A Bit About My Training and Background
As a UKCP registered Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist, I offer a contained, explorative space to talk through a variety of difficulties ranging from everyday struggles with work and relationships to troubling concerns about sense of identity and psychological distress.
I have a passionate interest in psychoanalysis, philosophy and critical psychiatry, and have worked both within the NHS and privately in a variety of therapeutic fields over a number of years.
I have experienced therapeutic encounters with a vast array of individuals ranging from those who have been deeply troubled by events in their lives to those who have simply felt stuck and in need of growth through gaining greater personal insight and understanding.
I trained with the Philadelphia Association, which was set up by RD Laing and colleagues during the 1960s with the aim of challenging traditional ways of understanding mental and emotional suffering.
My background is in community psychiatric nursing, having worked for many years in a variety of services such as Community Mental Health Teams, Home Treatment Teams and Personality Disorder Services in Chertsey, Staines, Woking, Weybridge and surrounding areas. I am aware of the difficulties and challenges faced when seeking the most appropriate kind of help in times of distress, and the fear of being judged or objectified rather than having your story heard and taken seriously. I feel it is important in therapeutic practice to have an intuitive feel for when the need may arise to challenge and when to step back and listen.
Although I choose not to practice in this way in my private practice, I have awareness of, and sensitivity to a number of therapeutic interventions you may have experienced, such as Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT), Metallisation Based Treatment (MBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and STEPPS. I currently practice in the NHS as a DBT therapist.
I am available for open ended or time limited therapeutic interventions.
Some of the thinkers who have influenced my way of working: Martin Heidegger, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Ronald D Laing and Donald Winnicott.
My qualifications and registrations are as follows:
UKCP Registered Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist
Philadelphia Association member
Registered with College of Psychoanalysts-UK
Qualified DBT Therapist
Chertsey