Counselling and
stress management
in Southampton
About
Helping you find your way
I've been intrigued by the human condition for as long as I can remember. My interest in what makes us tick led to a psychology degree and I still find myself regularly applying what I learned from this valuable experience. For the next 14 years, I found that counselling skills, developed while training to be a careers adviser, were crucial in helping people work through career-related confusion. I chose to build on this by becoming a holistic and creative Gestalt counsellor and have been in supervised practice since 2011.
I see adults and employee assistance programme referrals for therapy at my home in Southampton and have also worked as a university student and staff counsellor. I work part-time as a careers adviser at Solent University, where I've championed a user-friendly way to assess the benefits of careers guidance and researched a holistic career development model.
Creative training for therapists
I run What's in the driving seat? workshops for trainee and qualified counsellors and other helping professionals. This combines the five element model from Taoism / Traditional Chinese Medicine (Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water) with contemporary therapeutic ideas into a creative and accessible approach for exploring issues, feelings, needs, strengths and other factors.
Goodwill Guidance
I call my practice this to recognise the moments of healing goodwill, of compassionate here and now awareness celebrated by many traditions, that may bring emotional freedom and guide us to make more of our time on this planet. The image at the top of every page is an homage to these special moments that can emerge during any supportive encounter where we restore awareness to the driving seat of the car, or in this case the front thwart of the canoe, of our lives.
Professional
Memberships
Accredited, registered member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy.
Member of the Hampshire Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy.
Qualifications
Dip HE Humanistic Gestalt Counselling
PG Cert Autogenic Therapy
PG Dip Careers Guidance
BSc (Hons) Psychology
Interests and CPD examples
Strengths Profile Coaching
Mind as a relationally, embodied process
Compassionate Inquiry
Working with trauma^
Poly-vagal informed therapy^
Working with archetypes
Working with elemental metaphors
Working with addictions
Working with people with high sensitivity
Non-violent communication
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
Mindfulness and self-compassion
Family constellations
Inter-generational trauma^
Evidenced Based EFT Skills Training
EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques) Level 1 and 2 (AAMET)
Picture Tapping Technique
Acupressure for Emotional Healing (Michael Gach)
Touch for Health (Levels 1 to 4, Metaphors and Goal Setting, Five Elements)
^ As a trauma-informed counsellor, I attend workshops, read widely on the subject and work with an experienced, trauma-informed supervisor. I actively apply models such as the window of tolerance to help minimise unnecessary distress during therapy.