Working in the field since 1992, I have many years of experience. This includeds the NHS, charitable sector, education and private practice. I work with a range of issues including mental health, anger, anxiety, bereavement, depression, self-esteem and sexuality, as well as supporting personal development and self-exploration. Current employment includes tutoring in counselling, and being a faculty member of the Gestalt Centre London.
Therapy (psychotherapy & counselling) offers you the opportunity to work creatively and understand yourself better. The more you understand yourself, the more you are able to make changes in your life.
People come to therapy for lots of different reasons. It might be that you feel unhappy or discontented with your life. It could be because you have had a difficult or traumatic experience. You may be going through a tough time like a redundancy, separation from a partner or bereavement. Perhaps you experience trouble sleeping, feel stressed or anxious. Do you struggle to like yourself?
Many people have therapy to understand themselves more. You might want to find out why you react to people or circumstances in a particular way – why someone presses your buttons when others don’t. Maybe you want to be more assertive or communicate differently. You might simply want to get to know yourself better.
I sometimes think of therapy with this metaphor: people are like buildings. A building might be constructed well enough to stand up to tough conditions like rain, snow and wind, as well as bright sunny days. It might even survive a hurricane. Over time its foundations might need work and the odd interior walls might need strengthening. Perhaps some of the foundations weren’t constructed well and have weakened the building over time. Therapy can help with this by identifying where the repairs are needed, and support you whilst the work is carried out.
We do this through working creatively and talking. Freud has referred to it as “chimney sweeping”. Through talking we can discover all sorts of things about you, which in turn will help us to make sense of what’s happening for you. Hopefully, you will become more aware of yourself and through this awareness you will be more likely to change, if that’s what you want to do.
To help raise awareness we will also focus on how past, present and future difficulties are affecting you in the here and now.
Therapy is confidential. This means that what we talk about will remain secret between us. There are a few reasons why I might need to break confidentiality. I will explain more about these when we meet for the first time.
Please note that my highest degree (MA) is in art psychotherapy, and that my professional title for private practice is 'Art Psychotherapist'. Although I might invite you to use creativity in your appointments, you do not need to do so and it is not a pre-requisite for the work.
As an experienced & qualified clinical supervisor, I provide supervision to both training and qualified therapists - individually or in groups.
The BACP (2011) states:
Supervision is a formal arrangement for therapists to discuss their work regularly with someone who is experienced in both therapy and supervision.
The purpose of supervision is:
Reference: Despenser, S. (2011) What is supervision? – S2 information sheet, BACP, UK
For over 25 years I have designed, delivered and evaluated bespoke training courses for a range of organisations - including the NHS, colleges, universities, charities, corporate and private clients.
Courses and seminars include:
Easily accessible from Tottenham Court Road, Holborn and Covent Garden tube stations.
GDPR: Please note, if you are a user of my services, any information such as your personal details will be stored securely. They will be kept confidential and only used to ensure service provision, in accordance with the requirements stipulated by the GDPR legislation and ethical bodies such as the BACP, HCPC & BAAT. Please let me know if, at any point, you would like to have your details removed from my storage.