Welcome

I am a qualified counsellor with a diploma accredited by the BACP (British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy). I work in private practice both in Groombridge village outside Tunbridge Wells and in Cross-in-Hand village outside Heathfield, and I also work within the NHS.

There are many ways to define counselling, however I like to think of a counsellor as a guide, there to offer support, a hand on your back, through difficult times. This could be for a short space of time during a period of change or distress or it could be for a longer duration when more involved work is needed perhaps to address deep-rooted issues stemming from childhood.

"Let the waters settle
you will see stars and moon
mirrored in your Being."
- Rumi

Humanistic Counselling

The approach I use is called Humanistic Counselling. The basic belief of this counselling method is that each of us has everything we need inside us to not only deal with crisis and pain but also to grow and become more fully who we are.

This method draws on the belief that within us is a wise part, that we can lose sight of. Given the right environment that provides safety and trust we can become more familiar with this wise part and in turn learn to deal with distressing emotions or behaviour patterns and grow more into the person we would like to be.

This process is called individuation, or on the path to self-realisation. We could draw on the analogy of an acorn, which each has within it a blueprint to become a very unique oak, given the right environment.

Explore and understand

It is my job to provide this comfortable and safe environment in which you can examine, explore and understand your feelings and behaviour and also become more familiar with your wise part.

Once this has been achieved we can work together to enable you to either accept unhelpful feelings and behaviours or change them. As words can sometimes be limiting, I use a number of methods to help you understand and communicate feelings and ideas such as artwork, dreamwork, physical expression, writing, breathwork and imagery.