About Me
I am a Gestalt therapist, movement specialist and educator based in East London, working in person and online. I hold an MA in Gestalt Therapy for the Gestalt Centre London, in addition to a certificate in counselling from Goldsmiths University, an MA in Movement Studies at CSSD and a BA in Dance Theatre from Laban.
My approach is relational and holistic, acknowlaging the complexity of each persons unfolding experience of their world and relationships. While using talking therapy, I draw heavily on trauma-informed embodient practices that often allow movement away from fixed habitual patterns that might be causing conflict, confusion or distress.
I am dedicated to queer freindly practice, and strongly beleive in the importance of gender, sexuality and neuro affirming theraputic work. I achknowlage the oppressive and violent impact of systemic racism, ablism and migrent persecution, and continue to develop ways that my own intersectional identity can meet and support clients who face marginailisation that is different from my own.
At the heart of my work is the understanding that so many of us have been raised within a social system that drives us towards individualism. We have been made to feel that functioning as an adult is dependent on our ability to manage the pressures and difficulties of life by ourselves. As social creatures, trying to navigate big changes, significant losses and painful events alone is often excruciatingly isolating, and leaves us over burdened, anxious and low.
In being your therapist I am deeply invested in a dialogue that supports, challenges and nourishes you through the parts of your life that are causing you distress. Whether that be crisis level events, deep emotional wounds from the past, or simply a low lying sense that things are just not right, therapy can pave the way to a more connected, hopeful and growthful sense of yourself in your world.
Why I chose phychotherapy
I am a third generation therapist - both my mother and grandmother are working psychotherapists. Attuned listening, and empathic relating were modelled to me from day one. My father being a performance artist and carpenter instilled a hands-on approach to life's practical tasks, alongside a deep appreciation for the creative. My training, initially as a contemporary dancer and later as a movement specialist/teacher, has generated an expansive understanding of the human capacity for making meaning through connection with others, as well as a grounded sense of the body as the vehicle for our lived experience.
In my work as a movement teacher in drama schools and universities, the students I encountered often had a very self critical view of their bodies, and a muted capacity to connect through physical work. I mostly attributed their difficulty to the distorted body expectations set and policed by social media and disembodying practice of screen-based communication. I became substantially more invested in supporting them to engage with their self image as a prerequisite to helping them develop their artistic voice. That work focused on cultivating skills for deeper self compassion, growth and transformation, which remains core to my therapeutic work with clients.
As an artist my practice has served as a lens through which I examine the complexities of my own experience, while my work as a therapist allows me to guide others in their own personal excavations, broadening my clients’ language of self-expression and growth.