I have an specialist interest in Autism and Aspergers, in addition to working with problems including depression, anxiety and low self-esteem. I am particularly keen to provide a safe space in which my clients can explore long held feelings of being ‘different’, of being tolerated but not fully accepted, of feeling dissatisfied, disappointed and exhausted by the effort required in trying to continuously please others.
It is usually a relief to realise you are not alone in feeling like this and that it is possible to find your preferred way of being in the world and to decide to stop feeling the need to justify being your authentic self.
Unfortunately, it is often the case that autistic adults have had a poor experience of counselling and psychotherapy where the practitioner has not had sufficient understanding of the ways in which the world looks so very different to their autistic client. I have a particular interest in supporting adults who find they are struggling to come to terms with what it means to be autistic and the support I offer is very different to that which my clients tell me they have experienced elsewhere.
Qualifications:
- Psychology BSc (Hons)
- Diploma TA Counselling
- Diploma Integrative Psychotherapy
- MA Autism Spectrum
- CBT Cert.
- Mentoring Cert.
Current training & study/research:
- Autism Spectrum - current course of study & research
I am registered Member of the
British Association for
Counselling & Psychotherapy.
I work to their ethical and
professional standards.
A brief overview of my professional training and experience:
- I first began working in mental health in 1999, as a psychology undergraduate, initially in a psychiatric inpatient setting.
- I went on to work on an acquired brain injury unit alongside behavioural psychologists, before beginning training in Transactional Analysis in Edinburgh.
- During this time I worked with Hearing Voices Network and the National Schizophrenia Fellowship Scotland, supporting individuals and groups of voice hearers. I also ran a city centre mental health drop-in and was supervisor of a telephone support line.
- After moving back to England, I managed projects for mental health charities in the north-west, recruiting, training and supervising volunteers and staff supporting people with experience of severe and enduring mental ill-health.
- I worked for a number of years at Understanding Autism Northwest, a specialist autism counselling charity which has now sadly closed.
- I have worked for a number of years, and continue to work, in private practice, based in Helmshore, Rossendale, East Lancashire.