Philosophy

While therapy is not magic, it can help change people’s lives radically. What you put in, you get out – provided you find a good therapist who also suits your way of working on problems. Essential ingredients of a good therapist include a respect for people as they are, being able to tune into another person's world view and see how the way they look at things makes sense, and finding how their responses to life could be more helpful to them in getting their life where they want it to be.

We are very complex beings and none of us is handed what we need to make life worth living in the face of sometimes dreadful circumstances; we have to accrue or learn what we need and psychotherapy is one way to help us do that.

Approach

My approach is eclectic and I have worked with a variety of techniques in clinical and community settings, including cognitive-behavioural, mindfulness, expressive, hypnotic and other therapies. While I’m open to learning new approaches all the time, I do want to see that they are based on solid theory and practice before I use them.

I focus on being practical, encouraging, and adaptive in promoting a person’s autonomy and empowering them to take charge of their inner and outer lives. Both warmth and professionalism are essential.

Motivation

I have huge admiration for people who come to therapy and who work hard to get something lasting out of it. I also get great pleasure from helping people become more successful in themselves and develop renewed confidence.

There are occasionally people I know I can’t help as I'd like to––but that someone else can. For me that’s an opportunity to learn and it’s rewarding to know that the more I do, the better I get. If I didn’t feel I could help make a difference, I wouldn’t continue!