Senior Psychotherapist and Clinical Supervisor. IACP Accredited Psychotherapist and Supervisor.
Biography
My journey in this work began with psychiatric nurse training in York, England in the early 1980’s. The highly innovative training was heavily rooted in counselling and psychotherapy principles (my tutors were accredited counsellors) and was at the centre of progressive integrative treatment approaches at that time. I went onto to work in acute psychiatry and a few years later into full time employment at St. Andrews Psychotherapy centre, York for four years. The centre provided a therapeutic community approach of a five day week over 4-8 months treatment involving art therapy, psychodrama, small group work and individual, couple and family therapy. In all I dedicated a decade to full-time work within the NHS mental health services in North Yorkshire working as an Individual, group, couple and family therapist. This extensive experience provided me with invaluable insights and expertise in treating a range of severe and complex issues, including unresolved grief, childhood abuse, chronic depression, anxiety disorders and addiction issues.
In 1991, I relocated to Dublin to work full time in the drug treatment centre, pearse street. I went onto to settle in Galway and began offering courses in counselling and psychotherapy eventually up to professional level, marking the beginning of a long-standing commitment to education in this area. I continued to offer help with mental health issues for individuals and through group therapy. Over the past decades I have been deeply involved in psychotherapy training, supervision, and clinical work, continuously refining my skills and knowledge. Currently, my primary focus is on providing clinical supervision to trainee and trained psychotherapists and in maintaining a small practice.
As an integrative relational psychotherapist I now work from a synthesis of Humanistic (Existential, Gestalt, TA), Psychodynamic (object-relations) and Cognitive approaches (CBT, RET).