Relationships

I have spent many years specialising in attachment focused work and research, with a wealth of experience as a Couples Therapist, working with clients and the relational issues they may face. These include dysfunctional patterns of communication, intimacy issues and blocks, sexual addictions and infidelity, cycles of compulsivity or codependence, going through transitions, co-parenting , blended family arrangements, or managing separation and divorce.

I trained as a systemic psychotherapist, specialising in Marriage and Family Therapy (MFT) on the prestigious Counselling Psychology Masters programme at San Diego State University in California, USA. This means I have specifically trained to work with systemic and relational issues, as opposed to many therapists who may simply decide to apply generic psychology training to seeing couples or groups.

I am a fully trained Emotionally Focused Therapist and supervisor, and combine this with a psychobiological approach to couples and family therapy, to facilitate a deeper and more profound sense of attunement. I work with the understanding that:

• Emotion, not logic, is the agent of change within a relationship – we focus on bonds, not bargains.
• Emotional safety and security are the foundations of a healthy relationships and any block to these is a focus of therapy.
• Couples can fall into maladaptive or dysfunctional cycles which create misattunement and prevent meaningful connection.
• Individual attachment wounds and traumas can become reactivated within the relationship and lead to dysregulation, priming the nervous system for fight or flight – it is important that partners can understand and respond to these signals as needed.
• Disconnection can manifest in a variety of ways and often be ‘acted out’ with predictable cycles of protest, threat, or withdrawal.
• The goal of therapy is to de-escalate these destructive cycles, and to promote healthy cycles of re-engagement and connection.
• Attachment injuries can be repaired and wounds can be healed, allowing clients to move from painful misattunement or dysregulation, to safe and soothing coregulation.

Whatever difficulties you may be facing, I will work to provide a safe and non-judgemental environment for you to resolve them together, and decide the best way forward. I work with all kinds of couples and families, to establish healthy and self perpetuating cycles of repair, so that clients can move out of anxious or avoidant patterns of misattunment, and towards secure and healthy coregulation .