How I work
I offer psychodynamic therapy in Edinburgh and online across the UK. This approach can be helpful for people struggling with anxiety, depression, relational difficulties, grief, identity questions or a sense of being stuck in harmful patterns.
I aim to provide a space to explore your inner world without judgement, so that different aspects of your experience can come into view. My approach is based on the idea that we are shaped through formative relationships, and recognises that these experiences continue to influence how we relate to ourselves and others in adult life. You might find yourself becoming more aware of thoughts, feelings, or patterns that have felt difficult to make sense of, or that seem to work against you.
We begin with whatever feels most immediate, allowing thoughts and feelings to unfold gradually. Alongside what happens in your everyday life and relationships, we also pay attention to what emerges within the therapy itself, where familiar patterns can sometimes repeat.
Coming into contact with painful or uncomfortable feelings is often an important part of the work. I aim to be attentive to pacing, and encourage an open dialogue around what can reasonably be held between sessions. Over time, the way you relate to these experiences may change.
Who is psychodynamic therapy for?
Psychodynamic therapy can be helpful for anyone who is interested in understanding themselves more deeply. It can be particularly useful if previous approaches have helped in some ways but you have the sense that there’s more to be explored.
Rather than focusing solely on symptom relief or working toward a specific goal, psychodynamic therapy aims to understand the person as a whole, including the less conscious aspects of experience that can shape how we feel and relate to others.
People come to this kind of therapy for many different reasons. You might recognise yourself in some of the experiences below:
Persistent anxiety or depression
Exploring the deeper, often less visible roots of low mood or a pervasive sense of unease.Relational patterns
Recurring difficulties in how you relate to others, or a sense of being stuck in familiar but unhelpful dynamics.Loss of meaning or identity
Periods of transition, or a general sense of emptiness or lack of direction.Complex grief
Losses that feel difficult to move through or process, perhaps because of the relationship to a person, a group or way of living.Early-life and attachment trauma
Formative experiences of neglect, abuse or rupture.Somatic or embodied distress
Where emotional pain is experienced physically, or as a sense of disconnection from the body.