Counselling & Psychotherapy

I offer short and long-term individual counselling and psychotherapy using an integrative approach. An integrative approach means that I draw on several theories that are individualised to you and which approach we agree is best suited to your needs. Therapy is a collaborative process in which the therapeutic relationship is essential. In the first instance, we will explore the things that bring you to therapy, consider how you wish to use therapy in a meaningful way, and consider whether we are a good fit for working together. I aim to be open, honest and respectful of you.

I'll draw on various approaches that depend on what you need and what you experience as helpful to you. I am trained in humanistic approaches, Compassion Focused Therapy, EMDR Therapy, and yoga and mindfulness-based approaches to psychological therapy.

I work with people who come with a range of issues, and I have an interest in working with people who have experienced trauma and people who struggle with their relationship with their bodies. I typically help people to:

  • Develop self-awareness and body awareness.

  • Resolve and/or address problems that are holding you back, things that feel overwhelming, or patterns that keep coming up that are not serving you well.

  • Understand how your history and your social and cultural background might be affecting things now, and process or make sense of these things so that they begin to no longer have such a strong hold on you.

  • Address the impacts of trauma.

  • Build better relationships with others, with yourself and with your body.

Usually, how I work is a blend of the different approaches that I have trained in. This may mean looking at patterns you find yourself in (such as relationships, your internal dialogue, the stories you carry about who you are, or broader patterns in your life that might show up at work, in the life decisions you make, etc.) and exploring your history to understand where these started, what function they have served, and how things might look different for you now. It may look like understanding and processing difficult or traumatic events or memories so that they no longer impact your present-day or future in a way that feels overwhelming.

Therapy can sometimes help to process the things that have happened in your life. It may help you better understand yourself and have a more ‘present’ and meaningful connection with yourself. It may help you feel clearer about things that are causing you distress, and it may help you identify changes that you would like to make. I offer online therapy via Zoom and in-person sessions in a consulting room at Millers Yard in York City Centre. I offer long- and short-term therapy, but to keep us focused on your goals and process, we may agree on how often we will review your therapy. I welcome you to contact me if you’d like to discuss working together.

Trauma Therapy

If you are coming to address traumatic events, experiences, or experiencing difficulties relating to trauma, my approach is informed by Judith Herman's three-stage trauma recovery model. This is:

  1. Safety. This stage is about establishing stabilisation and a sense of safety within yourself, your body, and your community/networks/relationships. It is about establishing a roadmap of your life experiences, building a therapeutic relationship, and establishing self-care and emotion regulation techniques. These techniques may help you get to know your own nervous system better, feel more able to ground yourself if things become overwhelming, and prepare you for remembering or processing trauma.

  2. Remembering and mourning. We will not rush to this stage, and we will only begin to remember or process trauma memories if we agree it feels like the right time and you feel ready. Sometimes, you may find Stage 1 is enough for the time being, or you may find you do not need or wish to talk in-depth about memories once you feel more stable. If we do move to this stage, we will begin to talk about trauma memories in more depth, and we may use EMDR to process some of these memories if we agree that is the plan. We may begin to work through grief relating to what has been lost due to these experiences. We will review the beliefs, stories, and thoughts associated with these memories. We will aim to reduce the intensity of emotions associated with these memories and find ways of re-storying them.

  3. Reconnecting. This stage is about reconnecting with life. It is about integration. So, we will explore things that matter to you, and how you can reconnect with aspects of your life and yourself that might have felt more difficult before.


EMDR Therapy

EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing. It is a psychotherapy that is used to help people recover from distressing events, particularly if those distressing events are having an impact on the present (for example, flashbacks, nightmares, anxiety, upsetting thoughts or images). Often, when a person has experienced a distressing event, the memory or thought of the event can be overwhelming and intense. EMDR helps the brain and body to process distressing thoughts, images or memories so that the person no longer feels the full force of distress whenever the memory comes to mind.

EMDR is most commonly used for people who have experienced trauma, though it is also used with a wide variety of other issues. This includes anxiety, grief, phobias, stress, depression, body image difficulties, or damaging or limiting self-beliefs. EMDR is a NICE (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) recommended treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and has a sound evidence base.

You can find out more about EMDR here.

There is an article about EMDR therapy and how it can help here.

Commitment to anti-oppressive, anti-racist and affirmative therapy

I work with people of all genders, sexualities, cultures and backgrounds. As an intersectional feminist, I acknowledge and aim to provide a space for clients to bring all parts of their identities, such as race, gender, sexuality, class, culture and faith. I’m committed to ongoing learning about myself and how my own intersectional identity informs how I show up in this work. I aim to work in an anti-racist, anti-oppressive and affirmative way, which includes exploring how broader systems of power, privilege and oppression often shape individual experiences and welcoming all parts of you to the therapy space.

What I offer

  • One-to-one individual therapy for adults (16+)

  • In-person in York City centre, or virtual sessions via Zoom anywhere in the UK or internationally (insurance-dependent. Please check with me if you live outside the UK)

  • EMDR Therapy

  • I can work with clients who are experiencing/have experienced a range of difficulties, including depression, anxiety, trauma, PTSD, domestic abuse, sexual abuse, gender-based violence, stress, eating difficulties, and burnout.

The list above is not exhaustive and is not intended to privilege diagnosis or specific issues. You may be searching for therapy because things don’t feel as you’d like them to or because you would like to understand yourself better. You may also seek a space to explore and make sense of your relationship with broader socio-political issues. This might be around the climate crisis, social justice, racism, your ancestry and history, or any other matters that the political landscape brings up. I welcome these topics in therapy, as I believe they can significantly impact how we make sense of who we are and how we relate to others and the world around us.