Therapy is not about tidying emotions into neat boxes. Healing is often messy, literally and symbolically.

I encourage creative mess, play, and regression because I believe these are essential in making sense of overwhelming experiences.

Whether it’s paint splattered across the page, clay pressed between fingers, or the safe chaos of tearing paper, these moments hold meaning.

Children and young people often cannot articulate their feelings in words, especially when their early experiences are rooted in trauma, loss, or relational disruptions before language fully developed.

Feelings that are too big, too frightening, or too confusing to express verbally often emerge through art, play, movement, or silence.

This is why I trust the nonverbal, the indirect, and the symbolic - because sometimes, a smudge of paint, a hidden figure in the sand, or a repeated pattern speaks more than words ever could.

Who I Support

I provide:

  • 1:1 Individual Art Psychotherapy and Integrative Art Psychotherapy, incorporating expressive and therapeutic arts, therapeutic play, and nonverbal creative processes
  • Dyadic Parent-Child Psychotherapy
  • Clinical Supervision for therapists and professionals

 

I support children and young people experiencing a range of challenges, including:

Trauma-Related Difficulties & Distress

  • Separation anxiety, regression in speech or toileting
  • Night terrors, hypervigilance, and pervasive fears of threat or abandonment
  • Repetitive trauma reenactment in play and daily life
  • Shame-based experiences, including self-criticism, low self-worth, and avoidance of connection

Dissociation & Somatic Responses

  • Significant dissociative states and emotional withdrawal
  • Unexplained physical symptoms (e.g., stomach aches, headaches)
  • Sleep difficulties and heightened sensory sensitivities
  • Wetting, smearing, and food-related struggles (e.g., overeating, hoarding, avoidance)

Attachment & Developmental Challenges 

  • Difficulties with trust, relationships, and emotional regulation
  • Struggles with safety in connection and co-regulation with caregivers
  • The impact of neurodevelopmental conditions alongside trauma (e.g., sensory processing, impulse control, and relational engagement)

Emotional & Behavioural Presentations of Distress 

  •  Anxiety, panic attacks, low mood, self-harm, and withdrawal
  • Outbursts, stealing, and lying as expressions of distress

How I Work

I bring a compassionate, deeply attuned, and reflective presence into my work, creating a space where children and young people can feel truly seen and understood.

I am highly attuned to nonverbal and unspoken cues, recognising that much of what is held in trauma and early relational experiences cannot always be put into words.

My work is non-directive (child-led), psychodynamic (working with unconscious processes, symbolic meaning, and relational patterns), and trauma-informed (focusing on stabilisation, processing, and integration).

Rooted in psychodynamic theory and informed by psychoanalytic concepts, attachment theory, and an understanding of the body’s role in trauma responses, I support children in making sense of their inner worlds.

This includes facilitating the emergence of unconscious material and symbolic meaning while supporting relational exploration in a safe and connected therapeutic space.

I engage in regular clinical supervision and reflective practice. This allows me to continuously deepen my understanding, maintain ethical practice, and provide a safe and attuned therapeutic space for those I work with.

My Qualification and Experience

I completed my MA in Art Psychotherapy at Goldsmiths, University of London, in 2017, following a Postgraduate Certificate in Therapeutic Arts at IATE London in 2014.

I also hold an MA in Social Work (2001) and was previously registered with the HCPC as a social worker. This background provided me with a strong foundation in working with children, families, and vulnerable populations within a relational and systemic framework.

Additionally, I obtained a Professional Certificate in Counselling Using the Arts from The Institute for Arts in Therapy and Education (IATE) (2014), further deepening my skills in using expressive arts therapeutically to support emotional well-being through creative process.

I have seven years of experience (2014–2021) in CAMHS within the NHS, with the majority of this time spent in the Looked After Children (LAC) team, as well as experience in the Emotional and Behavioural team.

I have also worked as a Senior Integrative Art Psychotherapist in a private creative therapy service, specialising in supporting adopted children and their families.

Throughout all these years, my focus has been on working with children, young people, and their parents/carers to address difficulties rooted in in-utero trauma, early developmental trauma, attachment difficulties, and relational trauma - areas that remain my primary expertise.

I also have extensive experience in mental health assessments and have contributed to specialised sensory, attachment, and trauma assessments, incorporating clinical observation, psychodynamic clinical hypotheses, and formulations.

My work has also involved multidisciplinary discussions, professional meetings around the child, writing reports for professionals, and contributing to EHCP applications and reviews.

Specialist Trainings

  • Dyadic Art Psychotherapy – British Association of Art Therapists (BAAT)
    Integrating art, play, and sensory-based processes to strengthen emotional connection, trust, and co-regulation between parent/carer and child.

  • Dissociation in Children and Adolescents: Assessment and Treatment (DCAT) (Ongoing)
    Deepening my understanding of dissociation as a response to trauma and developing therapeutic approaches for working with complex dissociative presentations.

  • DDP Level 1 (Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy) – Dan Hughes’ attachment-focused model
    Supporting relational healing between children and their parents/carers through the principles of PACE (Playfulness, Acceptance, Curiosity, and Empathy).

  • CATT (Children’s Accelerated Trauma Treatment) – Trained with Trauma Psychology UK
    A child-centred approach integrating sensory, creative, and narrative techniques for trauma processing.

  • Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) – The Association for Psychological Therapies
    Understanding the lifelong impact of early trauma and how it shapes emotional and relational development.

  • Solihull Approach – University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust
    A framework for supporting foster carers and adoptive parents in building secure attachments with children who have experienced early adversity.

  • Ongoing professional development