Welcome to my counselling therapist and supervision website
Does life feel like its getting on top of you?
Could you benefit from taking some time-out to explore your thoughts and feelings?
Life doesn't always run smoothly and sometimes we could all use someone to talk to. You may feel guilty, alone, overwhelmed and be struggling to see a way out. As a professional counsellor, I provide a welcoming and safe environment in which you can talk about and explore your thoughts and feelings without fear of judgement or criticism.
When did someone last listen to you? It can be the first important step in looking at what is troubling you so my role as your counsellor is not about telling you what to do. I work with you to grow and develop self awareness and understanding to come to terms with aspects of your life, find ways of coping, make changes and uncover the potential to move forwards.
I believe that given the right conditions, people have the potential to make positive change. As your counsellor, I aim to give you a sense of being deeply understood, helping you to resolve conflicts that prevent you from enjoying your life in the ways you wish to.
If you are looking for an individual or a couples counsellor in Woking, Weybridge, New Haw and the surrounding areas, I offer a compassionate, confidential non-judgemental space to explore what may be worrying you and help you discover what you really need in life.
In light of the Corona Virus outbreak, I will be offering telephone, zoom, FaceTime or WhatsApp sessions.
Additionally, for Key-workers, I am offering low cost sessions so anyone struggling right now, please get in touch for further details.
Wishing all of you well in these testing times.
My Approach
As your counsellor, the focus of our work will be on helping you gain a better understanding of how you might be feeling about certain issues, develop insight and understanding as to why this might be and explore what choices you have and the coping strategies available to you. The pace and nature of the work will guided by you.
Everyone experiences the world differently, this means that, dependent on what works for you, I will draw on different techniques and schools of thought to suit you.
EMDR - Eye Movement Desensitisation & Reprocessing
This is one type of therapy I provide, designed specifically to alleviate trauma and related symptoms such as acute anxiety or phobias.
Sometimes old disturbing memories can be stored in the brain in isolation and they get locked into the nervous system with the original images, sounds, thoughts and feelings. The old distressing material just keeps getting triggered over and over again which prevents healing from taking place. In another part of your brain, you already have most of the information you need to resolve this problem but the two just cannot connect. This is where EMDR can help, allowing new information to come to mind and resolve the old problems - similar to what happens spontaneously in REM or dream sleep. Please also consider that people often don't know they are suffering from trauma, all they know is that they don't feel right, and don't know how to feel better. If this sounds familiar come and see me. It's my job to know what is going on, and to support you to feel better.
Special Interest in Trauma
Trauma is of special interest to me. Often trauma goes unidentified or is treated in a way that is not appropriate. It is important to understand what trauma is, and why it should be treated in a certain way.
You can suffer from trauma for many reasons but let me put it simply by breaking it into two types of trauma:
Big T trauma - this is when you have a life threatening situation for example, like a car crash or witnessed a life threatening incident. Its a big even and you are left with symptoms such as feeling constantly on edge, anxious, not able to sleep, have flashback or recurrent nightmares.
Little T trauma - this is trauma that could develop through childhood experiences, attachment issues, bullying at school etc.
The big T, little T has nothing to do with how serious either is perceived. Its just a way of saying you can have trauma for many different reasons and it can lead to anxiety, depression, suicidal thoughts, under achieving at work, weight gain or loss, difficulty in relationships and many other consequences.
Trauma is stored in your body and mind in a specific way and often talking therapy can make it worse rather that make it better. For this reason I am trained in a process called Eye movement desensitisation reprocessing (EMDR for short). It is a very kind gentle process and it isn't a talking therapy, which people who are traumatised often appreciate. It also works quickly which is another huge benefit. If you recognise the potential that you have suffered from trauma, or post traumatic stress disorder, then do get in touch.
I am a registered EMDR practitioner with EMDR Ireland and Europe
Referrals
I am an authorised provider of psychological services for many major healthcare insurers including Bupa, AXA-PPP, and Aviva, Vitality, WPA, and April UK.
I am also the registered EAP provider for Runnymede Borough Council
Individual and Couples Therapy Surrey
I work as a individual and couples counsellor from a private discreet office where I can offer you a safe, supportive therapist space to talk through your feelings. I have rooms in New Haw and Weybridge, both provide ample free parking and are within easy walking distance of the local train station, I am easily accessible from Woking, Weybridge, Walton, Addlestone, Chobham,Byfleet and West Byfleet.
Supervision
Previously in my role as Deputy Clinical Lead at Richmond Mind based at the Richmond Royal Hospital in Richmond, I carried out both group and individual clinical supervision.
I am the Clinical Lead at Richmond AID, a disability and mental health charity based in Teddington, an established charity that offers low cost counselling to individuals, families and carers.
I also offer both group and individual supervision in my private practice
"The curious paradox is that when I accept myself as I am, then I can change"
- Carl Rogers
Some of the counselling issues I work with are
Anger, Anxiety, Bereavement, Bi-Polar, Childhood Abuse, Couples in crisis, Dealing with affairs, Dissociative Disorders, Domestic Abuse and Violence, Emotional Abuse, Fertility, Guilt, Identity, Intimacy, Loneliness, Loss, Mindfulness, Obsessions, Panic, Personality Disorders, Relationship issues, Schizophrenia, Separation, Social Anxiety, Self-Esteem, Sexuality, Shame, Stress, Trauma, Worry, Workplace Issues.
Professional Ethics
I am an Accredited Member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP)and adhere to the Ethical Framework for Good Practice in Counselling and Psychotherapy.
Mindfulness Meditation
Mindfulness is Awareness.
With mindfulness, we become more aware of the relationship between stimulus and response. In life, when something happens, we react. Typically, this process happens so quickly and naturally, that we’re not even aware of it. For example, when someone cuts you off on the road, you instantly react to that event. Do you get to choose how you react? Our impulsive reactivity to events as they unfold is a form of habitual reactivity. It’s so natural and common to react that we’re not even aware that there is no freedom in our reactivity. Mindfulness is a tool that helps us to develop a gap between stimulus and response.
All of our freedom is found within that gap, that space to decide how we want to react to life as it unfolds. Mindfulness is a tool to become free from our habitual reactivity. So how do we become more mindful? Meditation is the tool we use to develop mindfulness.
Our minds are engaged in an ongoing process of assigning meaning to events as they unfold. We create stories about ourselves and others, the guy who cuts us off in traffic, the strange look on the face of the clerk in the grocery store, the tone used by a co-worker, and so on. We’re generally not even aware of this process and yet these stories we create in our own minds can end up being the greatest source of stress in our lives. Meditation has been practiced for thousands of years as a tool to help us move beyond our stress-inducing thoughts and into a more peaceful state of awareness anchored in the present moment.
When practiced regularly, meditation has been proven to increase positive emotion, emotional intelligence, and self-control while at the same time decreasing depression, anxiety, and stress. Here is a simple exercise to see how this can help you.
Mindfulness Meditation Mindfulness Meditation
Individuals and Couples Therapy and Supervision in Surrey
If you have never experienced therapy before it is usual that you may have concerns over what to expect.
Research indicates that it is the quality of the therapeutic relationship that predicts good outcomes in therapy so it is really important that you feel comfortable with the therapist that you choose so if you are looking for an individual or couples counsellor in Woking, Weybridge, New Haw and the surrounding areas then please give me a call as I am happy to offer an initial telephone consultation to answer any questions or concerns that you may have.
I cover the following postcodes KT12, KT13, KT14, KT15, KT16, GU21, GU22, GU24, TW16, TW18 & TW20
