About Me
Clinical training
My practice is underpinned by a three-year postgraduate training in Psychodynamic Therapy at Human Development Scotland (HDS). This training is rooted in the psychoanalytic tradition, with a particular focus on Object Relations, which explores how our earliest experiences with others continue to shape our internal world and adult relationships.
My clinical work is supported by ongoing professional supervision, continuous professional development (CPD), and my own personal therapy, all of which I consider essential to maintaining an ethical practice.
Clinical experience
I have provided therapy within low-cost counselling services in Edinburgh and at Lifelink, the primary provider for NHS referrals in Glasgow. In these settings, I worked with a wide breadth of presenting problems, including:
Chronic anxiety and depression
Bereavement and complex grief
Addiction
Life transitions, such as divorce or illness
Relational injuries and abuse
Prior to my clinical training, I held community-based roles in Edinburgh supporting individuals living with complex mental health difficulties and volunteered with the eating disorder charity SupportED.
I am fortunate to have worked with people from a range of backgrounds, nationalities, sexualities and gender identities. I hope to be cognisant of how difference and similarity show up in the room, and appreciate when things outside of my awareness are brought to attention. If it’s important to you to know particular aspects of my own identity, we can explore this in session.
Credentials
Postgraduate Diploma in Psychodynamic Counselling and Human Relations
Human Development Scotland & Robert Gordon University
COSCA Certificate in Counselling Skills
Garnethill Centre & University of the West of Scotland
Introductory Lectures in Psychoanalysis & Summer Series
Institute of Psychoanalysis
MA Arts Management (with Social Research)
King’s College London
BA English and History of Art
University of York
Wider influences
My academic background, while not directly clinical, continues to shape my practice in more subtle ways. For example, in the way metaphor, allusion and dynamics between people are examined in session, and in helping me think about the stories we tell ourselves about our own lives.
This interest in the intersection of psychology and the external world was furthered during my MA at King’s College London. In collaboration with Acme Studios, I conducted a study exploring the psychological and social impact of specific support schemes for fine artists. This research into how professional environments and creative identities shape our internal well-being remains in my clinical thinking, counterbalancing the focus on our internal world alone.