About Me
I see therapy as a deeply personal and relational experience and so it makes absolute sense for you to get to know your therapist. I wrote this to hopefully give a bit of an understanding into me and how I work.
Background
Who I am and why I do this
Based in Chorlton since 2021, I grew up in Staffordshire. I spent my 20s in Liverpool where I originally opened private practice. Opening mid-pandemic, it was an interesting time to begin my therapy career. I am specialised at both online and in-person working.
Living in a way that’s more aligned with your own understanding and values can be powerful. One way to achieve this is through becoming comfortable with your story so far; accepting where you currently are, and increasing understanding about what is within your power to change. It might be that we work together for a short time, or longer term. Tending to what’s going on in your inner world can change your outer world in surprising ways.
I care about clients and their journey – I trust this process of change can be transformational and rewarding.
Experience
Theoretical background and training experiences
My masters’ degree was from Keele University which involved placements supporting clients at a neurological support centre and a women’s centre. The focus of my masters’ degree research was on the impact of childhood trauma on adult mental health; and considered how to support mental health especially for survivors of difficult experiences.
Experienced working with ‘high performers’ who experience private struggles, and encouraging clients to explore what they want and need from life. Specialisms including working with people experiencing chronic illness, trauma, neurodiversity, as well as isolation and feeling ‘out of place’.
Trained in the person centred approach, I show up authentically, offering acceptance and getting to know all of the different aspects of who you are, maybe parts of you which are usually hidden. I trust and seek to deeply understand where you are, and what you have experienced. I take a trauma informed approach and respond to what is brought in a way that hopefully support in you feeling regulated during and after these sessions. If you talk about symptoms or experiences, I might provide information which I think you may find useful to know about.
I may ask questions about your thoughts, feelings and experiences to assist me in understanding and supporting you during these sessions.
I offer a humanistic and experiential approach to working with clients as I believe this best supports them to find their voice, needs, and self-expression.
Interests and Specialties
What motivates me to do this work with you
I care about fitness and personal development and getting in touch with inner-power. I am particularly interested in how fitness, particularly strength training, can support mental health. Endurance sport generally can be particularly interesting to people who have experienced adversity, in reconnecting with themselves and their needs. Sometimes connecting to emotion, with another person who wants to understand and support, is difficult.
Reconnecting with exercise after experiencing difficulties with eating, the (general) diet and fitness industry, or body dysmorphia is certainly something you could bring to this therapy and is one of my specialised areas.
My interest in the link between fitness and emotional wellness is always through a trauma and disability informed lens, and I put the client’s comfort and safety first.
Another interest of mine is creativity, particularly writing. Writing can be an important part of people’s journey towards self expression and to feeling better. I am interested in how writers write their experiences and how they connect their felt and lived experiences with their work.