I first received counselling as a young person in school and then later on in my adult life. Speaking with a counsellor gave me a consistent and safe space to put words to my feelings and emotions. It also allowed me to experience a unique relationship where I felt deeply understood and accepted. No matter what I felt or thought, I didn't feel judged. My counsellor never tried to tell me what to do but they did help me to make sense of what I was experiencing.

Going through multiples experiences of counselling taught me about how beneficial it can be. It also helped fuel my personal drive to pursue a career as a counsellor myself; so that I could offer others what was offered to me.

You might feel a bit nervous or anxious about starting counselling and reaching out to someone you've never met. This is completely normal and something that most people feel prior to starting counselling. Here's a few things you might find helpful to know about counselling:

• There is no right or wrong way for you to do counselling. You won’t be judged on how you’re doing or performing and all thoughts, feelings and emotions are welcome.

• It’s very normal for things to feel a bit worse before they feel better. Counselling often involves talking about topics that might feel difficult and perhaps uncomfortable at times.

• Counselling is not about advice giving, constant progress or quick fixes. While I may, at times, share with you what I’m sensing or noticing, my job is not to tell you what to do. And while I wish I could provide a quick fix to make things feel better, that’s just not possible when dealing with complex emotional difficulties.

• What we discuss during our time together is confidential. Confidentiality is rule number 1 in counselling and is extremely important in us building meaningful trust and safety.

I'm a relational counsellor that works within an integrative approach. This essentially means two things;

1. The quality of our relationship is key to the counselling.
2. I integrate a mix of different approaches so that I can adapt the therapy to best suit you.

My two main approaches are person-centred counselling and psychodynamic counselling.

Person-centred counselling is led by you but I will help to facilitate our discussion and listen to you, without judgment. Many people who start counselling aren't quite sure what they're feeling or why they feel the way they do. Person-centred counselling aims to help you make sense of this confusion or messiness, and grow your self-awareness. It aims to help you to recognise, understand and feel all of your emotions - the difficult ones as well as the positive ones so that we can work through what's causing you difficulty.

Psychodynamic counselling: Many of us may move through life finding certain things really hard, without quite knowing why. For example, finding it hard to trust others, or feel that we're worthy of being accepted for who we truly are. Psychodynamic counselling involves unpacking and revisiting how your early-life experiences may be unconsciously shaping your present. Over time, my hope is that you begin to become more self-aware of what's underneath the surface of your difficulties. And with this, that you can gain a sense of power in making the changes you feel are needed to improve your emotional wellbeing.

Here's some examples of what this might look like in our sessions:

• At your pace, we may explore experiences from your childhood or teenage years and become curious about how those experiences impact your here and now.

• We may discuss repeated patterns that seem to be showing up in your life.

• We may pay particular attention to what might be hidden or underneath the surface of your difficulties (we call this the unconscious).

Click here for a list of other counselling approaches.