Do you ever feel like life shouldn’t be this hard?

The basic premise of any therapeutic or coaching relationship is trust. It is fundamental to feel a sense of trust with a therapist in order to make progress. When you are able to trust the therapist it creates a sense of safety to be able to open up and share thoughts, feelings or actions that you may feel embarrassed about, this is a good thing! By experiencing the therapist’s response – which should be empathic and non judgmental – you can start to move beyond the things that have been holding you back. As an example you may have felt so ashamed about previously being sacked that you cannot admit you don’t understand a technical aspect of the job. Without being able to talk about it, because of the shame and embarrassment, you may be tempted to maintain that you did nothing wrong, meanwhile you will be unable to seek training or learn how to do the job better in future, and may experience anxiety or imposter syndrome in future employment. However if you are able to talk about this experience in therapy you will likely feel safe enough to admit your mistakes and try a different approach in future, allowing yourself to seek out the training or support you need and feeling more confident to approach future employers for example.

Ultimately, if you don’t feel trust or safety with the therapist then you may simply need to try a different therapist or a different type of therapeutic intervention. There are many different types of therapy and many different therapists and you will be able to find a good fit.

While I work with a wide range of emotional and psychological challenges, I have particular expertise in supporting neurodivergent adults, burnout, shame, chronic overwhelm, identity following diagnosis, and the impact of trauma.

It really depends on what you want to achieve and how ready you are to uncover the beliefs and behaviours that may have held you back in the past. For some a small number of sessions may feel enough to deal with one issue that you have become ‘stuck’ on sufficiently to move forward. For others there may be a desire to dig deep and work on multiple issues. It is important to know that I am governed by the BACP Ethical Framework and committed to supporting your autonomy. What this means in practice is that I must ensure your sessions with me are bringing maximum benefit. Although we can discuss progress and how the sessions are supporting you at any time, I build in reviews at 6 weekly intervals to ensure you are getting what you want and need from our work together