My Lived Experience
It feels to me that I am privileged to have built up a wealth of experience over more than 25 years of working with and learning from so many people. I have worked with lots of different people in a wide range of voluntary and statutory health and social care settings.
Before counselling adults, my experiences have included working with homeless people, with children and young people, with the elderly, and supporting families under stress.
Since November 2016, I have worked therapeutically with adults who have been experiencing difficulties, including depression, stress, anxiety, relationship worries, abuse, childhood and adult trauma, suicidal thoughts, self-harm, loss, and bereavement.
Whatever people have brought to their sessions with me as their counsellor; they have found that being listened to, having a safe and confidential space and gaining self-awareness has been a helpful experience for them.
As a counsellor, I have learnt that people value the emotional space to share their fears, wounds and hopes.
As your counsellor, I will not tell you what to do or give you the answers but rather I will 'walk alongside you' without judgement. Metaphorically, as I 'walk alongside you', I may hold up a torch as you explore along an individual path of self discovery. I always aim to work in a way that shows compassion.
Ethics and Values
All my work as a counsellor is in accordance with the ethical frameworks of BACP and UKCP.
I practise as an ethically and culturally responsible counsellor with Anti-Discriminatory and Anti-Oppressive values guiding my work. As part of my Continuing Professional Development, I aim to explore my identity through seeking to understand my conscious and unconscious attitudes.
As part of my ‘life-long’ ongoing personal and professional enquiry and reflection, I am currently reading the following books:
Alex Iantaffi and Meg-John Barker (2018), How to Understand Your Gender: A practical guide for exploring who you are
Kate Bornstein (2013), My new Gender Workbook
Alex Iantaffi (2021), Gender Trauma; Healing Cultural, Social, and Historical Gendered Trauma
Charles Neal (2014), The Marrying Kind? Lives of gay and bi men who marry women
Leezah Hertzmann and Juliet Newbigin (2020), Sexuality and Gender Now: moving beyond heteronormativity
Amelia Abraham (2021), We Can Do Better Than This; 35 Voices on the Future of LGBTQ+ Rights
Resmaa Menakem (2021), My Grandmother’s Hands; Racialised Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies
Andrea L. Dottolo and Ellyn Kaschak (2016), Whiteness and White Privilege in Psychotherapy
Julie Sondra Decker (2015), The Invisible Orientation; An Introduction to Asexuality
