I’ve been a dramatherapist working creatively with children, adults and families for over 15 years, both with groups and individually. My work has been with local authorities, schools and charities and my clients have included older people, people with mental health issues and profoundly disabled young people, adopted and looked after children and their families. These days as well as working with private clients, I work at Beacon House, a nationally renowned trauma service as a therapist and clinical supervisor based in Cuckfield.
My particular areas of clinical interest and experience include anxiety, relational trauma, attachment, loss, adoption, neurodiversity and despair around the state of the planet. My therapeutic approach is influenced by a wide range of clinicians, artists, neuroscientists and thinkers, and my own personal experiences.
How did I come to be a therapist? I first moved house with my family when I was 2 years old and since then have lived in over 25 different ‘homes’ in the UK and abroad until 12 years ago I settled down to live in East Sussex. Living my early life in this way has given me a love for languages and dialects, and different cultures, and a flexibility and adaptability which I value in many areas of my life. However it also contributed to an acute anxiety I felt as a child and a young adult. It required a lot of energy and suppression of who I was to fit in with constantly changing cultural norms and environments, and friendships, schools and places. (It is not surprising perhaps that my clinical interests as a therapist include attachment, anxiety and loss.) In my thirties, I realised it was time to get some therapy!
And then I decided to study dramatherapy. I was drawn to this mode of therapy because it doesn’t just rely on our mind’s view of ourselves and how we live our life, it invites us to explore how our unconscious mind drives and motivates our behaviours. And that made perfect sense to me.
When I became a mother to two children, one of whom is adopted, my personal and professional lives once again became intermingled as I experienced the stresses and toll of 24/7 care for a family member, alongside working with clients with complex trauma. This experience has led me to want to work with women with similar stories and the desire to live a life that allows them to experience themselves as a unique, many-facetted person alongside their caring responsibilities.
The natural world has inspired and nurtured me, and filled me with awe throughout my life. It has been a source of constancy and solace for me particularly when I’ve moved from place to place; she was always there for me, albeit in different guises – moorland, mountains, forest, rivers, coast. It is a place for me to be alone, contemplate life and receive inspiration but also to enjoy with family and friends through physical activity and being in beautiful places. I care very deeply about the natural world and am a regular supporter of two nature/ecology charities: International Friends of the Earth Trust and Stop Ecocide International.
When I’m not caring for my family at home and clients at work, I like to spend time sculling (two oars not one), foraging for and creating eco dyes, felting, baking and hill walking to keep me on an even keel.