I have an innate curiosity and fascination to hear about other people’s lives, their unique story and have a respect for complexity and uncertainty. The feedback I get from clients tends to mention my warmth, openness, humour and ability to probe and challenge. For sure, I will listen and not judge.
Coming relatively late to a career in therapy, I tend to draw as much from observation of life experience as from formal training. While always feeling grounded in the UK, my work in the media, humanitarian, and corporate worlds and as a British diplomat has taken me to conflict and post-conflict zones, including Afghanistan, Rwanda, Iraq and Russia.
I have been fortunate to engage with different cultures, belief systems and ethnicities and this has given me experience in speaking to people authentically.
Wherever I have lived and travelled in the UK and overseas with the BBC, UN or in the FCO, I have been struck by people’s resilience and ability to cope, and that’s something I hope to bring out in therapy and help develop, where necessary.
My career to date in a sentence has been about making connections with people and having purposeful and meaningful conversations. So, for me, I see therapy as a continuation of that.
