Consultant Clinical Psychologist

Are you feeling stressed? Struggling with anxiety? Suffering from depression? Coping the impact of trauma? Working through grief? Keen to improve your wellbeing? Experiencing relationship difficulties? Dealing with challenges at your workplace? Lacking a sense of direction or purpose in your life?  Navigating complex life changes?

By deciding to attend therapy, you are making an essential step to support your health and wellbeing.

For information about my therapeutic approach and professional background, please see my website.

My Therapeutic Approach

I approach my clinical work from a deep place of awareness, presence and understanding of the pain involved in being a human being. I consider the therapeutic work one of the most important missions I have in life.

Acceptance, warmth and integrity are the bedrock of our joint work. Offering a safe space for you to be exactly as you are and supporting you through the paradoxical process of change will help us arrive at the results you want from therapy.

My work with clients is very collaborative. It is based on honouring the being of the person I am fortunate to work with at my practice, their innate wisdom and their transformational capacity in the face of various internal difficulties and external challenges at all stages of life.

You are the expert of your life, and together with my clinical experience, evidence-based methods and clinical intuition, it enables safe progress on the path. I experience steadiness in walking the terrain of the internal landscape, and it is humbling to walk alongside my clients in their journeys. I feel inspired by the beauty of authenticity, self-development, inner growth and discovery that unfold within the therapeutic space.

I can work with you to tailor an integrated and effective therapeutic approach based on your difficulties, wishes, and needs. My clinical psychology training was psychodynamic. I later completed training in Integrative Psychotherapy, focusing on Gestalt and Existential Psychotherapy.  Through my practice and continuing professional development, I also developed knowledge in other therapeutic modalities, including Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Internal Family Systems (IFS), Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and Family Therapy.

I have worked in multiple clinical settings, from University Counselling Services to Mental Health Inpatient Units. My most recent role in the public health system was of ten years at the Adult Acute Mental Health Inpatient Unit at Auckland City Hospital.

My enduring interest in mindfulness practice translated to some professional engagements in this field, including being :

• Certified Teacher and approved supervisor of Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT)
• Co-Director of the Mindfulness Training Institute: Australia & New Zealand (MTI)– this internationally recognised not-for-profit organisation trains and certifies Mindfulness Based Programmes teachers in our part of the world (mtia.org.au).
• Director of Mindfulness Auckland, where I facilitate MBSR, MBCT and Residential Meditation Retreats –www.mindfulnessauckland.co.nz