Areas of expertise

I work with survivors of emotional, physical and sexual abuse, and domestic violence. I also work with people who have experienced other traumatic events in their lives, such as serious accidents or injury, traumatic childbirth or birth-related experiences, and complex relational trauma.

For those who have suffered through traumatic incidents and have not had the opportunity to heal, feelings such as anger, fear, confusion, guilt and shame may be sometimes feel difficult to escape, and the emotional toll can make day-to-day living extremely difficult.

I combine a client-led approach with evidence-based NICE Guidelines recommended trauma-focused interventions. I work gently and compassionately to co-create a safe space for clients to begin to process what has happened to them and its effect on their lives.

Feeling low, lonely and hopeless are all signs that it may be helpful to talk to someone about what you are going through, but this first step can seem very daunting. Likewise, many of us suffer from anxiety in our day to day lives which may make life a constant battle. We may have safety behaviours that we have to complete in order to keep our anxiety at bay and avoid panic taking over, or have a sense of dread and not understand why.

I will help you to talk through how you are feeling and accompany you in reflecting on these feelings in relation to the rest of your life. I will work with you to tailor therapy to your needs. This may mean spending time exploring the possible origins or root of feelings of depression and anxiety, or it may mean creating a formulation of the problem together and making a plan for how to, for example, reduce safety behaviours or become more active.

Many of us may have grown up with challenging family dynamics, and this in turn might have had long lasting repercussions on our lives even today. Others of us might feel that we have always had strong bonds with family and loved ones, yet negotiating the demands and pressures of relationships can often be difficult.

Very often in our relationships, the love and care we receive is conditional on our acting or being a particular version of ourselves for others. I will provide an environment of non-judgement and acceptance where you will have the freedom to explore the impact of the relationships you are concerned about. Having a space that is just for you is an empowering step towards breaking unwanted patterns in our relationships and thinking about them from new perspectives.

Why do I think women’s mental health and wellbeing is an important subject? There are so many reasons. To summarise, here are some statistics:

• 1 in 3 women have been sexually assaulted.

• Women are twice as likely to experience anxiety than men.

• 71% of trans people have experienced anxiety, and 17% have been dismissed by professionals who have told them their mental health issues are a result of them being trans.

• 10% of all mothers suffer from a mental health problem.

• 4-5% of women have traumatic birth experiences that lead to PTSD, most of whom go undiagnosed and unsupported. 30% of women experience birth as traumatic.

• For black women these figures are even higher. Obstetric racism has been identified as a significant factor contributing to poorer care and worse outcomes for black and brown women. A shocking example of this is that, in the UK, black women are 4 times more likely to die from childbirth than white women.

As a woman, you may also experience life events that are medically or socially considered “normal” just because they are “common”. In reality, the impact of these events can be mentally and emotionally flooring, yet women go through them with little if any support.

Maternal and perimenopausal mental health problems can be particularly disorienting, given that we often don't have a reference point for what “OK” looks like. Our hormones and identities are in a state of flux. As a result, there are many serious issues that women face during these periods that are brused aside as part and parcel of being a woman.

In early motherhood, these include problems such as tokophobia adjusting to caring for a baby, postnatal depression, traumatic birth experiences, separation anxiety, returning to work, and a constant reassessing of identity.

In the perimenopause, hormonal changes can reek havoc on our sense of who we are and who we will be in our future. We can feel discombobulated and disconnected from ourselves, whilst struggling to manage the emotional and physiological realities that come with being menopausal.

Wherever you find yourself, I am interested in working with you on your journey to mental wellbeing. We work together to reflect on the place you find yourself now, and build a path towards where you would like to be. If you don’t know what this looks like, that’s fine too. Often we need to spend some time thinking about where we are and how we got here to start to think about the answers to the questions; “What now?” and “So, how?”