About Me

From an early age I was interested in the human condition and like most children asked ‘why?’ a lot.  My early childhood was spent in Northern Ontario and Labrador, Canada, then the desert of Peru.  I moved to England when I was 10 years old but had fond memories of Peru, so studied for a Latin American Studies degree, which included spending time in Mexico.

In my late 20s I took a different turn, after becoming a mother, and I went into a ‘caring profession’: nursing.  I knew I wanted to serve people in some way.  I was also interested in personal development and became a student within an Eastern wisdom tradition.  I trained as a yoga teacher and taught classes for a few years in Portsmouth.  In 1995 I moved to Devon and began my nursing career.  I nursed cancer patients both in a clinical setting and as a specialist research nurse over a 20-year period.

However, counselling was always a deep interest.  Having been a counselling client for several years and having experienced the benefits of being seen, heard and met, I knew this was the direction I wanted to go in as a career.  I had the opportunity to do a counselling course through the NHS initially and later gained my Advanced Diploma in Integrative Counselling with the Iron Mill Institute (now College) in Exeter, in 2009.

I worked as a Volunteer Counsellor in NHS mental health settings for 4 years, alongside my nursing job, during my training and afterwards. Then it felt the right time to start my own private counselling business.  In 2011, some counsellor friends and I gathered to start Torbay Talking Therapy and operated as sole practitioners out of a GP surgery in Torquay.  After a couple of years I moved my practice to central Totnes, and with a counsellor partner we took over the former counselling room of the long-established Croft Counselling.  That ended when I decided to take some time out to live in Canada for a year in 2016.  On returning I started working privately again in Totnes and Exeter with individual adults and young people.  I am also training in Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy based on the model created by Dr Sue Johnson and hope to become a certified EFT therapist in due course.

Qualifications

• Advanced Diploma in Humanistic-Integrative Counselling, the Iron Mill Institute, Exeter, 2009
• Registered with the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP)
• Registered Nurse – cancer nursing and Oncology Research
• Completed Core Skills in Emotionally Focused  Couples Therapy (EFT) in 2021

Experience 

• Member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (MBACP), 2009
• Volunteer counsellor – Devon Partnership Trust (NHS mental health service provider), 2008-2011
• Completed the Women’s Initiatory Journey in 2014, facilitated by Elisabeth Josephs-Serra, Culture of Honouring/Social Alchemy
• Counsellor for Torbay Care Trust’s Carer Support scheme from 2014-15
• Counsellor for Counselling for Midwives 2020
• In private practice since 2011