Professional

Interests

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I have a long term interest in the potential application of expanded states as a way of accessing the deepest layers of the psyche, making our earliest developmental, perinatal and ancestral wounds and traumas available for accessing, processing and healing. However, these states often need therapeutic containers to further cultivate the insights and openings that they support. Psychedelic preparation and integration, as well as an ongoing relational approach to our inner worlds, are essential for harnessing the wisdom of our unconscious. In support of this work, I have co-founded and co-direct with my colleague Dr Tim Read the Institute of Psychedelic Therapy. Our aim at IPT is to cultivate a psychedelic aware psychotherapeutic community in the UK through continuing professional development events and the two-year Depth Relational Process training that we offer.

Training

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I have trained in integrative counselling, a model that brings together different elements from specific approaches,
acknowledging that all theories have their value. The primary tenet of the model I trained in is relational.
Each person is considered in their individual needs, circumstances and wholeness.
My work draws from the following approaches :

     – psychodynamic: exploring the unconscious in order to understand how the past affects the present.

     – person-centred: creating a safe, accepting, and non-judgemental space.

     – gestalt: focusing on experiencing the ‘here and now’ to better understand how we relate to ourselves and others.

     – attachment: examining early relational patterns and developing a reparative therapeutic relational environment

     – transpersonal: exploring experiences that lay beyond the confines of the individual “ego”. I trained further 

        in Jungian theory to deepen my understanding of the transpersonal layers of the Self.

Depending on the depth we are working on, we might keep a focused approach or use a deeper exploration of
underlying patterns of behaviour. The most important quality for relating to your experiences and your inner world
without judgement, will be our shared commitment to this process with curious attention. 

I have additionally trained as a Systemic Family Constellations facilitator, which is a very different way of exploring
and you can read more about it in the Systemic Family Constellations page.

Qualifications

– BSc Psychology – Middlesex University

– MSc Therapeutic Counselling – University of Greenwich

– Foundation in Analytic Psychology – Society for Analytical Psychology

– Foundation and Applied Training in Systemic Constellations – Centre for Systemic Constellations

– Working Systemically with Couples – Centre for Systemic Constellations

– Diploma in Integrative Supervision of Individuals and Groups – The Grove

Work

experience

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I am a senior accredited member of the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy with over twenty years of clinical experience in various settings. My training placement was with Family Matters, an organisation supporting survivors of sexual abuse, where I worked with severe trauma. After qualifying, I worked in a collaborative project between the NHS and a mental health organisation called Tasha Foundation, offering counselling for mental health difficulties, running a benzodiazepine medication abstinence group, and supervising trainees at a mental health crisis helpline.

I later worked in education for twelve years:

– as a counsellor and later as a counselling service manager in Croydon College

– as a counsellor at the University of the Arts London.

During this time, I specialised in working with young adults and with the emotional challenges of the learning process. Croydon college has a diverse student population including refugees and asylum seekers, and my work there was often trauma based. At the University of the Arts London I worked primarily with mental health, identity, sexuality and the challenges of the creative process.

I currently work entirely in private practice with individuals and couples, supervise practitioners from different professions individually and in groups, mentor students at the Augmented Psychotherapy Training with Mind Foundation, run regular family constellation groups and co-direct and lecture at the Institute of Psychedelic Therapy (IPT).

As an accredited counsellor and psychotherapist with the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy I practice under their ethical framework. I am insured and in ongoing personal and professional development.

I am bilingual, fluent in English and Greek and working with both.