Areas I help with

I specialise in working with people who’ve experienced challenging or traumatic events. Often our early experiences in families don’t set us up to navigate these difficulties, or they may have created unhelpful patterns. I’ve worked extensively with people who’ve experienced problematic family relationships, including neglect or abuse. I work with all difficulties related to pregnancy and fertility, as well as new parenthood. I can also support with related mental health difficulties, such as anxiety and depression, addiction problems and low self-confidence.

By exploring painful experiences in a safe environment, they can start to feel less overwhelming. Making sense of your feelings often brings greater compassion and self-acceptance, enabling you to face life’s challenges with renewed confidence.

Therapy can also help you understand and break repeating patterns that no longer serve you in relationships, or behaviours such as addiction, binging or self-harm.

See below for further details.

Baby loss, pregnancy and fertility issues

I work with people who have experienced baby loss, including miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy and still birth. This can have a huge impact emotionally, bringing up emotions such as grief, anger and fear. Therapy focuses on processing the loss and any trauma and supporting with ongoing difficulties such as depression and anxiety.

I also specialise in working with people going through fertility issues and IVF. This can be an anxious and physically draining time, and sometimes it has a negative impact on relationships. Therapy can be an important support while you’re going through treatment, or processing the outcome.

Pre and post natal depression and anxiety can result from IVF or baby loss. But these difficulties can also stem from other areas of your history which have led to complex feelings about motherhood and the huge change it brings. Gaining more insight into the deeper origins of these feelings can help you understand them and create space for self-compassion.

It can be hard when friends and family don’t seem to understand, and therapy can help by providing a supportive space to explore what you’re going through. By talking about what’s happened, difficulties such as anxiety and painful emotions can feel more manageable and greater resilience can be found.

Trauma and abuse

I work with people who’ve experienced trauma, including childhood abuse or neglect, sexual abuse or domestic abuse.

Trauma can have wide reaching effects - it can damage self-esteem and make you feel helpless and ashamed - even though you did nothing wrong. You might have very strong feelings, such as anger or grief, or be cut off and numb. Some people re-experience events through flashbacks or intrusive memories.

Therapy can help, because exploring what’s happened enables it to be processed and to become part of your history, rather than continuing to dominate the present. Therapy can make sense of how traumatic events have impacted you and the ways this shows up in current relationships, such as difficulties trusting others. Psychodynamic therapy allows a flexible approach to talking about painful events, where you can share as much as you’re comfortable with, and take it at your pace. I am also trained in traumatic incident reduction, which involves looking at the incident(s) in detail until they become less distressing. We can explore which approach you feel more comfortable with. 

Addiction

I have many years experience working with people who have problems with drug and alcohol use and other addictive behaviours. I worked in drug and alcohol services providing group and individual treatment, including aftercare following rehab or detox. My approach to addiction involves working to change the behaviour patterns that no longer serve you. I use a mix of practical coping strategies alongside exploration of thoughts and feelings that led to the behaviour, and those that increase your motivation to change.

After this initial stage, we can move to a deeper exploration of the reasons you turned to this behaviour in order to cope. Often people who have addiction problems are carrying a great deal of shame, this may be due to the addiction, or other painful life experiences. We can work to process any painful or traumatic experiences and develop a greater understanding of yourself, reducing shame and self-blame. This can help to foster insight and self-acceptance, and lead to lasting change.

Mental health and self-confidence

Difficult experiences can leave you feeling low, vulnerable and lacking confidence. I work with people who have low self-confidence and may be feeling depressed, anxious or insecure.

Through exploring how you see yourself, and the roots of this negative self-perception, I can support you to find greater understanding and compassion for yourself. This can build your confidence, allowing you to see yourself in a different way.

Mental health problems often stem from attachment difficulties in early relationships, or traumatic life events including near-death experiences, physical, emotional or sexual abuse, neglect or abandonment. These painful experiences can change the way you see yourself and others, leaving a lasting impact on your mental health. Therapy can help you understand the origins of your difficulties and open up to new possibilities and different perceptions. 

I have experience supporting people with a range of mental health conditions, including depression, anxiety, PTSD, bipolar disorder, psychosis and personality disorders.

Family and relationship issues

It can be very difficult to manage family and relationship problems, whether they are happening now or in the past. They can leave a lasting impact, creating pain and confusion. Therapy can help you to explore and make sense of what has happened, offering increased clarity. This understanding can lead to a greater sense of security, self-acceptance and self-confidence.

We can also work to understand how family relationships may have, over time, shaped how you see yourself and others, creating lasting patterns in relationships which may once have served you, but are now getting in the way of forming connections with others.