I am a Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist with fifteen years of experience working in Child and Adolescent Mental Health. I trained at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust; my career in this discipline began in the third sector, working with young children in Social Care where I learnt at first hand the profound impact of trauma in early years. Over time, I have developed a specialist interest in my clinical work in exploring life-changing experiences faced by children and young people.
A significant focus of my work is on adolescents and young adults who are neuro-diverse, and who may have Autism Spectrum and related complex developmental difficulties. At the Tavistock and Portman Trust, I collaborated with colleagues to establish a workgroup dedicated to the task of understanding the impact of digital use on psychological development in adolescence; my interest in this is ongoing.
My background in music and in law is fundamental to my approach to psychotherapy: attending to the dynamic between the verbal and non-verbal to tune into the wavelength of each young person requires sensitivity, flexibility and often courage. Whereas some may be more suited to symptom-focused, short-term work; for others, ongoing commitment may enable a more holistic approach to development, yielding more substantial benefits beyond the end of our work together.
I am a Visiting Lecturer at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust and a Melanie Klein Trust scholar. I am Reviews Editor of The International Journal of Infant Observation published by Routledge, a Member and Clinical Registrant of the International Neuro-psychoanalysis Society, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
I am registered with the British Psychoanalytic Council and Association of Child Psychotherapists.