This page is for people who are looking for a therapist, to explain what you can expect from me. Please contact me with questions I have not covered.

What do you do in therapy?

Despite being trained in many therapeutic approaches, I work from a person-centred approach, as an ethical choice.

I believe you are the expert in your unique life and perspective, and my aim is to facilitate you to use the therapy for what you need, whether that is for increased self-understanding, or to feel heard, supported and understood, or to explore a particular experience(s) and its impact, or any number of possibilities. This need may not be clear and part of an ongoing discussion and may change over the course of therapy.

My priority is to do my best to be with you in every moment in therapy, aiming to follow where you wish to go, without taking power-over you by imposing any agenda or idea of what therapy should be.

I am a person in the therapy relationship too, and am aware that how I am will influence the process. My aim is to be as aware of this impact as possible and to take responsibility for how I am, being as open and transparent as possible about my thoughts and feelings concerning therapy.

I actively encourage you to ask me any questions and I will be as open as possible in response. My philosophy will tell you more about my beliefs concerning therapy.

How long does a therapy session last and how many times will I need to come?

I do not have a fixed idea of how long a therapy session should be or how long therapy should last, but make an agreement following discussion with you about what you want and my limitations and needs, which we can revisit and revise whenever necessary.

What kind of problems or difficulties do people seek therapy for?

I am passionate about working in therapy with all problems and dilemmas involved in being human.  I work with all manifestations of psychological distress.

I have particular experience and interest in working with people who have experienced childhood abuse and neglect, people who have been labelled with Borderline Personality Disorder and people who self-injure.

I also have a special interest in working with women who have experienced difficult pregnancy or traumatic birth, where this has an ongoing effect on a woman’s life and relationships and where she may be in fear of getting pregnant again. This interest has developed from my own experience of a traumatic birth and the lack of understanding and emotional support available within maternity services.

What are your fees for therapy?

I am happy to discuss financial arrangments. My fees are usually £85 per hour but I can sometimes negotiate this.

I am unsure about therapy - what could I do?

You can always contact me to discuss further whether therapy could help you and whether now is the right time for you to start therapy. We can also talk more on the phone or by email before arranging to meet to think and discuss whether I am the right person for you to see.

Where do you see people for therapy?

I see people at Cottingley Consulting Rooms in Cottingley, Bingley. There is parking outside the rooms, which are located up a short flight of stairs. The room overlooks a small lake and gardens.

I have a special interest in power, politics and social justice and commitment to ethics and values in therapy. I believe our social and political situations to a large extent determine  our experiences in life and are huge contributory factors to mental distress. I am also aware of the potential impact of my socio-political identity to the therapy relationship.

I am critical of psychiatric diagnoses, believing that they pigeon– hole and reduce people to labels and carry stigma. However, I acknowledge that some people may find them helpful to increase understanding or to access services.

I am more interested in trying to understand the uniqueness of each of our existences - phenomenology. I am particularly interested in how women (mainly) have been stigmatised by the diagnosis of Borderline Personality Disorder. Instead of focusing on this diagnosis, I am more interested in self-injury as a behaviour for survival and resistance and in the phenomenology of emptiness.

I am interested in how existential philosophy tries to capture the experience of being human. Whilst I find psychological theorising interesting and sometimes useful, I am more interested in 'knowing' another person, as opposed to 'knowing about' someone. 

This for me is the essence of 'encounter', to be authentically engaged in relationship with another with the potential for transformation.