Ever wonder why you seem to get caught in the same old dysfunctional patterns around relationships? Perhaps you only go for unavailable people? Or perhaps you find it hard to make relationships, leaving you feeling very alone.  You might also have something distressing in your past which stubbornly seems to be intruding on your present life.  If you are nodding your head as you read this, attachment-based therapy might help.

A little bit about me - I have always been interested in our emotional world - how we feel about ourselves and the world around us, how we think, what makes us tick, and why we do what we do - and how this impacts on our relationships with other people. For many years I pursued this interest via psychotherapy theory and experiential courses at Regent's College and the University of Kent at Canterbury. I was particularly drawn to the ideas of psychoanalytic psychotherapy - that our past experiences shape what we do now, mainly out of our awareness (via our unconscious).  As part of this journey, I engaged in my own personal therapy, which continues to help me lay many of my ghosts to rest.

But it was fairly early on in my learning about therapy that I came across John Bowlby's Attachment Theory.  This was a lightbulb moment for me - that our earliest relationships shape our brains, and thus our capacity to form relationships with others, for good or ill. 

As a result of learning about attachment theory, in 2006 I decided to embark on the clinical training at the Bowlby Centre. I completed the training to become an attachment-based psychoanalytic psychotherapist in 2012. Because working clinically starts during the course I have been working as an attachment-based psychoanalytic psychotherapist since 2009.

No doubt as a direct result of my previous professional identity as a dietitian, I am very interested in the interface between mind and body. I worked as a dietitian for over 20 years, mostly within the NHS, but also within private healthcare, and as a freelance practitioner.  As a dietitian, I specialised in working with eating disorders.  Since becoming a psychotherapist, I continue to enjoy working with people with disordered eating.  Although I have now stopped practicing as a dietitian, I believe my experience adds something very powerful to my psychotherapy work in this field.

Life isn't all about work - to relax, I enjoy knitting (which is known to be a very therapeutic act!) and listening to folk music. I also love spending time with family, meeting with friends, going to the theatre, live music, eating out, and travelling.