I started my working life as a laboratory technician at Swansea University. I quite enjoyed the work although in many ways I wasn't satisfied with my life. My problem was I felt unable to do anything about it and felt increasingly overwhelmed by anxiety, depression and a lack of confidence. Eventually my life took a serious, damaging and very sad turn for the worse.
I entered psychotherapy and developed a meditation practice. Discovering and working with the depth in myself has transformed my life in many ways.
After many years is therapy I decided to train as a psychotherapist myself, and I completed the UKCP accredited Diploma in Transpersonal Counselling and Psychotherapy at the Centre for Counselling and Psychotherapy Education (CCPE).
I practice Buddhist meditation and have integrated that into my own personal path. I have experience of a wide range of meditation and mindfulness techniques.
Currently I am exploring Qabalah and practicing creative imagination meditations based around that.
I find spending time in nature very healing and balancing. Looking at flowers or noticing the beauty of the night sky helps me to feel more human and keeps me in touch with my soul. I love to meditate in the woods or by the sea shore.
My own experience of psychotherapy as a client helps me to be a therapist for others. It has also given me a real faith in my clients when they may not have that faith in themselves. I've been there myself. I love helping my clients discover and make real the potential they have in themselves.
Empathy and trust are central to the way I work. It's important to be present with a client with a wholeheartedness that puts theoretical considerations in the background.
We have a source of wisdom inside
A part of us that knows what we really need and knows how we can heal and grow. My role involves helping you to discover and have trust in your own inner wisdom.
Deep inside each of us are all the qualities, abilities, wisdom and characteristics that we need to overcome the challenges that life brings.
Depth psychotherapy can help to unblock and unfold those qualities, finding balance and harmony in place of conflict.
Negative personality traits may simply be blocked and distorted qualities that are potentially very useful.
Trauma and neglect
Counselling may focus on a particular issue, however I practice psychotherapy. This goes deeper and involves looking at the depth and development of the whole personality.
Understanding how my clients have developed through childhood and adolescence can provide much insight into what might have been blocked or distorted in a persons development and therefore what a client may need to develop or let go of in their life now.
I have often found that coping strategies, that were developed in childhood in response to traumatic events or neglect, get carried over into adulthood stifling further development of the personality.
This can result in a type of stuckness and a tendency to repeat the problems of the past.
The growth and development of the personality is a natural process, we all have the innate potential to live a satisfying life. My role is to help my clients recognise and overcome the blocks to their natural growth. When the blocks are removed, healthy development resumes naturally.
I make use of theory and different techniques from a spectrum of different approaches; however, the decisive factor in the therapy is the confidential relationship between me and my client, and the relation with the creative depths of the unconscious.
I provide a non-judgemental space where the client can develop the trust they need to be themselves.
My work integrates psychodynamic, existential, humanistic, mindfulness based CBT and transpersonal modes of psychotherapy. I am particularly interested in the use of mindfulness, working with dreams and the imaginal using active imagination. I find it helpful to work with mindfulness of bodily experience and also use art, creative imagination and visualisation.
I draw on the work of Carl G. Jung, Janina Fisher, Melanie Klein, Harry Guntrip, Carl Rogers, Fritz Perls, Ian Rees, Anthony Lunt and others.
My practice in central Swansea is in easy reach of Neath, Port Talbot, Bridgend, Gower, Gorseinon and Llanelli.
I am professionally insured and follow the UKCP code of ethics.
Psychotherapy can be effective in both the short term, medium, and long term (6 months up to 3+ years). The length of the therapy will depend on what you wish to resolve and develop in your life.
Sessions are once a week, for 50 minutes. The fee is £65 per session.