Training & formation

My undergraduate training was rooted in person-centred counselling psychology — a foundation I’ve never moved away from, even as my practice has become more specialist. The unconditional regard, the quality of presence, the belief that the therapeutic relationship itself is curative — those principles run through everything I do.

My postgraduate training took me into depth psychology and Jungian analytical psychology, and was shaped by organisations that took diversity, equality, and social justice seriously as clinical — not just ethical — concerns. The training ranged widely: Counselling and therapy skills, ethics, liberation theology, Zen Buddhist practice, and more. That breadth was deliberate, and it has given me a way of holding complexity — in clients, in clinical situations, and in the profession itself.

The most formative part of my clinical training was my Clinical Pastoral Education at a large hospital in New York City, undertaken with highly skilled and experienced pastoral psychotherapists. CPE is unlike most clinical training — it prepares you to work with people in crisis, in high-acuity settings, and asks you to be present and compassionate under conditions of real-world distress. That experience shaped my clinical confidence and my capacity to work with vulnerability in a way that has never left me.

My work draws on a wide range of influences — person-centred, depth psychological, somatic, and research-based.

The psychophysiology and breathwork dimension of my practice came from an unexpected direction. As a competitive CrossFit athlete and functional fitness coach, I developed a serious interest in the science of breath and stress regulation — initially for performance, then increasingly as a clinical tool. The autonomic nervous system doesn’t distinguish between physical and psychological stress. Breath is one of the few direct levers we have on it. I trained as a certified breathing instructor through Oxygen Advantage, trained with expert breath coaches in the United States at Shift, and that work is now the focus of my doctoral research at the University of Bath. Yoga nidra followed from the same thread — I trained as an instructor and now offer monthly classes at The Studio alongside its use as a clinical tool for deep nervous system regulation.

My focus on ethics, best practice, and adverse experiences in therapy grew from something I care about deeply: the quality and safety of the profession itself. As co-director of Mind Garden Therapy Ltd since 2010 — Reading’s largest centre for psychotherapy and counselling — I’ve encountered the full range of ethical complexity that arises in a busy group practice. That experience, now deepened by doctoral research into adverse therapy experiences, has made raising standards in the profession a genuine professional commitment.

Credentials