Psychotherapy can be defined as attending to or healing (from the Greek ‘therapia’) the soul (‘psyche’). The word 'soul' should not be understood in a conventional religious sense here but as a perspective, where, in James Hillman's words 'events are deepened into experience'. In our fast, inattentive culture, a place for slow, careful and attentive listening is all the more valuable and needed. When we are struggling or lost, a welcoming presence and a listening ear can make a great difference. Something worthwhile can and usually does unfold from that.

So, psychotherapy as I try to practice it is a path back to re-connection and relationship - to ourselves, to others, to nature, to soul/ life energy. My first training was in Core Process Psychotherapy and this remains the foundation of my approach. Core Process combines a mindful attention to self and to relationship with an understanding of how the past may have contributed to our more defensive ways of relating to self and world. These ways of being and relating are embodied now - in speech, in body, in mind. By bringing mindful awareness to them, we have the capacity to to open to a direct sense of the innate well-being that underlies all our habitual storylines and to find space and compassion around what might feel stuck. This opens up possibility: for living in more creative ways, for accepting ourselves, for relating more skilfully and with greater connectedness to others. Other trainings have included Focusing (accessing the 'felt sense' to bring new perspectives and forward movement) and in artwork and writing for therapeutic purposes. More recently, I have worked as a psychological therapist on a clinical trial with psilocybin. I offer integration work for those who have had psychedelic experiences.