What are the first steps?

After you get in touch we’ll arrange a short, free chat either on Zoom or over the phone where you can tell me a bit about what’s going on and what you hope to get from our sessions together. It’s also a chance for you to ask any questions. If you’d like to move forward, we can discuss times, locations and everything else for our first meeting.

How much does it cost?

For most clients my fees are between £80 and £90 for each weekly 50-minute session. For couples and relationship therapy, it’s £130 for each 75-minute session. I do offer some low-cost sessions for those on low or no income, so if you’re interested in those let me know.

Where does it happen?

I see clients face to face and online. If you’d like to meet in-person, I work from Shoreditch (pictured), a few minutes’ walk from the Overground station, and about seven minutes’ walk from Liverpool Street. It’s quite well connected — Dalston, Kings Cross, London Bridge, Canary Wharf, London Bridge, Oxford Circus, Stratford, Walthamstow and Camden are all reachable on public transport within half an hour.

For online sessions I usually use Zoom, but I’m happy to discuss alternatives if you have a preference for another platform.

What’s the first session like?

I understand meeting with a counsellor can sometimes feel daunting so if we’re meeting in person I’ll have sent through detailed directions for finding me, including photos of what everything looks like, which buzzer to press, and so on. I’ll also have sent over information about how I work and what our working relationship will look like.

In our first session we’ll explore what’s brought you to therapy and what preferences you have for our work. It’s an opportunity for me to find out more about what’s happening in your world, and for you to find out if you think we’re a good fit. After that first session, if you’d like to continue, we can take it from there.

My work’s unpredictable — what if I can’t make a session?

We’ll generally plan to meet (or connect online) at the same time each week, but a lot of my clients work in the creative industries and I appreciate that it’s not always easy to predict what’s going to come up. I try to offer flexibility where possible.

Am I going to be in therapy for years?

I generally see clients on an open-ended basis where we can continue until you feel you’re ready to stop, but I also offer time-limited therapy (where we might agree to see each other for a specific number of sessions). We’ll discuss what feels right for you when we start off, and of course you can choose to end our sessions whenever you like. And if, after that, you feel like you might want to reach out again in the future, that’s fine too.

What’s your training?

• Diploma in Integrating Attachment-Based Psychotherapy into Clinical Practice (Optima/CPCAB)
• PGDip Integrative Counselling and Coaching (University of East London)
• Certificate in Couple and Relationship Therapy, accredited by COSRT at Level 5 (The Grove)
• Foundation Certificate in Counselling Skills (WPF Therapy)
• Certificate in Clinical Assessment Skills (WPF Therapy)
• Diploma in Transformational Coaching (Animas)

My core training, passed with distinction, was accredited by the BACP. Before graduating I’d completed hundreds of hours of client work on clinical placement, where I also gained experience in assessment and referrals.

I continue to engage in professional development including training in acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), motivational interviewing and advanced creativity coaching, as well as CPD covering issues such as grief, online and telephone counselling skills, perfectionism, trans awareness, domestic abuse and coercive control, and music performance anxiety.

What are your credentials?

I’m a registered member of the BACP, and I follow their ethical guidelines. I’m also an NCPS accredited registrant, a registered BAPAM practitioner, and a member of the Music Industry Therapist Collective. On the coaching side of things I’m registered at Practitioner level with the European Mentoring and Coaching Council (EMCC). I’m insured by Oxygen, have an enhanced DBS check and am registered with the ICO.

Where does the coaching part come in?

For some clients it doesn’t; for others it’s an important part of our work. Counselling is often about making sense of the past to help with the present, while coaching can be more about untangling the present to help with the future. It may be that clarity on what’s happening now is all you’re after. But if clarity comes and you wonder what’s next, we can look at how coaching might help you move forward.

Why did you become a counsellor?

Before training I spent many years as a music journalist, later focusing more on music industry consultancy. One element of all that, and the part I grew to find most rewarding, involved working with musicians on how to deal with the media — hearing their stories and figuring out how they could tell them (or not tell them) on their own terms.

As I grew increasingly familiar with the complexity of these artists’ internal worlds, I wondered if brief counselling skills training might be wise. It ended up being rather less brief than I’d intended and opened up a deep interest in counselling and psychotherapy. Many of my counselling clients are musicians or people in the music business — there’s some more about that here.

How do I know if you’re the right therapist for me?

I know from personal experience that starting off with a counsellor or psychotherapist is a big step. I’m also well aware that choosing the right one isn’t easy — particularly when we all seem to say the same things on our websites.

With research showing that the client/therapist relationship is central to therapeutic progress, it’s important that you feel like you click with whoever you’ll be working with. A good therapist will be honest if they believe you’ll find a better match with another professional, and may even try to help you find one. If you’d like any more pointers, or if you think I might be the therapist you’d like to work with, please feel free to get in touch.