I have always been interested in the psychological foundations that shape us. After many years of working as an artist, college lecturer and running therapeutic groups, I had seen creativity and relationship with others encourage growth, confidence, independence, and wellbeing  within youth work, schools, colleges, refugee or community groups, as people made sense of their own experience. Psychotherapy training was then a natural progression.

 

My passion is EMDR because it really works! It is truly transformative and is a powerful tool for trauma or difficult events that still have a 'charge'.

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Integrative Arts Psychotherapy (IAP) can work well alongside EMDR, providing a bridge to the unconscious, and form for feeling. The arts may be starting to identify where we feel things in the body, using a metaphor or an experience or making playlists for emotions, as well as making art, journalling, music etc. Within the therapeutic relationship there is a creative space to experiment. The Humanistic perspective is to ‘walk alongside’ clients, to help people find their resources and thus enable growth. My approach as an IAP is to provide an empathic space to work through issues, and also to build a client’s resilience as part of the reparative process.

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‘The paradox of trauma is that it has the power to destroy and the power to transform and resurrect’ (Levine 2010).

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I have an interest in using videos and articles to help people understand their symptoms, to encourage dialogue and to reduce the stigma of mental health so you will find links  here

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