Services
I offer a safe and non-judgemental space for working through difficult feelings and adverse experiences. Developing wellbeing and resilience through enhanced understanding of self and relationships.
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Trauma • Transitions • Anxiety • Self-esteem • Bereavement
Parental Conflict • Identity • Self-harm
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With adults, I offer individual counselling and parent work, helping parents to achieve fresh perspectives on issues and develop confidence in their parenting role, with the ultimate goals of strengthening parent-child relationships and improved family wellbeing.
Children
When children feel overwhelmed by big emotions or difficult circumstances, healthy development can become stuck, impacting wellbeing, behaviour, learning and/or relationships. Working with a variety of mediums, I invite them to tell their story in their own way; exploring their difficulties in a nurturing and contained environment.
Play therapy and creative work can provide powerful tools for expressing complex emotional material, particularly for children whose verbal and cognitive abilities are still in development. However, some children prefer to talk through their issues. My adaptive space and responsive approach empowers each individual to identify what feels most comfortable and appropriate for them.
Adolescents
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Adolescence is a time of enormous transition as brains and bodies reconfigure and social roles shift with the move towards maturity. It’s a time that can feel perilous, pressured and full of big scary questions: Am I ok? Am I good enough?, Where do I fit in? Will I succeed?
Counselling (creative, play or talk based) can provide a safe space away from friends, family and school to work through these thoughts and feelings and build a grounded sense of self esteem and confidence. With this age-group I can work face to face or online depending on individual preference.
Adults:
Individual adult counselling
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One-to-one counselling offers a protected space and an empathetic thinking relationship in which emotional difficulties and relational patterns can be explored with a view to developing self understanding and fresh perspectives.
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Empowering parents to support their kids
The multifaceted parent-child relationship is always evolving and adapting to changing needs. At times this can be disorienting and the responsibility can feel overwhelming for parents. When a child or young person is struggling with difficult feelings, therapeutic parent support can have a profound impact on smoothing the tensions.
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Parent coaching:This solution-focussed, therapeutically-informed short-term approach offers a non judgemental space to talk through specific parenting issues and identify possible approaches to addressing them. While I do not promote a one-size-fits-all approach or a particular philosophy of parenting, I may offer potential strategies, or suggest reading to help your understanding of your child’s issues. What is important is finding what feels right for you, your child and the unique situation of your family.
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Parent counselling:This is a more in-depth approach for making sense of yourself and your responses as a parent. Parenting is an enormous endeavour, with every developmental stage bringing fresh challenges and adaptations. The emotional turmoil that can accompany being a parent is frequently exacerbated by competing ideas of what we ‘should’ be doing, particularly when our own values diverge from those of our upbringing or our social context. Problems can feel all-encompassing, leading to anger, resentment, anxiety, guilt and other feelings that get in the way of healthy and easeful growth for parent, child and the parent-child relationship. Parent therapy offers a safe non-judgemental space to work through feelings and re-discover the parent you want to be.
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Individual adult counselling:One to one counselling provides an opportunity to explore, reflect, clarify and find new understanding of your experiences and patterns of relating with yourself and others. In the safe, confidential space of the therapeutic relationship we can consider how past experiences may be influencing the present moment and integrate feedback from thoughts and feelings, mind and body to elicit new insights. My approach is warm and collaborative, using compassion and playful curiosity to support you to finding your own unique path through emotional or relational turbulence.
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Parent clinics and workshops:These small-group sessions, bring together parents who are facing or concerned about a common issue (e.g. friendships & bullying, holding boundaries, developing resilience, preparing for and managing transitions). Using a supportive social format, and facilitated by a qualified therapist, parents are encouraged to share experiences, develop their knowledge and explore their feelings and responses to problems. The collaborative approach counters the tendency to feel burdened and alone with issues, bringing a sense of relief, connectedness and fresh perspective.