident about, or feel you need to develop. You can use sessions with me to explore and develop insight about your ideas, reactions, struggles and challenges in your work with clients, as well as considering what is working well and sharing your achievements.

I really enjoy supporting other counsellors and therapists who work with children and young people (CYP) because I know that working with CYP as a counsellor is not easy. Doing bold, brave, and meaningful work with CYP is so rewarding but challenging. Managing the systems around the child, containing risk, maintaining safety, and enabling CYP to trust in our confidentiality agreements so they can begin to open up and tell their stories is demanding work in different ways to working with adults.

If you’d like to have a conversation about working with me, send me an email and we can arrange a time for a call. During a telephone consultation, we can talk about your needs and hopes in supervision. You can tell me about you – your approach – your experience – where you work or the kinds of environments where you see clients. You can talk to me about the type of client issues you work with, and what you need to continue to develop and to be sustained in the work you do. I’ll outline the way that I work. I’ll explain my experience and approach and you can ask me questions. Together we could decide whether it feels like we could be a good fit for each other.

• Fee: £50 per hour.
• I offer online or face-to-face supervision sessions.