About me
I tend to be described as warm, calm and thoughtful, and I hope this is how you’ll experience me.
I find I’m able to tune into the feelings and sensations of others without being overwhelmed by those feelings myself, bringing a sense of stability and groundedness.
If you’re familiar with the different approaches to therapy, you may want to know that I’m a humanistic integrative counsellor, and draw particularly on concepts from attachment theory.
And what I really want you to know is that I LOVE my work.
My route into working with bereavement
I felt a pull to work with grief and loss right from the beginning of my counselling training.
I’m often asked whether I find it depressing, and the answer is no, I really don’t. To me it feels like the most natural theme, and the most fundamental of human experiences.
Then, as I began the second stage of my training, I experienced a major and unexpected bereavement myself. I stepped away for two years and, when I returned, I felt even more certain that this was what I wanted to do. My lived experience brought depth to my understanding.
I chose a placement with a national bereavement support charity and one at a local hospice. Working with a huge range of clients showed me, over and over again, the difference that therapeutic support can make.
Now I have my own busy private practice, and each time I meet a new client I feel the privilege of doing this work.
But I don’t work only with bereavement
While I specialise in grief and loss, my qualification is general, and the work often expands out into other areas of life.
My training, qualifications and memberships
My primary qualifications awarded by the CPCAB:
Level 4 Diploma in Integrative Therapeutic Counselling
Level 5 Diploma in Attachment-based Psychotherapy
Other recent training courses have included:
Two-day intensive mindfulness training, PESI, January 2025
Grief and Autism: Cruse Bereavement Support, day training and conference, October 2024
Working with Relational Trauma: Dealing with Disorganised Attachment, training by Carolyn Spring, October 2024
Introduction to grief and hoarding behaviour, training with Cruse Bereavement Support, September 2024
The grieving brain: the surprising science of how we learn from love and loss, by Mary Frances O’Connor, March 2024
Working with bereavement involving drug and alcohol misuse, Cruse Bereavement Support day training, May 2023
Prior to training as a counsellor I also spent a year as a Samaritans volunteer.
Professional membership
I’m a registered member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) and work within its ethical framework. You’ll find me on their therapists directory.