Halfway Tree Therapy

Becoming a psychotherapist

My route into education came later in life.

I entered university at forty and went on to complete an MSc in Integrative Psychotherapy at distinction level and an MA in Psychosocial Studies at Birkbeck, University of London, also at distinction level.

I am now a UKCP accredited Integrative Psychotherapist and a qualified Clinical Supervisor.

My academic work deepened questions that had interested me for much longer: how our inner worlds are shaped by relationships and society, how experiences become carried psychologically and physically, and how identity, race, class, power, culture and belonging enter the therapeutic room.

I have subsequently taught psychotherapy students and facilitated group process at the Sherwood Psychotherapy Training Institute. I have also been a guest lecturer at Birkbeck, University of London and SPTI and have contributed written work to Contact Magazine.

Before becoming a psychotherapist, my professional life included many years working alongside children, young people and adults in education and community settings. My work has included safeguarding, domestic abuse, violence against women and girls, healthy relationships, consent and supporting people through periods of significant transition.

These different parts of my life have given me a perspective on psychotherapy that extends beyond theory alone.

Creativity, nature and the spaces between words

I am also an artist.

Creativity has been part of my life for much longer than psychotherapy has had a name in it.

I am fascinated by the ways human beings communicate experiences that cannot always be spoken directly. Sometimes we understand something through an image, an object, a colour, a metaphor, a sensation or a memory before we are able to explain it in words.

My own artwork has explored identity and internalised racism, and my creative practice continues to influence how I think about psychological experience.

Nature is important to me too. I am interested in our relationship with the environments around us and in the ways particular places, objects and landscapes can carry memory, safety, meaning and belonging.

This does not mean that therapy with me requires creativity, art or any particular way of expressing yourself. It simply means that words are not the only language I am prepared to listen to.

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What I Do

I practise relationally and integratively.

Qualifications, theories and professional experience matter enormously to me, but psychotherapy is ultimately an encounter between two human beings.

I therefore do not approach people as problems to be solved.

I work with people experiencing anxiety, depression, trauma, shame, loss, relationship difficulties and major life transitions. I also have a particular interest in identity, belonging, complex histories and the experience of trying to understand oneself after circumstances that may have required survival before there was space for reflection.

Some people arrive in therapy knowing precisely what they want to explore. Others simply know that something no longer feels right.

Both are legitimate places to begin.

Perhaps the thread running through my own personal, academic and professional journey is a belief that our beginnings matter deeply, but they do not have to dictate our endings.

Sometimes we inherit a map.

Sometimes we have to draw our own.

The Therapeutic Relationship

At the heart of my integrative approach is the therapeutic relationship. I believe that being met with curiosity, honesty and without judgement can create the conditions in which difficult experiences can begin to be thought about differently.

Therapy with me is collaborative. I will not assume that I know what an experience means simply because I recognise something within it. Instead, we will explore together what has shaped you, what may be happening in your life now, and what you might want to understand, change or come to terms with.

There may be things you already have words for and other experiences that are harder to name. We can make room for both.

Our work may involve exploring relationships, patterns, memories, emotions, identity or experiences from the past that continue to make themselves known in the present. At other times, therapy may simply offer somewhere to stop and listen to yourself without having to meet the expectations of anybody else.

Beginning Therapy

You do not need to arrive knowing exactly what you want from therapy.

You may be looking for change. You may be trying to understand why particular patterns keep repeating. You may be carrying something from the past, questioning something about who you are, or simply have a sense that life could feel different.

Whatever brings you, we can begin there.

If you are considering psychotherapy with me, you are welcome to get in touch. We can have an initial conversation about what brings you to therapy, what you are looking for and whether working together feels right.

Sometimes beginning is simply finding somewhere you feel able to speak.

Reach Out

Difference, Identity and Belonging

None of us enters the therapy room without a history.

Our experiences are shaped not only by what has happened to us personally, but by the families, communities, cultures and social worlds in which we have lived. Race, ethnicity, culture, class, gender, sexuality, disability, age and belonging can all influence how we experience ourselves and how we are experienced by others.

As a mixed race woman, I bring my own lived understanding of what it can mean to inhabit more than one world and to negotiate questions of identity and belonging. That experience informs my sensitivity to difference, but I do not assume that it gives me knowledge of yours.

Your experience remains your own.

I welcome people across different cultures, identities, sexualities, genders, relationships and ways of living. This includes people who identify as LGBTQ+, people exploring or questioning their sexuality or gender, and those trying to understand parts of themselves that may not have felt easy, safe or possible to express elsewhere.

Difference is not something I regard as an additional issue to be accommodated in therapy. It is part of being human and, where it matters to you, it deserves space within our work.

Whether you come to me privately, through an organisation, an Employee Assistance Programme or private healthcare, I will meet you first as a person rather than as a category, diagnosis or referral.