MY BACKGROUND TO COUNSELLING & PSYCHOTHERAPY
I trained in Therapeutic Counselling in Dartington, Devon and qualified with CAPAB in 2000. I then established a thriving private practice in central Exeter. Early 2020, I relocated to south-west France, co-incindentally the year of lock-down, and transferred to on-line work. Since returning to Devon in 2024, I continue to offer on-line sessions.
Integral to my training was self-enquiry, including in-depth personal therapy. My work is informed by continuing professional study and practice and by my own therapeutic process. I am committed to on-going personal exploration, for my own sake and essentially for my clients’.
Further training and workshops include:
2003: Somatic Trauma Therapy training with Babette Rothschild (author of The Body Remembers, Norton, 2000 and Help for the Helper, Norton, 2003).
2004: Cognitive Behavioural Therapy
2006: Sex Matters
2006 – 07: Focusing (levels 1 & 2)
2008: Working with Couples with Juliet Grayson.
2010: Working with Compulsive Gamblers training with Gamcare www.gamcare.co.uk
2011: Personality Disorders
2011: The Boarding School Experience training with Nick Duffell, Helena Lovendal and Joy Shaverien (author of Boarding School Syndrome, The psychological trauma of the ‘privileged’ child, Routledge, 2015).
2014-15: Boarding School Workshop Facilitation with Nick Duffell (author of The Making of Them, Lone Arrow Press, 2000, Wounded Leaders, Lone Arrow Press, 2015, and co-author with Thurstine Bassett of Trauma, Abandonment & Privilege, Routledge, 2016).
2017-18: Experience gained in Group Therapy
2018: Shakti Dance experience
I also work with ex-servicemen and women who have asked for support through the organisation The Long Boat Home www.thelongboathome.co.uk
2023: Workshops for Onlinevents – ‘Boarding School Trauma: Healing Sanctioned Child Abuse’
2023: Workshop for Onlinevents – ‘Exploring the riches of working with Elder Clients’
2024 – 25: ‘Medicine Women Medicine Ways’ – exploring shamanic healing practices with Eagle’s Wing www.eagleswing.co.uk
In 2011, I published Does Therapy Work?, based on my own story as client in therapy.
‘DOES THERAPY WORK?’
Troutbeck Press, 2011. ISBN 978-0-9567857-0-1
In addition, I have written a number of articles drawn from my personal experiences. These are listed under ‘Publications.’
From 2012-18, I was a director of Boarding Concern, now renamed as Boarding School Concern, an organisation that understands the trauma of disrupted attachment inherent to this peculiarly British form of child-rearing, and recognises the impact of surviving institutional living on intimate relationships in adulthood. Boarding School Concern offers support and information to current and former boarders and to parents www.boardingschoolconcern.org.uk
Since 2013 I have facilitated regular 1- and 2-day workshops to raise awareness amongst therapists of the Boarding School Experience.
