A gentle starting point

You may understand your difficulties very well — and still find your body reacting as if safety cannot quite be felt yet.

You might recognise some of these experiences:

• understanding your patterns, yet still reacting with anxiety, shutdown, or hypervigilance

• feeling overwhelmed, constantly on alert, or unable to settle

• recurring relationship patterns that are difficult to shift

• poor sleep, exhaustion, or a system that rarely rests

• feeling disconnected from yourself, your emotions, or other people

• a persistent sense of feeling stuck, even when you know why

Sometimes trauma shows up in quieter ways — through chronic tension, people-pleasing, emotional shutdown, dissociation, hyper-independence, or a body that remains organised around protection even when part of you knows the danger has passed.

These responses are not signs of weakness. They are often the mind and body’s way of trying to protect you.

Therapy can offer a space where these patterns are understood carefully, without judgment or pressure, and allowed to soften over time.

Read more about common symptoms and experiences ›

Considering therapy?

If some of this resonates, you are welcome to book a free 20-minute consultation.

We can think together about what you are looking for, answer any questions you may have, and get a sense of whether this way of working feels like a good fit.

No pressure.

Book a free consultation ›

When the problem is not lack of insight

Many people arrive in therapy already having thought deeply about what has happened to them.

They may understand their history well. They may recognise familiar patterns in relationships. They may know why they react as they do. And yet, when the moment comes, the same reactions still take hold.

This is often because the difficulty is not only cognitive. It is also emotional, relational, and physiological.

In my work, we pay attention not only to what has happened, but also to how the nervous system learned to respond, how these patterns continue in the present, and how change can gradually become possible.

Who I work with

I work with adults who may be living with the effects of trauma, attachment difficulties, chronic stress, relational pain, or patterns of protection that no longer feel workable.

Some arrive feeling highly activated or anxious. Others feel flat, cut off, or chronically tired. Some are struggling mainly in relationships. Others simply know that, despite insight, something in them does not yet feel settled or safe.

Therapy begins with the relationship

The therapeutic relationship is one of the main foundations for meaningful change.

My work is grounded in relational psychotherapy. This means we explore your experience together — emotionally, psychologically, and in the nervous system — while paying attention to how patterns may have developed over time and how they continue to shape life in the present.

Rather than forcing change, the work focuses on building safety, stability, and understanding. From there, deeper therapeutic work can unfold at a pace that feels manageable.

How I work

My approach integrates relational psychotherapy with trauma-informed methods that work with both emotional experience and the nervous system.

Depending on what is most helpful, therapy may include:

• Deep Brain Reorienting (DBR) — working carefully with shock and threat responses

• Sensorimotor Psychotherapy — exploring how experience is held in the body

• Parts work and TA ego-state work — helping make sense of inner protective patterns

• EMDR — where appropriate for trauma processing

These approaches are not used mechanically or as isolated techniques. They are integrated within a coherent relational therapeutic process, shaped around what feels most helpful and manageable for you.

These approaches work together within one relational therapeutic process. The image below offers a simple overview of the different aspects of experience they may help address.

Working with the body and nervous system

Trauma and chronic stress can affect how the nervous system regulates itself. This can influence emotional responses, sleep, concentration, physical tension, and the sense of safety in the body.

Sometimes the body continues to react as if danger is present long after the original threat has passed. Even when there is insight, the system may still be organised around protection.

Sensorimotor Psychotherapy helps us gently explore how experience may be held in bodily sensations, posture, movement, impulses, and patterns of response. Working in this way can open space for new responses to emerge, often bringing greater steadiness, flexibility, and safety over time.

Deep Brain Reorienting (DBR) and Sensorimotor Psychotherapy can complement each other in helping us work carefully with shock, threat, and how experience is organised in the body and nervous system.

ILF neurofeedback in Reading

In-person support for nervous system regulation

For some clients, psychotherapy can be supported by ILF neurofeedback, a gentle, non-invasive form of brain training that helps the brain improve its own self-regulation.

This can be particularly helpful when the system remains highly reactive, easily overwhelmed, or unable to settle into sleep or rest.

ILF neurofeedback is not a separate psychotherapy. It is a supportive tool that may help create more stability in the nervous system, making reflection, emotional regulation, and therapeutic work more accessible.

Sessions are offered in person in Shinfield, Reading.

Read more: ILF neurofeedback ›

Common areas I help with

Some of the difficulties this work may help with include:

• trauma and developmental trauma

• anxiety, chronic stress, and hypervigilance

• shutdown, dissociation, and other protective responses

• relationship and attachment difficulties

• persistent emotional patterns that feel hard to shift

• nervous system dysregulation

Explore further:

• Work with me ›

• Trauma ›

• Help is at hand ›

• Words that accompany my work ›

Other ways of working

Alongside individual psychotherapy, I also offer trauma-informed work with couples, groups, and practitioners in supervision.

• Relationship work ›

  Supporting partners to understand patterns that emerge in relationship and to develop new ways of relating

• Group psychotherapy ›

  Providing a space where relational patterns can be explored and understood within a supportive group environment

• Clinical supervision ›

  For therapists and practitioners working with trauma and relational processes.

Practicalities

Here are the basics — and if you are unsure, we can talk them through in the consultation.

• Individuals aged 16+

• Couples or group work by arrangement

• In person for individuals and couples in Shinfield, Reading, Berkshire

• Online for individuals, couples, and groups via Zoom

• Short-, medium-, and long-term work available

If you’re considering working together

You do not need to be certain about starting therapy to get in touch.

You are welcome to book a free 20-minute consultation. We can talk through what you are hoping for, any practical questions you may have, and whether this way of working feels like the right fit.

No pressure.