Professional qualifications & experience
I have had 7 years formal education in psychotherapy and counselling in Australia and the UK. I did my main psychotherapy training at the Chiron Centre for Body Psychotherapy in London (a UKCP registered training organisation). I have worked in private practice since 2006 in London and Poole, and more recently in Oxford.
I regularly attend conferences and training workshops to keep up to date with current thinking and practice in psychotherapy. Recent training includes: Contemporary Trauma Practice training, Evolutionary Relationships short course, Supervision (individual and group) with CSTD-London, a weekend of Embodied Relational Therapy training, seminars with Babette Rothschild on working with Trauma, Pat Ogden on Sensorimotor therapy, and an introductory workshop on ISTDP (intensive short term dynamic psychotherapy).
I have experience in facilitating women's circles, support groups, personal development groups, art groups, body work (bioenergetics, breathwork and biodynamic massage), and working with dreams.
I have also practised meditation for over 25 years and often teach meditation to clients in therapy sessions as a way of helping them relax, reduce stress and increase overall awareness and aliveness.
I consider my ongoing personal development as important as professional development in my capacity as a therapist and regularly participate in training outside the therapy field as well.
Professional accreditation & associations
I am a UKCP registered psychotherapist.
I am a member of the UK Association for Humanistic Psychology Practitioners (UKAHPP),The Relational School (TRS) and Oxfordshire Therapy & Self Development (OTS).
About me
I am Australian, but have lived half my adult life in the UK. I know what it means to live in a foreign culture with all the challenges and opportunities that brings.
I originally trained as an environmental scientist, but by my mid-20's, I found that I was more interested in the relationship people have with the environment (and what that said about them) rather than the scientific study of the environment itself, so I began counselling training in my late-20's and then psychotherapy training in my early 30's.
What draws me to the work is that I feel a particular love for this human journey of ours – the ways in which we strive to 'improve' ourselves, as if we are not complete and beautiful exactly as we are. This doesn't mean that we shouldn't strive for healing and change; but it is in examining and experiencing what we are doing to ourselves in this striving and how we are doing it, that can yield great insight into the nature of our deepest wounds.
