Psychotherapy in Chelsea, King's Cross, East London & online
Sometimes life looks fine from the outside and feels very different from the inside.
Free 20 minute introductory call
What may bring you here
People come to therapy for many different reasons and you don't need to have a diagnosis or a perfectly formed explanation for why you're struggling.
You may be anxious or constantly overthinking. Perhaps you're exhausted, burnt out or finding it increasingly difficult to switch off. You may be hard on yourself, doubt yourself despite other people's reassurance, procrastinate or feel that whatever you do is never quite enough.
Relationships may be where things become most difficult. You might struggle with jealousy, insecurity, trust, fear of rejection or abandonment, needing reassurance, difficulty with closeness, or patterns that seem to repeat despite your best efforts to change them.
You may also be carrying the impact of difficult or traumatic experiences. Something that happened a long time ago can still affect the way you respond to closeness, conflict, criticism, uncertainty or feeling out of control.
Or perhaps nothing is obviously wrong. You may feel flat, disconnected, unfulfilled or unsure of what you actually want. Sometimes life looks completely fine from the outside and yet doesn't feel right from the inside. You may usually cope well. You may feel that you're barely coping at all. Either is a perfectly valid place to begin therapy.
how I can help
Anxiety & overthinking
Anxiety can show up as constant thinking, anticipating what might go wrong, difficulty relaxing, self-doubt, physical tension or feeling as though your mind never really switches off. Therapy can help us understand not only how anxiety affects you now but what may be keeping it going.
Relationships, jealousy & insecurity
Relationships can bring up some of our most vulnerable feelings. I work with relationship difficulties including jealousy, insecurity, fear of abandonment, difficulty trusting, reassurance-seeking, fear of rejection, betrayal and patterns of closeness and distance that can be difficult to understand.
Trauma & difficult past experiences
Some people come to therapy knowing that trauma is part of their story. Others would never use that word but recognise that earlier experiences continue to influence how they feel, relate to people or respond to certain situations. I have substantial experience working with trauma and additional training in somatic approaches to complex trauma.
Self-esteem, perfectionism & self-criticism
You may find yourself comparing, doubting, criticising or pushing yourself even when other people see you very differently. We can explore where these ways of relating to yourself developed and what it might mean to live with less pressure from them.
Stress, burnout & work
Sometimes the demands of work and life gradually become unsustainable. Burnout can involve exhaustion, irritability, procrastination, loss of motivation or a growing sense that you cannot continue in the same way. Therapy can create space to understand what has been driving the pressure as well as what needs to change.
Low mood, identity & feeling stuck
You may feel low, flat, disconnected or as though you have lost your direction. Sometimes this follows a particular change or loss, sometimes there is no obvious explanation. Therapy can provide space to explore what has changed, what matters to you and how you want to live.
Understanding what's underneath
Most people arrive in therapy wanting something to stop or wanting to feel better and that's a reasonable place to start. But in my experience, the problem that brings us into therapy is not always the whole story. Anxiety, depression, relationship difficulties, burnout or feeling stuck can sometimes make more sense when we understand the experiences, relationships and meanings that have developed around them.
Some measure of suffering belongs to being alive: to loving people who can be lost, making choices without knowing how they will turn out, living with uncertainty and having a limited amount of time. I would be suspicious of any therapy that promised to remove all of that. What can change is our relationship to what has happened to us and the extent to which old experiences continue to determine how we live now.
Much of what we call feeling stuck can also involve questions of meaning. A life can work perfectly well on paper and still feel empty in practice. You may have become disconnected from something important to you, adapted yourself around other people's expectations or simply reached a point where the way you have been living no longer fits.
My work is about understanding together what is actually happening, where certain patterns may have begun and what they have been costing you. From there, different choices become possible.
How i work
I'm an integrative psychotherapist, which means I don't assume that one therapeutic approach will suit every person or every difficulty.
My work is particularly influenced by relational, psychodynamic and existential psychotherapy and is trauma informed. Where appropriate, I can also draw on my training in somatic approaches to complex trauma.
I pay close attention to what happens between us because the patterns that shape relationships elsewhere can sometimes appear in therapy too. Being able to notice and understand them as they happen can be more useful than analysing them only from a distance.
You know your own experience better than anyone else. My role is to help us understand more clearly what is happening, what may be shaping it and what possibilities become available once you can see it differently.
Therapy with me isn't based on a standard formula. Some periods of our work may focus on what is happening in the present, others may involve your history, relationships, emotions, bodily responses, identity or questions about meaning and how you want to live.
about me
I'm an integrative psychotherapist offering individual therapy to adults in Chelsea, King's Cross and East London and online.
I hold an MA in Psychotherapy and Counselling (Integrative) from Regent's University London and am a registered member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP).
Alongside my private practice, I counsel at Imperial College London. I have also spent years working in a trauma informed service supporting survivors of domestic abuse.
I have additional certificate training in somatic therapy for complex trauma, including body based approaches, polyvagal-informed work, memory reconsolidation, implicit memory and neurobiological perspectives on mind body healing.
Before becoming a psychotherapist, I spent ten years working in the pharmaceutical industry. That experience gave me a firsthand understanding of demanding professional environments, pressure, responsibility and the complicated relationship many of us develop with achievement and performance.
My clinical work is grounded particularly in relational, psychodynamic and existential thinking. I'm interested in the person rather than simply the symptom: how you came to experience yourself and other people in the way that you do, what you have had to adapt to, what matters to you and what may now need to change.
FEES / PRACTICALITIES
Individual psychotherapy sessions are £120 for 50 minutes.
Sessions are usually held once a week at the same time.
I offer a free 20 minute introductory call, this gives you an opportunity to tell me a little about what is bringing you to therapy, ask questions and get a sense of whether working together feels right.
There is no obligation to book a session afterwards.
Ready to take the next step?
FAQ
How long is a session?
Sessions are 50 minutes. We'll meet at the same time each week.
How much do sessions cost?
£120 per session, there is no charge for cancelled sessions if they are cancelled 48hrs in advance.
How often would we meet?
Sessions are once per week.
How many sessions will I need?
I usually suggest that we begin with six sessions and then review together. By then you'll have a real sense of whether this is helping, rather than having to decide in advance. Six is a starting point and you're free to stop at any time. Some people come for a few months to work through something specific, others stay considerably longer.
Do I need to know what's wrong before I come? No. A lot of people arrive saying they don't know why they feel the way they do or that their problem doesn't sound serious enough. Working that out is our work.
Do you offer online sessions?
Yes. I work both in person in Chelsea and online and some clients mix the two.
How do I start?
Book a free 20 minute introductory call in the 'Appointments' section. It's an informal conversation, you can ask whatever you like, tell me as much or as little as you like and this will offer us a chance to see if we're a good fit to work together. There's no obligation to book anything afterwards.
Contact
London, UK
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