About
Welcome to my Therapy page. I'm a Cognitive Behavioural Psychotherapist, Mindfulness Practitioner (Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy) and I am trained in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. I am also a registered Mental Health Nurse. I am a registered member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (MBACP Reg) and licenced for practice with the NMC (Nursing, Midwifery Council).
I have over 15 years of qualified clinical experience behind me and I have supported many people, young and older, to overcome a wide range of mental health conditions and emotional problems, within the NHS, private practice, education, forensics, courts/criminal justice and the voluntary sector.
I offer Therapy with face to face sessions at my private practice, online therapy with Skype or with Phone. I will get in touch with you within the same day that you contact me and I am usually able to offer people their first appointment within the week.
I would be able to see you during the weekdays and evenings and on Saturday mornings. I work with adults, older adults and children/adolescents (from the age of 13 years of age).
How could I help you?
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy helps you change the way that you feel, through making changes with how you think and your behaviour. Let’s give an example, if a person feels really down or anxious, it's not that their thinking is wrong or bad, but it's likely that the person experiences very critical, worrying or negative thoughts. This in turn affects the way that they feel and what they feel able to do. I would help you find ways of thinking about yourself differently, supporting you to develop more balanced thinking. We all see the world through our own eyes, based partly on our past experiences. If our beliefs about ourselves as a person are not so good, then this can darken our view of the world, like putting on a pair of dark glasses. But it doesn't have to be this way, as you can learn to develop more positive beliefs. Often our problems get stronger because of the things we do, or don't do perhaps. Making sense of this and trying out new things gives you the chance to make real changes in your life. CBT isn't a complicated kind of therapy and many people have found it so helpful for their recovery.
Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy has its roots in the far East, from ancient Buddhist practice; but you don't have to be a Buddhist or even have any beliefs to practice being Mindful. Mindfulness helps you to stay in the present moment and to accept yourself for who you are without criticism or judgment. Our minds can be filled with so much worry or anxious thinking or perhaps we feel stuck in the past, beating ourselves up with what could have been or what we should have done. You may find that you are really battling with your thoughts, or trying to push them away. In the end, this can make us feel much worse. It's as if our mind really does have a mind of its own. Before we know it, we can be left feeling so down, upset or angry, without truly understanding how we got to feel this way. Using a Cognitive Mindfulness approach you can learn ways to become mindful in your own life, from practicing different meditations and breath techniques, to learning more about the way that you think and feel. You will discover that you can slow your mind down and give yourself the chance to step aside from these loops of thinking. In doing so you give yourself the space to think about things differently and act differently too. Mindfulness can help not just emotional difficulties but also with physical problems too.
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