Safety, Empathy, Confidentiality

My goal as a therapist is to improve the emotional and personal development of each person I work with. I combine clinical therapy skills with a deep understanding in a safe, empathetic and confidential environment. I help you identify underlying feelings and emotions, which allow you to live in a productive manner, free from guilt, doubt and worry.

I work from the following counselling approaches:

Narrative Therapy

It is often our perceptions of events that cause us discomfort and pain. Using a narrative therapy approach, as your therapist we work together with your “story” to explore, expand and alter its meaning so that you can be happier and more fulfilled.

Solution Focused Brief Therapy

This approach to counselling focuses on what you want to achieve through therapy rather than dwelling on the problem(s) that made you seek help. As your counsellor, I use respectful curiosity to invite you to envision your preferred future and then work towards helping you achieve this.

Person Centered Therapy

Through being present and really hearing you, the goal of PCT is to provide you with an opportunity to develop a sense of yourself wherein you can realize how your attitudes, feelings and behaviour are being negatively affected and then make an effort to find your true positive potential.

EMDR: Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing therapy

EMDR is an integrative psychotherapy approach that has been extensively researched and proven effective for the treatment of trauma. EMDR is a set of standardized protocols that incorporates elements from many different treatment approaches. To date, EMDR therapy has helped millions of people of all ages relieve many types of psychological stress. No one knows how any form of psychotherapy works neurobiologically or in the brain. However, we do know that when a person is very upset, their brain cannot process information as it does ordinarily. One moment becomes "frozen in time," and remembering a trauma may feel as bad as going through it the first time because the images, sounds, smells, and feelings haven’t changed. Such memories have a lasting negative effect that interferes with the way a person sees the world and the way they relate to other people. EMDR seems to have a direct effect on the way that the brain processes information. Normal information processing is resumed, so following a successful EMDR session, a person no longer relives the images, sounds, and feelings when the event is brought to mind. You still remember what happened, but it is less upsetting. Many types of therapy have similar goals. However, EMDR appears to be similar to what occurs naturally during dreaming or REM (rapid eye movement) sleep. Therefore, EMDR can be thought of as a physiologically based therapy that helps a person see disturbing material in a new and less distressing way.

Couples Therapy:

I specialize in working alongside heterosexual and queer couples who are looking to stay together or separate in a respectful way. My approach to working with couples is entered around re-visiting client’s shared values, bringing to light what worked well for their relationship in the past and exploring what changes best serve the relationship going forward.

Is the health of your relationship suffering due to any of the following problems:

You don’t feel like you hear one another; arguments keep going around in circles and escalate. Unhelpful communication patterns dominate your conversations and make things worse.

You feel hopeless; you have tried to figure out how to resolve your problems, but it has not helped.

You feel disengaged from your partner; you want to be close to one another but you feel lonelier than when you were single.

You feel angry at your partner; you know that due to repeated arguments you’re seeing red and don’t know how to view your problems from a different perspective.

You are tired of all the fighting and feel like this has gone on for too long; but you are willing to give it another try through couples counselling.

The changes that you can look forwards to seeing in your relationship through Couples Counselling:

Re-visit shared values and re-remember what connected and attracted you to one another in the first place.

Increase the feeling of lightness, playfulness and fun in your relationship.

Improve self-awareness and learn techniques so that you can both be more present during your conversations and truly hear one another.

Re-think how you communicate so that you can express your emotions and thoughts in a way that gets both of your needs met.

Increase your emotional and physical connection to one another.

Are you ready to move forward? Contact me or make an appointment at the button above.