About me

I am an HCPC registered clinical psychologist, psychoanalyst, sex therapist, and independent trainer in clinical and counselling psychology.

Armed with degrees from St Andrews and Exeter, I spent nine years working in the NHS in a number of services, most recently working with men and women with sex and relationship difficulties in an HIV and sexual health service. While sex and sexuality remains an area of expertise, I am interested and experienced in working with adults who want to engage in psychotherapy to think about themselves more deeply, and understand themselves better. I use a psychoanalytic model for therapy, which incorporates aspects of classical and contemporary psychoanalysis.

A lot of people are scared of psychoanalysis, and perhaps rightly so. As a clinical psychologist first, my priority is to make analysis work for you. Analysis perhaps should be challenging, but needn’t be terrifying, at least not all the time! I do have a couch, but it is your choice whether you lie on it or would prefer to sit in a chair. I’m not a fan of being a ‘blank screen’, my style is to be interested, curious and engaged. 

I enjoy thinking and talking about why we do the things we do, and why it is that we repeat patterns of thinking, feeling and behaviour that have their origins in our earliest experiences. Here are some of the reasons that you might come and see me for therapy:

• You realise that an emotional issue has been causing stress for a long time
• You feel sad, anxious, fearful, agitated, or have trouble managing your anger
• You are finding it hard to come to terms with a life change such as a bereavement or loss
• You have trouble making or keeping satisfying relationships, or you are repeatedly drawn into unhappy partnerships, and you want to understand the patterns that underlie the difficulty
• You recognise behaviour that seems out of control, addictive, self-destructive, or attempt to manage your feelings with food, alcohol, drugs or sex
• You are frequently distressed by traumatic memories
• You have trouble obtaining or keeping a satisfying job, or your behaviour keeps you from advancing in your career
• You would like greater insight into yourself and the choices you make, to allow you to change old patterns, overcome challenges or become more resilient
• You find that you need more support than is available in your everyday life
• You have difficulty separating your feelings from the feelings of others
• You lack confidence and want to learn to stand up for yourself
• You have questions about your sexuality or sexual identity
• You are concerned about your sexual interest, arousal, orgasm, performance or attitude to sex
• You have difficulty expressing your feelings, or even knowing what you feel. Perhaps sometimes feelings get expressed as physical symptoms.

In addition to my private therapy work, I also offer clinical and research supervision and academic consultation. I am a member of The Site for Contemporary Psychoanalysis and involved in the training of psychoanalysts there.