About Me
My approach is built on a fundamental belief that we all have the resources within us to live a happy and fulfilling life – regardless of our past experiences. I help clients bring their inner resources to the surface so that they can change old patterns of behaviour and beliefs which have no place now in their present, and which are keeping them stuck.
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I have been described as being 'pragmatically positive', 'down to earth' and with 'unwavering hope'.
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I am continually inspired by the uniqueness of each person that I support. Core to how I work is meeting people where they are at, respecting their individuality & offering what I can from my toolkit to meet their specific needs.
I have been in the vocation of helping people for over 20 years.
For many years I worked as a coach in performance sport and fitness. In a field that can have a fine line between healthy stress and distress / burnout, I was continually drawn to helping others maintain good mental and emotional wellbeing, not just physical form or performance outcomes. Back in the early 2000s, this was quite radical!
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Despite doing this work with others extremely well (and also being a high performance athlete myself), I was in denial that I was suffering from anxiety, panic and a long term eating disorder. It wasn’t until my body began to break down and signal its distress though chronic pain that I took myself (reluctantly at first!) to yoga and pilates. From the first session on my mat, I knew that I would be ok. I didn't know how, or why, but I knew that I could begin to feel better. Over time, and with great teachers and a therapist, I learned to unwind patterns of tension that were keeping me stuck and restricted. The anxiety and eating disorder that had hounded me for decades faded away and I credit much of that to the space, respect and guidance that I was given by some wonderful movement practitioners.
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In 2008 I went on to train as a therapeutic pilates practitioner, and then a therapeutic yoga teacher. I primarily worked with people experiencing anxiety, disordered eating, eating disorders, low mood, burnout, chronic pain, and long-term conditions. I studied various other movement modalities to enhance my practice and I became a therapeutic 'talking' coach in 2014 in order to help me support my clients more holistically. Training and qualifying in counselling and psychotherapy was a natural evolution for me, almost inevitable really, and became the final piece to solidifying my practice as it is now.
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Specifically my practice currently draws from somatic therapy, CBT, NLP, mindfulness, breath work, body awareness therapy, yoga, pilates, feldenkrais, compassion focused therapy, acceptance and commitment therapy, poly-vagal theory and schema therapy. I am trauma trained. I am always learning and keeping up with the evolution of movement therapy and psychotherapy.
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I have specialised experience (and training!) in working with disordered eating and eating disorders. I first started working in this area 10 years ago. After talking publicly about my own recovery, clients seemed to find me and I initially supported them through movement practices, often while they also worked with a counsellor. It became clear to me that this was my passion work and I went on do various specialised training courses. It is what ultimately led me to train as a psychotherapist.
From 2020 – 2022, I worked as an eating disorder specialist within the multi-disciplinary team at The Recovery Centre (TRC) in Edinburgh. I am a qualified Eat Breathe Thrive facilitator and was honoured to co-host the first EBT courses in Scotland in 2017.
I am incredibly proud of the specialist eating disorder education and presenting work that I have done with my business associate, Jody Phillips. Aswell as sharing our knowledge on eating disorders in general, we lecture at two universities and are also consulted due to our unique specialist knowledge on the role that movement and exercise therapy can play within eating disorder recovery.
Qualifications
I am a qualified Psychotherapist with post graduate diploma in CBT, counselling and group therapy. I am a member of BACP (Membership number: 01014388). I am also a qualified and certified therapeutic yoga teacher, therapeutic pilates teacher, personal trainer, Level 3 triathlon coach and triathlon tutor.
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I have certifications in NLP, Schema therapy, Somatic parts, Acceptance & Commitment Therapy, Compassion Focused Therapy, Mindfulness and Dialectic Behaviour Therapy. I am due to complete the Advanced Diploma in Eating disorders and Neurodiversity (through NEDDE) in June.
I also have specialist trainings in Autism and Eating Disorders, CBT for eating disorders, Schema Therapy for eating disorders, Body image in teenagers, CBT for body image, Trauma informed Movement Therapy and Somatic trauma therapy.
I am committed to regularly attending webinars and CPD events and reading to keep my knowledge and practice up to date. I am in regular supervision, have been through in-depth therapy myself and I have been abiding by the code of ethics set out by BACP since 2016.