Individual psychotherapy in Reading and online
Relational, body-aware psychotherapy for anxiety, overwhelm, stuckness, relationship difficulties, and recurring ways of coping shaped by stress, past experience, or trauma.
You may be reaching out because of emotional shutdown, disconnection, painful relationship patterns, or a sense that things are not changing despite insight and effort.
My approach is relational and body-aware, with attention to both the mind and the nervous system. It may draw on approaches such as Deep Brain Reorienting (DBR), Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, parts-informed work, and EMDR, but these are not applied as a fixed formula. I bring them in where they genuinely fit the person and the work.
This way of working may be especially helpful if you recognise experiences such as chronic stress, hypervigilance, dissociation, sleep disruption, fatigue, brain fog, shame, or people-pleasing.
It can be a particularly good fit for people who have already done a great deal of thinking, reflecting, or previous therapy, yet still find themselves pulled back into old protective responses when stress, closeness, or uncertainty rises.
How we begin
We begin by building a therapeutic relationship that feels steady enough to work in. That relationship matters.
I do not tend to rush toward the deepest material. Often, the first task is helping life feel a little less overwhelming in the present.
Early on, therapy is usually about understanding what is happening, noticing what destabilises you, identifying what helps, and building a shared direction.
We will:
clarify what is happening and what you would like to change
begin stabilisation and practical support for regulation where needed
agree an initial therapeutic direction tailored to you
keep the process collaborative, with attention to pacing, consent, and honest feedback.
What to expect in sessions
Early sessions usually focus on helping life feel more manageable. Together, we make sense of what you are experiencing, notice patterns and triggers, and identify what helps between sessions.
Some sessions are more practical and stabilising. Others move into deeper processing when there is enough capacity for that.
I do not force the therapy in one direction. We keep paying attention to what helps and what feels too much.
How the process usually unfolds
An initial phase
If appropriate, we begin with a short initial phase, often around 4–6 sessions. During this time, we gather information about your current difficulties and relevant life history, and notice what helps you stay within a tolerable range.
By the end of this phase, I aim to offer a clear initial therapeutic plan tailored to you, including priorities and how we will review progress.
Stabilisation first, when needed
When the nervous system is significantly under strain, stabilisation often takes priority.
When that happens, thoughts, feelings, and reactions can become harder to regulate, and daily life can start to feel much less manageable. In practice, stabilisation means helping things settle enough for life to feel steadier and more workable.
Where trauma-driven responses are involved, bottom-up work often provides the foundation for deeper therapy.
Trauma processing and integration
As stability improves, deeper processing often becomes more tolerable and effective.
In my practice, trauma processing is not about forcing disclosure or retelling the past in overwhelming ways. It is about working carefully with unresolved threat, shock, and protective responses so that the nervous system becomes less organised around old survival patterns.
As this begins to shift, people often find there is more room for rest, clarity, and connection, and a greater sense of responding from the present rather than from old threat patterns.
Depending on your needs, this may involve relational psychotherapy alongside approaches such as DBR, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, parts-informed work, or EMDR.
Over time, therapy may also support wider growth, including:
more choice and flexibility in daily life
less pull toward old reactions
greater capacity to feel without becoming overwhelmed or shut down
more self-trust and self-compassion
clearer boundaries and more satisfying relationships
Approaches I integrate
My primary training is in Relational Transactional Analysis, and I integrate additional approaches where helpful.
These approaches sit within one relational, trauma-informed process and are used where they genuinely fit the person and the work.
Depending on your needs, this may include:
Deep Brain Reorienting (DBR)
Sensorimotor Psychotherapy
parts-informed work
EMDR
A core component of my trauma work is Deep Brain Reorienting (DBR). I have completed DBR Levels 1–3 and I am currently on the DBR-P (Approved Practitioner) pathway.
We continue to review what helps and adjust the therapy as needed.
Read more:
Neurofeedback alongside psychotherapy (optional)
For some people, adding ILF neurofeedback in person can support stabilisation, especially with sleep, arousal regulation, and self-regulation.
When appropriate, I may integrate ILF neurofeedback as an adjunct to psychotherapy.
This may be particularly useful when sleep difficulties, overwhelm, high reactivity, or difficulty settling are making daily life — and psychotherapy itself — harder to manage.
At other times, psychotherapy on its own may be the better place to begin. The question is simply whether ILF neurofeedback is likely to help at this stage.
We review neurofeedback at agreed points, adjusting according to sleep, arousal, and overall stability.
Read more about ILF neurofeedback ›
Practicalities
Adults aged 16+
In person in Shinfield, Reading, or online via Zoom
Sessions are typically 50 minutes, usually weekly
Fees: Fees ›
If you are considering psychotherapy
You are welcome to book a free 20-minute consultation.
In the consultation, we can talk about what is happening day to day, what you would like to feel more possible in your life and relationships, and what you have already tried. I will explain how I work, and we can see whether this feels like a good fit.
No pressure.