I offer a caring and confidential space to explore what is happening in any area of your life, how to bring meaning to a situation or find ways to go onward.
My approach is to work with each person’s unique experience and way of making meaning about their life. I work in a collaborative, co-creative and compassionate way that respects each person’s autonomy and wisdom to know or discover what they need. It is not my role to diagnose or pathologize a person’s experience. Rather it is to accompany the people I work alongside, with a focus on how the person experiences themselves, others and their lifeworld.
I value and respect difference and diversity and work with all people, beliefs, and ways of being - including gender, sexuality, and relationship diversity. As a facilitator, I also work with other therapists, groups and organizations.
I am committed to what Johnella Bird (2003) has described as the 'development of processes where discovery is privileged' over and above a strict adherence to the 'structural boundaries produced by models'. I have evolved an approach that draws on ideas and practices that support this process and especially from narrative, psychodramatic and attachment-based therapies. My approach is best described as phenomenological and dialogical, meaning that I stay as close as possible to what is happening for the person who is trying to give meaning to their experience and giving regard to the dialogue emerging within that person's struggle and between us in our conversations.
The other critical aspect of my way of being as a therapist is in giving space to knowing and naming how the use of power in a person's life has created or contributed to their happiness, situation or suffering. For me, a great deal of a person's suffering, my own included, is entirely understandable where power has been used to marginalize a person and 'other' them. Issues around social justice are therefore central to my understanding of the ongoing process in becoming a person and a therapist.
I am open to working with any aspect of a person’s life unless I have a reason to recommend that you work with another more suited therapist/facilitator which we will explore together. Please get in touch with any questions and to discuss availability.
My practice as a therapist began in Australia some 35 years ago having come from a background in social justice and community development working within a wide range of contexts with individuals, families, groups, and organizations. This breadth of experience was profoundly important in shaping my approach to psychotherapy.
After arriving in Scotland in 2001 I co-established a specialist consultancy in conflict resolution, training, and conducting external workplace investigations of discrimination and harassment in large organizations and government departments.
I returned to full-time practice in 2010 and completed further training as a Psychodrama Psychotherapist. During this period I also worked as a sessional group therapist with the Priory Hospital in North London and undertook extensive ongoing training in developing my specialist practice in complex trauma and dissociation.
WORK HISTORY
Some of my roles in Australia included:
Executive Director of a network of alcohol and other drug counselling and rehabilitation services in the community sector
Director of a charity organization advocating for people with an acquired brain injury and their families
Family Mediator
Workplace Mediator specializing in discrimination and harassment
Investigator with a state Government Ombudsman
Psychotherapist, trainer and facilitator in private practice
EDUCATION and SPECIALIST TRAINING
UK 2001-Present
2024 Certificate in The Listening Hour, Jonathan Fox
2015 Advanced Diploma in Psychodrama Psychotherapy (Psychodynamic and Attachment-Based), Birmingham Institute for Psychodrama
2014 Higher Certificate in Creative Action Methods in Individual and Group Psychotherapy (person-Centred), Northern School of Psychodrama, Scotland
2014 International Certification as Team Leader in Trauma Therapy using the Therapeutic Spiral Model (Psychodrama), Dr Kate Hudgins TSI International, Virginia USA
Highlights of Specialist Training in Complex Trauma, Bodywork, and Dissociation including:
Assessment of Complex Developmental Trauma and Dissociation, Dr Kathy Steele
Somatic Trauma Therapy, Dr Babette Rothschild
Enactive Trauma Therapy, Trinity of Trauma and Structural Dissociation, Dr Ellert Nijenhuis
Authentic Movement, Therapeutic Presence, Infant Movement Development and Somatic Psychology, Institute for Integrative Bodywork and Movement Therapy, Linda Hartley (UKCP)
AUSTRALIA 1980-2000
Bachelor of Science (Physiology) Macquarie University
Certification in Narrative Therapy I, II, III, Dulwich Centre
Diploma in Community Counselling (Addictions), Riverina College of Advanced Education
Like all UKCP registered psychotherapists and psychotherapeutic counsellors I can work with a wide range of issues, but here are some areas in which I have a special interest or additional experience.
Like most websites, we use cookies. If this is okay with you, please close this message or read more about your options.