My professional training in couple therapy was initially informed by systemic and humanistic schools of thought but eventually found rich inspiration from the work of the world-renowned psychotherapy training institute, Tavistock Relationships in London  (www.tavistockrelationships.org).  This Institute has been instrumental in the application of object relations psychoanalytic technique to the understanding of relationship dynamics.  I have had the privilege to train and work in this Institute for many years  and I served as a clinical manager, senior clinician and supervisor.  I was instrumental in establishing and developing online couple therapy at the Institute and have trained and supervised clinician in this work extensively.  

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Couple therapists are trained to listen to the couple in a way that attends to unconscious dynamics between the couple, based on each partner’s individual life experience and family of-origin influences, and to intervene through interpretations that make these unconscious structures and influences known. In the course of doing this, communication, behaviour, and emotional expression are all variously subjects of the therapy in order to understand the couple relationship and to ensure that the couple understand the underlying meaning of their interaction. The overall technique is focused on the quality of relating a couple create between themselves. 

My wide-ranging preparation in counselling psychology and psychotherapy allows me to adapt technique to your needs so that I can work in a manner that suites your particular concerns and personality style.  I see couples facing a wide variety of difficulties ranging from feelings of disconnection, loss of joy in being a couple, sexual issues, affairs, conflict around finances and extended family as well as differences around parenting styles.  I also see couples wanting to approach separation or divorce in a less destructive manner. 

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I have a wide range of competencies allowing me to provide both briefer as well as open ended therapy, normally on a weekly basis. 

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My professional career started with qualification in Counselling Psychology a specific discipline which pays particular attention to the meanings, beliefs, context and processes that are constructed both within and between people and which affect the psychological well-being of the person. Counselling psychologists appreciate that people’s understanding of their life experiences is of particular significance to how they relate with self, their abilities, limitations as well with others.

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​Training in Gestalt and psychodynamic approaches to psychotherapy as well as CBT (cognitive behavioural) and ‘solution focused’ systemic approaches further enriched by capacity to assist individuals in ways that provide a good fit with their needs, hopes and expectations. ​ Gestalt is a positive and practical integrative therapeutic approach helping people to focus on their immediate thoughts, feelings and behaviour and to better understand the way they relate to others. This increased awareness allows for new perspectives, the grasping of the bigger picture and facilitates change. The approach is creative, challenging and highly effective. 

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The psychodynamic approach is ambitious in terms of scope and aims. Exploration of the past, including recent experience, is used in the service of understanding current behavioural and thought patterns and the quality of one’s emotional responses. 

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Psychodynamic and Gestalt therapies tend to be longer term while ‘solution fused’ and CBT lend themselves better to briefer work.  CBT is built around learning theory while ‘solution focused’ approaches draw on systemic models.