Counselling, or therapy (I use the terms interchangeably) give you space and time to think and talk about yourself and what’s on your mind.

A counsellor or therapist will listen, but also actively participate in the session by questioning, offering ideas, views, suggestions and comments.

People find it helpful for different reasons. It can:

• Allow you to talk about a situation you find tough, which you may never have shared with anyone before
• Help you understand yourself and the way you relate to others
• Provide an outlet to unburden, so you feel lighter and less stressed so  you can cope better
• Offer a supportive relationship without judgement
• Help you work through your situation and address your difficulties at your own pace.

Coaching – like therapy – can be truly transformational. But, unlike therapy, it’s typically shorter-term and future focused.

As a therapist, I can help you heal and process past or present challenges and tackle the underlying causes of destructive patterns and the reasons you feel stuck.

Coaching, however, is all about action, supporting you to achieve your personal or professional goals. We may look at how the ‘there and then’ is impacting on the ‘here and now’, but the focus isn’t about understanding past or overcoming traumatic events.

With counselling, we typically meet at the same time every week for 50 minutes, and this can be for many weeks or even months. Whereas coaching sessions are typically every two or three weeks for a limited time.

In short, no. I will work with you so you can make the best decision to suit your own personal circumstances. While I may offer different perspectives on a problem, I will not tell you what to do or give you all the answers. You are the expert in your life, so I will support you to find your own solutions, and help build your confidence and self-esteem.

Yes, I am a registered member of the British Association for Counselling & Psychotherapy for counselling and coaching, which is a national standards body for counsellors and psychotherapists. I am also specially trained and experienced in working with clients remotely.

I am an integrative therapist and life coach who specialises in issues relating to mums and mums-to-be. 

I draw from different counselling and coaching approaches to help my clients, depending on their needs. Sometimes, what you want and what works for you will vary from session to session, so I work in a very fluid way.

The main counselling theories I use are Person-Centred, Psychodynamic, Transactional Analysis, Transpersonal and Existential therapy.

As you’ll probably have realised, there are many different therapeutic schools of thought. Finding what works can be tiring and daunting for you. In our initial session, we discuss what you would like from counselling and what you feel might work for you. 

You may not know the answers right now, but we can work together to find them. This is an opportunity for you to decide if you think we can work together and whether the work I offer will suit your needs.

Our initial session will hopefully help answer this question. It is important that you feel comfortable with me and that we can build a trusting relationship and a safe place where you feel able to explore anything you wish.

I won’t be the right person to help everybody, and this could be for many reasons. For example if I remind you of somebody you had/have issues with, you may feel uncomfortable. 

I encourage all my clients to be open and honest and give me feedback about how we are working together so we get the most of out our sessions.

The counselling I offer focuses on emotional and mental health and typically takes place over months rather than weeks. It is appropriate for people needing support to manage complex emotional challenges, such as anxiety, depression, trauma or other mental health issues.

Coaching, on the other hand, is a structured, action-oriented process designed to help individuals achieve specific goals. As a coach, I work with clients to identify challenges, set objectives and create strategies for success. Unlike therapy, coaching focuses primarily on the future rather than delving into past experiences.

Please be aware that coaching is not ‘therapy lite’ and is no substitute for counselling.

Still not sure? Why not book a discovery call with me.

I try and be clear upfront about the therapy I offer to avoid any misplaced expectations. I describe what I do as ‘deep work’ rather than a quick fix. We will likely explore your past, as well as your present, as I believe your upbringing has an important impact on the way we live our lives today.

So if you’re looking for a short-term fix, perhaps coping strategies and techniques that help in the here and now, it may be that a Cognitive Behavioural Therapy counsellor might be better suited to your needs.

I’d thoroughly recommend looking through the different types of counselling modalities before committing to seeing a new therapist. It’s important you choose someone who you believe is the right fit for you. 

However, finding the right therapist can be bit of trial and error. Hopefully you will get a good sense of whether we would work well together after our initial consultation.

It’s tempting to want quick results from counselling, and wonder whether it’s ‘working’ or not after a few sessions. All I will say is only you will know if therapy is helping or not, and it may be that you feel worse before you see improvements. 

That is because you may need to revisit past hurts to understand and accept them, which can feel painful. However, rest assured we will take our sessions at whatever pace is right for you and then find positive ways to manage these feelings or resultant behaviours.

In coaching, you are responsible for setting and working towards achieving your goals. In each session, we will assess your progress and I will help keep you accountable.

I tend to work with clients who are trying to conceive, or new mums. Normally my clients have children who are babies, toddlers or preschool age. However, if you have older children and you feel I can help, please reach out for a chat.

Absolutely. A key part of my service is working with mums-to-be who are trying to conceive but have yet to become pregnant. I also work with clients who have decided they want to end their fertility journey, and are looking for acceptance and closure. Whatever your circumstances, feel free to contact me and we can have a chat about how I might be able to help.

I aim to come back to all new enquiries within 48 hours to arrange an initial consultation.

If you book a free 20-minute discovery call, we will go into more detail about your situation and what you’d like to achieve from therapy or coaching. This is a good opportunity to assess whether you believe we are a good fit and can work well together.

If that’s the case, great! You are welcome to sign up to as many or as few sessions as you like. If necessary, I will also consider whether there are more suitable organisations that can better suit your needs.

The first initial session allows us to set your objectives for our work together, as well as to discuss boundaries and our ‘working alliance’ contract. 

I will explain the process, gather important background information and we can identify aims and goals together. You can ask questions, and share anything you wish without judgement from me.

A strong focus from the first session is running through some paperwork and contracting. This might sound a bit boring, and you may just want to get stuck in. However, it’s a vital part of the process to ensure we both understand each other’s boundaries to ensure a healthy therapeutic relationship.

I encourage my clients to speak up if they are uncomfortable with anything as early as possible. So, if you feel parts of the contract don’t suit you, we can discuss this and personalise it to our work together.

This is entirely up to you – there is no set amount – and everyone’s personal circumstances are different. Even if your situation is similar to someone else’s, your experience of the issue may be different, so the number of sessions you need completely depends.

However, we will regularly review whether you are finding the sessions helpful. I always suggest starting with six sessions for both counselling and coaching to enable us to make progress towards your objective or goal. If these prove helpful then we continue. When you no longer feel as though you need to carry on, we can agree a plan for ending.

Each counselling and coaching session is 50 minutes in total. I try to stick firmly to this time boundary due to the nature of my practice, as I often see clients back to back, with a 10-minute break in between. Therefore I will keep a regular check on the time throughout our session, so you don’t have to. I will draw the session to an end promptly as we reach the 50-minute mark.

Counselling sessions are typically weekly. I suggest booking appointments at the same time each week for consistency, and to ensure you secure a regular session. For coaching, the cadence of the sessions is typically every two to three weeks.

You can be flexible and I will do my best to accommodate any requests, but I am often booked up and therefore I cannot always guarantee your appointment if not arranged in advance.

I tend to offer appointments during the working week, and have the odd evening session available. I currently do not provide my service at the weekend. I keep the homepage of my website up to date to show whether I have any free slots, and have a waiting list when I’m fully booked.

The gaps between weekly sessions can sometimes seem huge. There are times when difficult things happen that can really set you back. 

If you’re finding it hard between sessions, email me and I will try and book you in for an additional appointment. However, for more immediate assistance, you can seek support from your GP or the Samaritans.

I understand that there might be situations where you won’t be able to attend the session. Please give as much notice as possible if you need to cancel or postpone. If you cancel more than two appointments in a row or in quick succession, it may be that we will need to review how we best work together. If I need to cancel an appointment, I will give you as much notice as I can. All appointments are payable by bank transfer before we begin our session.

If you sign up to a block of six sessions and pay in full in advance, and decide you no longer want to continue mid-way through, I will refund you for the sessions you haven’t taken.

You will find counsellors and coaches offering their services at a range of different prices to fit all budgets.

I set my fees in accordance with the fact I am a specialist, working predominately with pre-, post and perinatal mental health.

I currently provide voluntary counselling with a local charity and therefore do not offer a discount on my private practice services. 

Research has consistently shown that remote therapeutic work is as effective as face to face. All you need is a computer, a decent internet connection and a quiet private space to begin.

It also has many further advantages. As I work with mums and mums-to-be, the feedback I’ve received is that being online saves clients precious time. You can also dial in from the comfort of your own home. I find that if you’re comfortable, you are more likely to feel able to get the most from our session together. 

And, by working remotely, I am able to help clients from all over the UK rather than being limited to clients in my immediate area.

I am unable to provide support to clients from certain countries due to insurance purposes. However, if you are interested in finding out whether I can help you and you’re based outside the UK, please complete my enquiry form and I will be in touch.

For therapy, yes! The advantage of working remotely is I can work with new mums with their babies. However, I typically suggest this arrangement is best for babies under a year old. 

On occasion I have also offered ‘walk and talk’ therapy, where we speak on the phone during sessions. These can work well when your baby is having a nap in their pram. Please contact me about your circumstances and we can try and come to an agreement that works best for you.

Note that the above relates to therapy only and not coaching. I only offer coaching sessions via video call rather than on the phone due to the nature of the work.

Walk and talk therapy is essentially having a traditional counselling session outdoors. You and I speak on the phone while we separately go for a walk. These sessions can work brilliantly! They get us out into the fresh air, in nature, and it can be hugely beneficial. Check out some of the benefits in this useful Counselling Directory article.

However, there are some considerations to bear in mind when working this way, and we can discuss this at our initial session. For example, if it rains, you may prefer to switch to an online (indoors) session instead. I only suggest walk and talk therapy if you are able to speak freely, in a quiet environment. And we will only schedule these sessions during daylight hours for safety purposes.

Note that the above relates to therapy only and not coaching. I only offer coaching sessions via video call rather than on the phone due to the nature of the work.

Yes, you can work on all types of devices, providing your connection to the internet is fast enough.

The video quality of your session will depend on how good your webcam is and the speed of your internet connection.

For the best audio quality, do consider using a headset with a microphone or headphones.

Technology is a wonderful thing, when it works! Occasionally we might find one of our wifi signals fails through no fault of our own, or perhaps a laptop runs out of battery. Should this happen, we will discuss your preferred alternative way of continuing our session at our initial meeting. This might be over FaceTime, WhatsApp or over the phone.

I don’t believe there are good or bad problems, or that people are broken or can be ‘cured’. In fact, we are all a work in progress doing the best we can, myself included. The most important thing about seeking out therapy is you are being proactive in addressing your situation, which is a real positive.

What I can do is help you explore what you would like to achieve in our sessions and look at ways we can do this. I can work with you to discover your own resources that may lie hidden within, and help you to understand and heal the pain, anxiety or any other feeling that you do not wish to carry.

This is a really common worry. Rest assured, I am trained to be non-judgemental in my approach, and to respect differences and diversity. And on the contrary, if you’ve contacted me because something is troubling you, then it’s important you are heard and understood.

Confidentiality is at the heart of my practice, and I take this extremely seriously. Anything you share with me will be treated confidentially except in a small number of circumstances, such as if you were to tell me you may do serious harm to yourself or to others. 

If any of these situations occur, I will discuss breaking confidentiality with you beforehand, where possible. If at any point during our work I feel that you are in need of emergency support, I might ask for your permission to contact your GP or your emergency contact.

I include further information about the parameters of confidentiality as part of the contracting conversation we will have at the initial session.

It’s completely normal to want to know what’s going to happen to your personal details and assessment notes. I will provide you with more detailed information about my privacy policy as part of the contracting process in our first session.

I say to all my clients, if you have any feedback or feel unhappy about the counselling or coaching I provide in any way, please let me know! I hope that you feel comfortable to talk to me so that we can try to address the problem together. However, I understand this may not always be easy or possible at times. Under these circumstances, you can contact the BACP and follow its complaints procedure.