Qualifications & Expertise
I am a Senior BACP (British Association for Counselling & Psychotherapy) Accredited and Registered Counsellor & Psychotherapist and adhere to the BACP Ethics for Counselling and Psychotherapy. I have worked in private practise since 2002.
From November 2011 to September 2013 I have worked as GP counsellor in Westminster seeing people from GP cluster services. In recent years I have focussed on working with people with depression and all kinds of anxiety disorders like phobias, panic attacks, social anxieties, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), trauma and abuse and Eating Disorders such as Anorexia, Bulimia, Binge Eating and Emotional Eating.
In 2012 I completed my Diploma in Transpersonal Couple Counselling and since then I also take on couples who have relationship problems, who want to separate and need help with negotiating and who would like to prepare for marriage or want to make a long lasting commitment to each other. Please see more on my Couple Therapy page.
My qualifications are:
- M.A. in Transpersonal Child, Adolescent & Family Therapy (2018)
- Diploma in Jungian Sandtray Therapy (2018)
- Certificate in Essential Obesity- Psychological Interventions (2015)
- Advanced Diploma in Nutritional Intervention for Eating Disorder (2014)
- Diploma in Practitioner Skills for Eating Disorder (2014)
- Certificate in Personal Coaching (2014)
- Master Practitioner Course in NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) (2013)
- Diploma in Transpersonal Couple Counselling and Psychotherapy (2012)
- Diploma in Clinical Supervision and Consultancy (2010)
- Diploma Transactionnal Analysis Psychotherapy (2004)
- RSA in Person Centred counselling (1999)
I have also attended a variety of trainings and workshops in the following areas:
- Rational Emotive and Cognitive Behaviour Therapy
- Traumatic Incident Reduction (TIR) and Trauma Therapy
- Group Therapy
- Bioenergetics and Primal Therapy
- Sand Tray Therapy
Expertise
Over the last 10 years I have developed an expertise in working with people with OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) and have helped many OCD sufferers to fully recover. I mainly use Rational Emotive and Cognitive Behaviour Therapy as main treatment model. All OCD suffers have some very rigid, irrational beliefs about absolute certainty and safety and think: I absolutely must be safe under all conditions at all times’ and this drives some people into self-defeating rituals, counting’s and obsessions.
My treatment plan for OCD includes some of the following:
- I will show you that you have some specific anxieties, continual obsessions, thoughts, and images and how you engage in repetitious rituals in order to get a temporary relief from anxiety.
- Have you check and explore which OCD symptoms you have and how severely you have them
- Show you that the anxiety that underlies your OCD behaviour is irrational, unrealistic and self defeating.
- Show you that trying to reduce your anxiety by engaging in OCD rituals will only reduce your anxiety temporarily, but increase it in the long term.
- Show you how to challenge and change your irrational, self defeating beliefs together with exposing yourself to your anxiety step by step can have a long lasting effect on reducing your anxiety.
- Show you how to schedule your obsessions and compulsions only at certain specific and limited times, can help you to reduce your obsessions and compulsions to a minimum,
or completely eradicate them. - Teach you breathing and relaxation techniques that help you to reduce your anxiety in a panic attack.
- Teach you how you can help yourself in-between the sessions to reduce your anxiety and compulsions.
Please note OCD is not only obsessive handwashing. You could have OCD if you engage in any obsessive compulsive behaviour such as hording or obsessive thinking and much more. If you think you have OCD, but not sure, please book a one off assessment session without obligation, to find out. If you think you have OCD and you don’t address it, it only gets worse. Please remember, OCD is curable!