I am registered as a UKCP attachment based Psychoanalytic psychotherapist, a training supervisor and a training therapist. I trained at The Bowlby Centre, London where I am the Editor of the journal Attachment-New Directions in Psychotherapy and Relational Psychoanalysis. I teach Attachment Theory and am the chair of the planning group of the Bowlby Memorial conference. I specialise in attachment theory and trauma and regularly write and present papers and book chapters on these topics. I run a private practice and work relationally with individuals, couples and parents. I have a particular interest in working with individuals who have experienced extreme abuse and trauma and have displayed symptoms of dissociation. I am the co-author of the book “Ritual Abuse and Mind Control: The Manipulation of Attachment Needs” (Karnac Books), co-editor of the book “Terror Within & Without” and also the co-editor of the ESTD (European Society for Trauma and Dissociation) newsletter where I regularly write articles and film reviews.  

My work is informed by theorists such as John Bowlby, Donald Winnicott, Ferenczi, Fairbairn, Kohut, Balint, Alice Miller, Daniel Stern, Stephen Mitchell, Allan Schore, Beatrice Beebe, Onno van der Hart, Sandy Bloom, Elizabeth Howell, Philip Bromberg and others.

My Clients

​My practice includes a range of clients from different backgrounds. I work with individuals who have suffered from depression, anxiety, sleep-problems, eating issues, OCD, phobias and addiction. People who have been abused as children, physically, sexually or emotionally. They may also have had relationship, career, fertility or identity problems.I also see people who were diagnosed with Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) and Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), such as army veterans and survivors of domestic and sexual abuse. I see individuals, couples and parents who are in need for emotional help.

Many of my clients have been in therapy before and find their symptoms and problems recurring. My work helps understand the self in relation to other; its origins in childhood; and how to bring change at a deeper level and in a long lasting way.

My Approach

I take a relational and trauma-informed approach to working with people who come to see me. My focus is on the centrality of early life experiences and its impact later on in adulthood. I believe that no child is born bad, sad or mad and that therapy works best in a reparative and reflective relationship. Taking a trauma-informed approach enables the therapist to allow recovery and I avoid using the pathology of mental illness which tends to objectify and stigmatise people.

I approach all of my clients with compassion, care and help them to relieve their troubling symptoms. I recognise that childhood adversity, early life experiences, and the environment in which one grows up, defines who we are. I provide emotional support and empathy to enable my clients to feel understood, to be seen and to help them change old patterns of behaviour and manage their feelings better. Using a relational approach,  means that fundamentally the healing capacity lies in the collaborative relationship between the client and the therapist. I engage with each client with warmth and empathy, using a deep theoretical understanding of Attachment Theory. This offers the possibility for a transformative shift in life that can lead not just to stabilisation of symptoms but to add meaningful change in their relational lives.

I specialise in Attachment Theory, parenting skills, trauma and dissociation.

Other

I undergo continuing professional development and as with all psychoanalytic psychotherapists I receive regular supervision from both Attachment and Trauma Supervisors.

I also offer consultancy for TV and drama productions, journalism and court reports.

I teach at workshops on Attachment Theory, parenting, trauma and dissociation.