Hello and welcome.

Please note, my therapy practice is currently full and I am placing people on a waiting list. If you wish to make contact with a view to being placed on a waiting list please do not hesitate to contact me. When I have spaces I will remove this notice. I currently have space for supervision.

I have an established private practice where I offer therapy to individuals, groups and couples. Areas I cover are Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and Leicestershire. In some situations, I offer Skype sessions for people who live outside of these locations.

I have over 10 years experience as a therapist and 25 years working in roles that have involved supporting people of all ages in their personal development. I work with adolescents (16 +), adults, couples and groups. I also supervise other therapists and counsellors. For more information about how I work please go to www.creativeartstherapy.co.uk.  I offer an initial meeting which is charged at half fee and is free from any obligation.

Often people seek therapy because their difficulties have become unmanageable and their symptoms, such as anxiety, depression, or relationship friction, can feel all consuming.

Knowing this, I aim to create a comfortable environment for people to feel welcomed and feel as safe as possible. I am sensitive to work in a way that feels supportive and exploratory at the same time. It’s crucial that in healing emotionally painful issues, it is done without re-traumatising. To ensure this, I work in alliance with you, being mindful to work at your pace and importantly, will not ask you to go over painful experiences in depth. This provides my clients with a smoother therapeutic process and offers successful outcomes.

Working compassionately with unaddressed painful experiences.
Many of the issues people come to me with relate to previous trauma. They can be one off incidents, like a car accident, or ongoing, such as being mistreated by someone or neglected as children. Problems with mental health largely relates to our life experience and how we have perceived it. Often, people don’t realise that their issues, such as depression, are linked to previous trauma that hasn’t been addressed. Unaddressed events like these can lead to feeling anxious, low and trapped, adding to relationship difficulties, or contribute to mental and physical health problems.

You can feel more resilient, self-accepting, and more at peace within yourself and your relationships.
Working together we can sensitively explore the causes of your current feelings. I focus on integrating painful experiences so that when you recall them, they don’t hurt any more, you don’t flinch, and you don’t attempt (perhaps unwittingly) to avoid being hurt in the same way again. Instead, you feel more resilient, more self-accepting, and more at peace within yourself, and your relationships. This frees up vital energy that was previously focused on protecting you from past events.

I am very passionate about working in the area of mental health and healing the impacts of difficult and painful experiences. It is honouring to be a part of people’s transformation, helping people to create new and positive changes for themselves.

I hope this information helps you to have an idea as to how I work, and how I can meet you in the difficult place you are in. Working together I can help you move into a life where you feel better connected, happier and more in-charge. I know that by understanding and healing your past I can help you to be more present in the here-and-now, allowing you to create a future where you are very much the author of your own life.

You may contact me by phone or email if you’d like to talk any of this through. If what I am offering is of interest to you we can arrange an initial meeting. Initial meetings are charged at £25 for half an hour and are free from any obligation.

Training, qualifications & experience
I graduated from the University of Derby in 2003 with a BA Hons in Creative Expressive Therapies which was a great foundation for my professional post graduate training (Masters equivalent) as a Dramatherapist which I completed in 2005.

I became an accredited Lifespan Integration therapist in 2015 following my Level 1 training in 2011 and Level 2 in 2015 (taught by Peggy Pace). I am an approved LI supervisor since 2017.

I trained as a Creative Clinical Supervisor throughout a one year diploma course (Creative Approaches to Supervision) at the London Centre of Psychodrama, 2013 – 2014.

I attended Taking Therapy Outdoors training with Hayley Marshall in 2018 and now offer nature based therapy and supervision with individuals and groups.

My special interest in early life health led me to complete the Pre and Perinatal Awareness Training, Afron Monro, Derby, 2013 and the Infant Diagnostic Classification, School of Infant Mental Health, London, 2011

I worked in the NHS from 2005 – 2008 in a Tier 4 day hospital and a Tier 3 clinic as a Dramatherapist working with children and adolescents with enduring mental health problems.

Member organisations
Registered / Accredited

Areas of counselling I deal with
Abortion
Anger management
Attachment disorder
Body dysmorphic disorder
Child related issues
Domestic violence
Emotional abuse
HIV/AIDS
Infertility
Low self-esteem
Obsessive-compulsive personality disorder
Phobias
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
Self-harm
Sexuality
Stress
Work-related stress
Abuse
Anorexia nervosa
Bereavement
Bulimia nervosa
Chronic fatigue syndrome/ME
Drug abuse
Gambling
Hoarding
Internet addiction
Miscarriage
Panic disorder
Physical abuse
Postnatal depression
Redundancy
Sex problems
Smoking
Suicidal thoughts
Alcoholism
Anxiety
Binge-eating disorder
Bullying
Depression
Dissociation
Eating disorders
Generalised anxiety disorder
Low self-confidence
Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD)
Passive aggressive behaviour
Pregnancy and birth
Relationship problems
Sexual abuse
Spirituality
Trauma

Other areas of counselling I deal with
I offer Clinical Supervision:

Creative clinical supervision

Lifespan Integration supervision

Nature based supervision

Nature based group supervision starting April 2019

Therapies offered
Arts therapies
Dramatherapy
Group therapy
Humanistic therapies
Interpersonal therapy
Mindfulness