Areas I Work With

I bring lived experience of ADHD into my work and understand that it can come with much more than difficulty focusing. Burnout, being hard on yourself, feeling as though you are lazy, or wondering why certain things seem easier for everyone else can all take a real toll.

In our sessions, we can look at how ADHD actually shows up in your life, where self criticism may have crept in, and what genuinely helps you feel better supported day to day. You do not need to arrive knowing where to start. Whether you have a diagnosis, identify with ADHD yourself, or are still trying to make sense of whether it fits your experience, you are welcome to explore that here.

My approach is neurodivergence affirming and I want you to feel free to be yourself in the room. You can move, fidget, change topics as we go, and communicate in whatever way feels natural to you. I will keep up. Counselling does not have to mean sitting still and making eye contact for 50 minutes. What matters to you matters to me, and we can adapt sessions around what helps you engage and feel comfortable.

Addiction makes sense to me. I have worked as an addictions counsellor and I bring lived experience of addiction and recovery into my work. I understand that addiction can be supporting you with something, even while it is also causing harm. The shame around addiction can make sense too, especially in a society that can be quick to judge.

There is no tough love in my counselling room. People experiencing addiction often have enough of that already. I take pride in offering a safe recovery space where you can be honest about where you are. You do not need to have stopped, decided you want to stop, or even know what you want to change. We can look at what the addiction is currently helping you manage and what healthier ways of meeting those needs might look like.

Recovery does not have to mean one thing. Your goal might be abstinence, reducing use, changing a behaviour, understanding your relationship with an addiction, or simply working out what you want next. I work with a range of substance and behavioural addictions, including alcohol, drugs, eating related behaviours, sex, pornography and gaming. Your goals lead the work.

Your anger is welcome here. I understand it can feel unsettling or frightening, especially if it does not feel like you, or you are worried about the impact it is having. Anger can mean very different things for different people and can sometimes be a sign that something else needs attention.

I will not judge you for feeling angry. We can get curious about what tends to trigger it, what it may be trying to protect you from or communicate, and why it is presenting the way it is. Understanding anger can often reduce some of the shame around it.

The aim is not to get rid of anger. It is to help you understand it, feel more in control of how you respond, and find safer ways to express what is going on for you.

Anxiety can feel consuming and restrictive. It can live in your thoughts, but also in your body, leaving you agitated, on edge, exhausted, or avoiding things that feel too difficult.

I offer a calm, collaborative approach where we can slow things down enough to understand your own anxiety rather than rushing to fix it. We can look at what brings it up, what may be keeping it going, and how it is affecting the way you move through day to day life.

From there, we can work towards reducing the hold it has, getting through some of the hurdles it creates, and helping you feel more in control again. If you need a slower pace on a difficult day, that is completely okay.

Before becoming a counsellor, I experienced burnout after life had been running at a pace I eventually could not keep up with. I understand that burnout can be much more than tiredness. It can look like exhaustion, feeling driven to keep up, pulling away from people, not feeling present, or becoming emotionally disconnected.

Burnout does not only come from work. Caring responsibilities, chronic stress, masking, relationships, or simply life moving too fast for too long can all contribute. I know how easy it can be to keep pushing long after something has stopped being sustainable.

With me, counselling can be somewhere to slow the pace, understand what has been happening, and reconnect with yourself. We can look at both the pressures around you and the effect they are having, then consider what might realistically reduce some of that load.

I bring lived experience of chronic illness into my work, including the reality that the impact can go far beyond symptoms. Not feeling believed or understood, adjusting to life after diagnosis, restrictions, isolation, and changes in how you see yourself can all be difficult to carry.

Our work can make room for what has changed, what you have lost, what still matters, and what support might help you live alongside those changes. There is no right emotional response to chronic illness. Grief, frustration, anger, relief, adjustment, and identity changes can all show up in different ways.

Accessibility matters a lot to me. I offer shorter sessions, online counselling, awareness around fluctuating energy levels, and outdoor sessions where that feels more comfortable. I have worked hard to make my office as comfortable as possible, and the pace of a session can change if pain, fatigue, or concentration are difficult that day. I will meet you where you are. If you want to check any accessibility needs before coming along, please feel free to reach out.

Families can be complicated even when there is love there. Old roles, expectations, guilt, boundaries, feeling responsible for other people, and patterns that repeat can all shape how family relationships feel.

You can use our sessions to explore what comes up for you, the role you feel you have within your family, and the pressures that come with it. We can look at where guilt or responsibility may be making it harder to recognise or meet your own needs.

I am not here to tell you how your family should work or what decisions you should make. Your experience leads the work. I will help you explore what feels important, what you need, and what healthier relationships or boundaries might look like for you.

When your role involves supporting or protecting other people, it can be difficult to notice when you need support too. There can be pressure to be the strong one, internal stigma around asking for help, or workplace cultures where vulnerability feels difficult. Stress can follow you home, and experiences from work can stay with you long after a shift ends. Frontline roles can expose people to situations that would feel extraordinary in most lives but can quickly become normalised as part of the job.

I have worked in helping roles throughout my career and continue to do so as a therapist. In a previous role, I supported a large team of frontline workers as an internal counsellor, and I continue to have the privilege of working with people across caring professions and frontline emergency services. That gives me a good understanding of the environments these roles can create, without assuming I know exactly what your experience has been.

I want you to feel understood without having to explain every part of your job before we can get started. I see the individual you are, with the uniform or without it. Sometimes work will be the focus and sometimes it will have nothing to do with why you came. Either way, I want you to feel seen as a person, not only as the role you carry.

There is no right way to grieve. Grief can arrive when you least expect it, and your reaction may be completely different from how you imagined it would be. That does not mean you are grieving incorrectly.

Loss can mean bereavement, the end of a relationship, changes in health or identity, losing a job, losing a pet, or grieving the life you thought you would have. Grief can even begin before a loss happens, and some losses can feel traumatic. Sadness, anger, guilt, numbness, relief, confusion, or feeling detached can all be part of it.

I will not try to make your grief neater or easier for other people to understand. Sometimes simply having somewhere to talk about who or what you have lost can matter. Every emotion is welcome, including the ones that surprise you, and we can make sense of what grief looks like for you as it changes over time.

Identity can be difficult to make sense of, especially after big life changes or when you feel as though you have lost touch with yourself. The version of you that used to make sense might not fit in the same way anymore.

I am not here to define you or decide what you should become. We can explore who you are now, reconnect with parts of yourself that may have felt lost, and notice what feels true for you rather than what has been shaped by other people’s expectations.

There does not need to be one neat answer. Our work can be about accepting yourself more fully, finding your own meaning, and understanding what being more connected to yourself might look like.

Life transitions can be exciting, scary, or a bit of both. Whether you are leaving school, changing jobs, moving, becoming a parent, experiencing changes in health or relationships, or simply entering a different stage of life, uncertainty and fear of the unknown can sometimes come with it.

In our sessions, I will help you explore what the change actually means to you rather than what you think you should be feeling about it. We can look at what you need while things are changing, what feels uncertain, and what might help reduce some of the anxiety around what comes next.

You do not need to have the next stage figured out before you come to counselling. We can make sense of it together, give space to both the difficult and exciting parts, and work towards helping you feel a bit more grounded in where you are now.

Loneliness and isolation can feel all consuming, and the impact can reach beyond mental health into physical wellbeing too. It can affect energy, sleep, motivation, confidence, and the way you experience everyday life.

If you already feel isolated, accessing counselling can itself feel scary. I want you to know you are genuinely welcome here. I want you to feel seen, heard, and connected, with someone you can talk honestly to about how loneliness is affecting you without worrying that you are a burden.

Feeling less lonely will look different for everyone. I can support you to understand what connection means to you, what may be getting in the way, and what you would like life to look like from here.

Low mood and depression can feel incredibly heavy. You do not need to know why you feel this way before coming to counselling, and I will not judge the ways you have been coping or simply trying to get through the day.

Depression does not always look like sadness. It can feel like numbness, exhaustion, irritability, disconnection, or losing interest in things that once mattered. I can sit with difficult thoughts without needing you to make them more comfortable for me.

Our work can help you feel less alone with what you are carrying, make sense of what has been happening, and look for support, meaning, and small ways forward. You do not need to arrive with a plan.

Low self esteem, confidence and people pleasing are things I work with a lot. Self criticism can become so familiar that it starts to feel like the truth. You might compare yourself to others, feel you are never quite enough, struggle to accept positive feedback, or put huge pressure on yourself to meet a certain standard.

People pleasing can sit alongside this. Worrying about letting people down, putting yourself second, or finding it hard to hold a boundary without guilt can take a lot out of you.

With me, the work is not about forcing confidence or pretending to feel positive about yourself. We can understand where these beliefs and patterns came from, recognise the effect they have now, and work towards more self acceptance, kinder self talk, stronger boundaries, and confidence that feels genuine rather than performed.

As we move through life, what gives us meaning can change. Things that once felt important might not fit in the same way anymore, and that can leave you feeling flat, confused, or stuck.

You do not need to know what you want before coming to counselling. I will meet that uncertainty with curiosity rather than pressure. I am not here to tell you what your life should look like. We can explore how life feels from your point of view, what matters to you now, and what you notice about the things that give you direction.

Everyone’s meaning and purpose will be different. Sometimes not knowing what comes next is where meaningful change begins, and I can support you while you work out what that looks like for you.

Accessing counselling should not feel embarrassing. I understand that for some men, reaching out can feel uncomfortable or unfamiliar, especially if you are used to simply getting on with things. Putting up with how you feel does not always make it go away, and you do not need to wait until things have fallen apart before asking for support.

I offer relaxed counselling with no pressure to immediately explore emotions before you are ready. You do not need to be good at talking about how you feel or know exactly what is wrong. We can have open conversations about what life feels like, what being a man means to you, and what might be getting in the way. If a more practical or solution focused approach is useful at times, I am comfortable working that way too.

Men come to me with anger, stress, burnout, loneliness, questions around meaning, feeling stuck, and longer standing issues that may have been carried for years. I will meet you where you are and work with the goals that matter to you.

Overthinking can be exhausting. It can take over lots of areas of life, especially how you see yourself, how you move through the world, and how you relate to other people. Thoughts can keep circling long after the moment has passed.

In our sessions, we can slow some of that down and get curious about what the overthinking is doing for you. We can notice patterns, what tends to set them off, and how much self criticism may be tied into the way you question yourself or your interactions.

My aim is to help you gain insight, trust yourself more, and become less critical of yourself. We can work towards creating a little more space around a racing mind so your thoughts do not always have to run the show.

Panic attacks can feel genuinely frightening. The physical sensations can be intense, and even after an attack has passed, fear of another one can leave you on edge or start shaping what you feel able to do.

I can help you understand what is happening in your body during panic, what may be building before it reaches that point, and what helps you manage it. We can look at patterns and triggers, practise ways of responding earlier, and work towards reducing the intensity or frequency of attacks where possible.

If panic has led you to avoid places, situations, or activities you actually want to be part of, we can work on rebuilding confidence and helping you feel more in control again.

Choosing life can feel important and meaningful, but it can come with its own complexities. A suicide attempt can be traumatic in itself, and life afterwards is something I do not think is spoken about nearly enough. Society can sometimes treat surviving as though the difficult part is over, when the things that contributed to suicidal thinking or an attempt may still be there and still need support.

There can be relief, shame, fear, confusion, numbness, or many feelings at once. With me, there is no pressure to have all the answers because you survived. We can unpack what happened, make room for how life feels now, and support you with what is still going on in your current life.

We can also explore what you would like your future self to live like, what matters to you, and where meaning or peace might begin to grow. An attempt can affect relationships too, leaving you feeling watched, misunderstood, overprotected, ashamed, or unsure how to talk about what happened. All of that is welcome in the work.

Relationships can mean romantic partners, family, friendships, work relationships, and other important connections. Feeling unheard, trust difficulties, conflict, intimacy, or communication can all make relationships feel complicated.

I can help you explore what you need from your relationships, what the relationship means to you, and where boundaries may be important. We can also look at your own part within patterns without turning that into blame or assuming you are responsible for everything.

I am not here to tell you what your relationships should look like. The focus is helping you understand them more clearly and work out what would feel healthier, more honest, or more manageable for you.

Shame and self criticism are things I work with a lot. Sometimes they grow from what other people have told us about ourselves, and sometimes they become the things we repeatedly tell ourselves. Over time, those messages can start to feel like facts.

I understand how hard shame can be to carry and how frightening it can feel to say something out loud for the first time. You do not need to hide the parts of yourself you feel most uncomfortable with from me. I will meet them with acceptance and without judgement.

Together we can look at where the shame or self criticism may have come from, how it is affecting the way you live now, and whether those messages still deserve the influence they have over how you see yourself.

Social anxiety can make life feel really challenging. Fear of judgement can lead you to avoid things you actually want to do, and constantly monitoring how you are coming across can be exhausting. I bring lived experience of social anxiety from earlier in my life, so I understand how limiting it can feel.

I want our sessions to feel like somewhere you do not need to perform socially or worry about getting things right. We can understand what social anxiety is like for you, what brings it up, and how it is affecting the choices you make or the things you avoid.

From there, we can work towards building confidence, reducing the hold social anxiety has, and helping you move towards more of the things you actually want to enjoy.

Stress can build quietly, and sometimes there can be shame around feeling stressed in the first place. When it piles up, it can show up physically as well as mentally, affect how you think about different areas of life, and make day to day functioning much harder.

I can offer somewhere to slow things down and work out what is actually driving the stress. We can look at what is adding pressure, what may be keeping it going, and what your mind and body seem to be telling you.

From there, we can consider practical changes that fit the reality of your life rather than telling you to simply stress less. The focus is on reducing some of the pressure and helping everyday life feel more manageable.

I welcome open and honest conversations around suicide. I understand there can be real fear around talking about suicidal thoughts in a professional setting, but you do not need to hide or soften those conversations with me. I am comfortable sitting with difficult conversations, and I will listen first. If you tell me you are feeling suicidal, we can talk about it calmly and work together to understand what is happening, what might help keep you safe, and what support you need.

Supporting people experiencing suicidality is an important part of my work. I have qualifications and additional training around suicide, suicide prevention, and self harm, and I continue to undertake training in these areas. I actively advocate for wider systemic change in how people experiencing suicidal thoughts are supported.

Self harm is welcome in the conversation too. I understand that self harm does not automatically mean someone is suicidal, and you can talk about it without judgement or panic. We can explore what it is helping you cope with, how you feel about it, and what healthier ways of supporting yourself might look like. If I ever felt there was an immediate and serious risk to your safety, I may need to take steps to help keep you safe. Wherever possible, I would talk this through with you and involve you in what happens next.

It can be hard to move forward after trauma, and the impact can show up in lots of different ways. You might struggle to relax or sleep, become more self critical, lose confidence, or start avoiding things that feel too difficult. Trauma does not have to come from one huge event. Repeated or ongoing experiences can have a deep impact too.

You do not need to come into counselling ready to tell me everything that happened. There can be power in telling your story, but only when you feel ready and in control of that. We can work with how the trauma is affecting you now without you having to go into details you do not want to share.

I want you to feel safe, respected, believed, and in control of your sessions. Your session is your space. If there is something I can do to help you feel safer or more comfortable, you can ask. I have completed additional training in trauma informed practice, and our work can focus on understanding your reactions with more self acceptance and helping day to day life feel more manageable.

Work can become difficult when you are trying to hold yourself to the same standard while also juggling everything else going on in life. It can be easy to become harsh on yourself, feel embarrassed by mistakes, or keep pushing because financial pressure makes stepping back feel impossible.

I offer an unbiased place to talk honestly about what is happening, whether that is workload, difficult management, conflict, feeling undervalued, struggling to switch off, or simply having work take up too much headspace. I will not automatically jump to the idea that you need to leave your job.

Sometimes the hardest part is working out what you actually need. We can explore boundaries, workload, expectations, and realistic changes. If finances or other responsibilities are making you feel stuck, I will work with the reality of that rather than pretending change is simple.

Young people can sometimes see a counsellor as another authority figure, which can make starting counselling feel awkward or intimidating. I work hard to make it clear that I am there to support you, not tell you what to do. I want young clients to feel respected, have autonomy, and know they are allowed to be themselves in the room.

I work with young people aged 12 and over. Sessions are relaxed and, where appropriate, can be fun too. There are fidget toys and simple games available, some clients find it easier to talk while watching the large fish tank beside the seating area, and outdoor sessions are also an option. There is no pressure to communicate in one particular way. I often find that young people who are hesitant at first become much more comfortable once trust builds, and many start to look forward to their sessions.

I work with young people around things including suicidality and self harm, identity, sense of self, school and life transitions, and other difficulties that matter to them. I understand parents and carers often want to know how to help, but confidentiality is important because it helps build trust and encourages a young person to open up safely. If serious concerns arise, I will explain where possible that I may need to involve someone else, and where the young person is comfortable, I will work collaboratively with parents, carers, or guardians. For some younger clients, face to face counselling may be more suitable.