To find answers for myself. My environment, while supportive in practical ways, was unable to give me the language with which to make sense of myself and the people around me. The TV show The Mentalist sparked my interest as I realised there’s a language of human behaviour that I could learn. That small but fierce need in me to make meaning of what I observed within and around me led me to become a counsellor.

The feeling of being on the edge of what I know about people and myself is thrilling to me. While my training and continued education gives a sense of knowing, the reality of this job never seizes to amaze me. My work continues to be challenging and rewarding on a daily basis. This forces me to go deeper into my own work with my therapist, which in turn deepens my work with my clients. My clients have been my best teachers and I’m grateful to be in a position where people risk vulnerability with me in the therapy room.

Hope is the most important thing I hope clients take away after their first session with me. Hope that they can feel more settled within their own minds. Hope that they can be themselves as fully as possible..

I wish a client considering therapy would understand that when one hires a gym instructor, they don’t lift the weights for us. A common wish that clients come in with is that the therapist would listen to their problem and tell them how to solve it. Thought it’s natural to want this, it is a wish. In therapy, the client does the work, the therapist supports.

The relationship that I build with my clients is that of an ally. An ally who is deeply interested in seeing them and accepting them for who they are. An ally who reflects what they see so that they too can see and accept themselves as they are.

My greatest learning from my clients has been resilience. The creativity that I have witnessed in the way that my clients have made the best of their adverse circumstances leaves me in awe of them.

A strength as a counsellor that I value and appreciate is my humour. Well timed and respectful humour breaks ice and builds alliance faster than anything else I do.

I tend to my small balcony garden, listen to a lot of music and have small home decor craft projects. It seems my curiosity is insatiable when it comes to learning about people and their stories, so I spend much of my free time seeking people’s stories in real life and in media.

My therapeutic approach is an integration of relational Gestalt therapy and Psychodynamic therapy. It is oriented towards awareness and acceptance of self, others and the world. To gain awareness, we look at childhood to contextualise the present. My therapeutic approach emphasises the need for acceptance of who we are before attempting to change ourselves into someone we believe we should be. Desired change becomes a natural outcome of acceptance.

I create a safe and affirmative space first and foremost by acknowledging my limitations as a cis-het woman. I take the stance of learning from the person in front of me about them as opposed to taking an expert position. I believe my client is the expert on themselves. I also bring into the therapy room, the larger and powerful systems that threaten safety.