About me
I started working in the field of mental health as an advocate and befriending co-ordinator for a local mental health charity.
Working with clients from the local areas and who were referred through the community mental health team, within my work as an advocate my work was helping them access services and having a voice, as the befriending co-ordinator I trained volunteers in mental health awareness and matched them with people who had been referred to the service.
When this charity became the triage service for West Essex I moved from my role as advocate and befriending co-ordinator and continued to work within this charity as a screener, my responsibilities within this role were to assess referrals from GP’s to either the secondary or primary mental health services, from this role I then became clinical lead, working with and managing a team of screeners.
Within this role I was also involved in working with the local IAPT service as we were contracted to work with some of their clients.
Whilst working as an advocate and befriending co-ordinator It inspired me to be a counsellor. I began my four year training in Person Centred Therapy; spending my last year working within a GP surgery. I qualified in 2003 gaining my Diploma as a Person Centred Therapist and started working at the same Local Mental Health Charity, counselling people with a range of issues. This included helping those with mild to severe anxiety, depression, post-natal depression, relationship problems and bereavement.
In 2009 I trained at St Georges University Hospital in Tooting to became a Family Systemic Practitioner. I have worked with many families with vast range of issues within their family system, for example family separation, bereavement within the family unit working with couples and children of all ages, and also with families that have adopted.
In 2013 I trained and qualified as an accredited IPT therapist (Interpersonal Therapist) which is a specific 16 week based therapy, working with Transitions, Unresolved Grief, Disputes and Sensitivities. I have continued my training within my IPT work by attending a two day course at the Anna Freud Centre to study Interpersonal and Social Rhythm Therapy to work with people that have Bi-Polar.
In 2019 I qualified as a clinical supervisor and in 2020 became an Interpersonal Psychotherapist for Adolescents.
"I wanted to say a big thank you for everything you have helped me with, it has been hard and emotional but I would not have got through it without you."
