Welcome & About Me

Welcome to the blog! Here you will find information guides, short posts and content offering wellbeing support for all.

My Work:

I am very grateful to have the opportunity to live and work amidst the beauty of Cumbria. I am surrounded by a landscape and people that resource and support me in my parenting role as a mother of three thriving young adults, and as a Consultant Psychologist.

I provide psychological assessments and therapy for children, adults and families, both those who have experiences of Local Authority care and adoption, and also families and individuals who have not.

I also provide consultation and training to a wide range of professionals, with a focus upon parenting, resilience, wellbeing & the unconscious stories we live by.

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​My work primarily focuses upon emotional wellbeing or as my daughters might say:

‘living your best life.’

My work is trauma-informed and trauma-sensitive whilst being focused upon personal growth and wellbeing.

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I use an integrative approach that is underpinned by a person-centred/child-centred perspective that validates the client’s experience. I combine this with a psychodynamic approach that recognises the power of the unconscious as the unconscious driver of our thoughts, feelings and behaviours. Since much of our unconscious mind remains in the shadow (unavailable to our conscious awareness) I believe that developing our ability to be reflective and empathic about our unconscious process is key to wellbeing. e.g., often we allow our critical voice to have full reign when we behave in ways that we regret, but it can be more beneficial if we speak kindly to ourselves and take the time to empathically understand the unconscious driver of the faux pas or dysregulated behaviour.

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We can explore these aspects of ourselves through personal development activities such as somatic or creative practices like journaling or mindfulness. However if you have a history of trauma this work is ideally done at depth with a skilled professional who is trauma-sensitive and one who understands unconscious dynamics and defences.

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Wellbeing, resilience and emotional intelligence occur through attuned relationships, similarly, trauma recovery occurs through attuned and reparative relationships.

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A key concept in my work is the idea of an embodied mind that is shaped by our environment, and in particular our relationships with our primary caregivers (typically our parents), our culture and our peers. We are shaped by relationships and shaped by the storied world that we live in.

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Since the early 90’s I have been developing my expertise in the field of Wellbeing, Parenting, Relational Wellbeing, and Developmental Trauma & Dissociation. I use an integrative psychological approach that is informed by six years of doctoral training in both clinical and counselling psychology, and augmented by training in creative approaches, storytelling, mindfulness, relaxation and somatic movement & wellbeing.

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​The stories that we ‘take in’ shape the stories that we tell about ourselves, and the stories we tell are the stories we live by.

Please note, whilst I welcome enquiries, I have a waiting list that is often as long as a year. You can find other registered practitioners via the HCPC, BPS, UKCP and BACP.