'Don't be satisfied with stories, how things have gone with others. Unfold your own myth' Rumi
My passion is inquiring into what is truly here, what it is to be human, what may be possible for us if we have our essential needs met, realise our belonging, and open up the unconditioned places within us, with heart & kindness.
I have followed this calling through a love of literature and psychology, taking a degree in both before qualifying as a Clinical Psychologist.
I absolutely loved the early years of my work, engaging in Community Psychology & working with Children in Care. I became a Consultant Clinical Psychologist in 2000 as a result of my work setting up and running Sure Start Services across the North East of England.
I took further training in Psychoanalysis and became involved in researching and developing services that had maternal attachment at their heart. How to foster and support the basic bond of love.
Over my career I have worked in all areas of mental health: preventative psychology, the promotion of well being, extensive experience delivering individual therapy, engaging in service development, research, supervision and evaluation.
I trained in 2012 in the Mindfulness Based Practices and have delivered this work across a multitude of settings.
Experiencing myself the transformative effect of the meditative traditions I decided to take a break from everything I was doing. At this point my practice was ignited by meeting Jaya Ashmore of Open Dharma, and beginning a journey into her silent retreats and a practice that involved deeply resting, unravelling conditioning and finding a more spacious, trustworthy space within.
This is what I love to bring forth now, the combination of the traditions of Psychology and the Meditative practices. Providing spaces for people to feel safe enough to explore difficulties, to grow the confidence to trust their experience, the inner voice, the places that need healing and the places that want to be freed up.
I love to feel into what emerges in a moment, in a setting, when people shift from 'doing' to 'being'. I work with enabling people to really rest back, to tune into their receptive qualities and realise their inherent connection to everything and everybody, to be moved by life, rather than tying to move everything around in life to suit imagined preferences.
I love to be involved in work that shines a light on the divisive places within ourselves and around us so they can be can be brought into the light, understood and met, and enable the compassionate , fierce heart to then lead the way.