About me
My main interests are:
Patterning: Working with emotional patterns and psychological patterns and how they are held in the body.
Energetic flow: How the body's energy then flows vibrantly or is compromised, causing pain or dullness.
Touch. What is it like to allow ourselves to be touched - energetically, emotionally, physically. Whether we have to keep touch out or want to let it in.
Relationship: Non-verbal and verbal communication, and how pain and pleasure are linked to how we communicate and listen to ourselves and others. How this influences our relationship to Trust.
Heart, Gut and Body. How we experience and relate to these and whether or not we feel connected to them as living aspects of our reality.
In my twenties I lived and worked in a L'Arche community for 7 years and became interested in how we communicate with our bodies and energetically, specifically non-verbally. I was also interested in how the heart communicates, and its place in our sense of ourselves and in relation to others.
Whilst training in Body Psychotherapy in London I worked for 6 years in a therapeutic project for the rehabilitation of people suffering from eating disorders. Again I was interested very much in how we communicate non-verbally, particularly around pain and pleasure, and in how the body, mind and spirit are linked.
My training in Body Psychotherapy was very experiential. Chiron, the name of the training Centre, resonated strongly with me. Meaning 'wounded healer' we learned that we have to recognise and know our own wounds if we are to help others. Learning to know and bring loving attention to my own wounds is something I consider central to my practice and to my on-going development as a person and a psychotherapist.
My training in all the different types of body and breath work I've mentioned expanded my understanding of working with the energy in the body, and how the heart and gut are as important to psycho-emotional health as is the mind. All my learning has been primarily experiencial and I have a visceral appreciation that we cannot do the work with others unless we are also always working on ourselves.
I have worked in my own private practice since 2005 which became full time in 2014.
Until 2014 I worked part time alongside my private practice as an employee, firstly with KCA, working as a counsellor within GP surgeries, then working with young people aged between 11-18 within a schools project for 3 years.
I enjoy working with individuals, couples and groups.
Professional Qualifications:
* Amanae Practitioner: July 2019
* MA (Distinction) Body Psychotherapy : Anglia Ruskin University with the Cambridge School of Body Psychotherapy: 2015.
Dissertation title: 'Working with the Body in Body Psychotherapy'
* Diploma in Body Psychotherapy from the Chiron Centre: June 2005
* Biodynamic Massage Therapist Qualification Certificate from the Chiron Centre: July 2002
* BA (Hons) II:1 in Music, English and Theology from Durham University: July 1994
Areas of Specialism
Who am I? What am I doing here on the earth?
Mind/Body connection
All kinds of distress and pain
Trauma - developmental, acute and chronic
Eating Disorders
Relational issues
Interests:
I love walking in nature - woods, hills, mountains, valleys, in all weathers.
I love to sing and to feel the vibration of sound
I love to sit still and to listen.
I enjoy being in my body and using techniques such as Daoist Chi Gung and Nei Gung to develop this.