My approach

I love learning, and I love this work, so I'm committed to continually learn to develop my practice. I am a registered and accredited Gestalt counsellor with the BACP. Currently I am undertaking deeper training as an integrative transpersonal psychotherapist with Re-Vision. I've also studied psychosexual work and LGBTQ identities.

Gestalt therapy

Gestalt is a humanistic therapy that looks at you as a whole person. I support you to have an increased awareness of yourself; in the context of your wider life; and through you and I being as real as we can be with each other about what is going on between us (relational therapy).

Awareness

As we talk about whatever is important to you, we pay attention to all the different ways that the hidden parts inside you are trying to communicate – noticing sensations in your body, images that may come to you, what emotions are in you, and what your thoughts are.

I encourage you to be open-minded and be curious about whatever does or doesn’t come up. It’s a way of you expanding your understanding of who you actually are, so you can be more true to yourself. Don’t worry about whether you think you can do this or not. Come as you are, and we will explore whatever comes up. I will be steady beside you.

Wider context

We receive powerful messages about how to be from birth. Sometimes these forces can stifle or disconnect us.

Together, we look at the messages you may have had as a small child, things you would need to learn in order to survive. We'll explore the impact of religious, societal and cultural expectations about how someone of your gender, race, sexuality, class and neurodiversity should be in the world. Sometimes unpicking this together can help with shifting a sense of madness or badness that can sit inside us; and move to locating this 'wrongness' outside of ourselves.

Relational

I work relationally which means I will also bring what is happening between us into the session. I may reflect back something I am experiencing about you and so that we can explore it together.

Therapy is a special space, where there can be more honesty than in the other areas of your life. Here you can learn how others perceive you and what your patterns are in relationships, so that you can be more fully yourself and have more satisfying relationships. We’ll go at your pace. There’s no need for you to be anything other than yourself.

Transpersonal

Re-Vision’s transpersonal approach complements my Gestalt training.

It focuses on exploring our shadows, the things we find unbearable about ourselves that we hide away; and yet these very parts of ourselves bring us great value and depth. Another key theme is a sense that there is an acorn (soul) inside us that wants us connect to it so we can fulfil our full potential connected to the people and the environment.

The transpersonal approach also brings an element of mystery, and encourages us to accept uncertainty. This can be particularly relevant when facing into uncertainties like climate change, political change and mortality.

Transpersonal work can include working with images, body sensations, and creativity and can bring new insights.