How did I get started as a psychotherapist? My start as a psychotherapist came from being interested in people and wanting to understand them. I was a bit of a book nerd and reading Freud on holiday when I was 15 (!) so I never considered anything but working in mental health as a career. […]
My Book Has Arrived
My book has arrived! Very excited to let you know that the past ten years of my psychotherapeutic work with survivors of sexual violence is now in book form. ‘Psychotherapy with Survivors of Sexual Violence: Inside and Outside the Room’ covers this issue from a gender-neutral and empowerment-based perspective. The book includes case studies, and […]
When Trauma Re-surfaces
When trauma re-surfaces… There are a lot of myths about trauma, one of which is that you process what happened straight away and that you can process it quickly. For some people this is true, but for others the impact of trauma can push to the front of your daily life at unexpected times, in […]
When We Meet
When we meet… When I start working with someone new, I’m aware that I may be the latest therapist in a line of therapists they have seen. Or I might be the first. In any case, we have met at a specific point in a client’s life, series of life experiences, and mental health history. […]
Re-empowerment After Experiencing Trauma
Re-empowerment after experiencing trauma… 1 in 3 adults in England have experienced some form of traumatic event. So how do we make sense of trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder? My approach considers an individual’s subjective experience alongside our mental health system that aims to recognise and treat these from an objective perspective. These two perspectives […]
Rewind Therapy
Rewind Technique for Trauma… One thing that makes life with trauma unbearable is its ability to forcibly shape your experiences of your self, relationships, and the wider world as you navigate everyday life. As you try to move forward, the events of the past keep pulling you back. People often think you have to talk […]
Is My Therapist The Right Fit For Me?
How do I know my therapist is the right fit for me? Looking for the right therapist for you can be stressful and daunting, even if you know what you need in someone to adequately support you. My professional experience has taught me that accessing therapy is rarely a linear process. Many people’s experiences include […]
Empowerment in Psychotherapy
The final theme in my book covers how to promote empowerment in psychotherapy with survivors of sexual violence. This is especially important given that sexual violence is inherently disempowering as automatic survival responses come to life as fight, fight, or freeze in the moment. Afterwards these responses may keep happening, alongside a wider society that […]
Psychotherapy as activism
As therapists it’s impossible to work with a human rights injustice, such as sexual violence, purely within the rooms in which we meet survivors. All of the forms this injustice can take are found in so many spaces, meaning that the world is re-traumatising for those already affected by trauma. In a new blog […]
Vicarious Trauma
From inconsistent sleep to physical pain, it is common for therapists to experience stress responses when working with survivors of sexual violence. Part of our roles include looking after ourselves in service of taking care of clients, as we manage the impact of trauma together. In a new blog on PESI (Psychotherapy Excellence) I […]