About me    

I have 10 years experience of providing short and long-term counselling to individuals and to couples.  I work with a wide range of issues, including: anger, anxiety, depression, disability, loss, personal development, relationships and sexuality.

I have a diploma in Counselling from the Gestalt Centre, London and am an Accredited Member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP). 

As an individual member of the BACP, I am bound by the BACP Ethical Framework for Good Practice in Counselling and Psychotherapy - this includes the requirement to respect clients' privacy and confidentiality.

Though my original training was Gestalt, I have since broadened my counselling approach - drawing on other modalities such as cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) and life-coaching.  I now describe myself as an integrative counsellor. 

As part of my commitment to Continuing Professional Development (CPD) I have recently attended the following training course:

- 'Intro. to Cognitive Behavioral Therapy', Manchester Centre for CBT, Oct. 2011
- 'Introduction to couple counselling', Mind Matters, York, September 2011;
- 'Basic Child Protection Awareness', NSPCC Training Centre, Leicester, February 2011;
- 'Working with Adult Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse', Andrew Sims Centre, 2010.

Before training as a counsellor,  I worked as a volunteer on HIV/AIDS telephone help lines in the United States and the UK.  Since gaining my counselling diploma, in addition to working as a counsellor, I have run anger management groups for men and facilitated support groups for people living with HIV. 

My work experience includes working for central government as a policy advisor and as a manager both in the private and voluntary sectors.  I set-up new counselling practice in York in 2010 having worked as a counsellor in for almost 10 years.