I have a specialist interest in working with autistic and ADHD adults, including those experiencing burnout, depression, anxiety and low self-esteem. I am particularly keen to provide a safe, accepting space in which clients can explore long-held feelings of being ‘different’ — of being tolerated but not fully accepted — or of feeling dissatisfied, disappointed and exhausted by the effort involved in trying to please others, meet others' expectations, or be ‘good enough’.


For many people, it is a relief to realise they are not alone in feeling this way, and that it is possible to find a preferred way of being in the world — including deciding to stop feeling the need to justify simply being yourself.


Alongside my clinical work, I am a doctoral researcher with a particular interest in autistic workplace burnout. This research is closely informed by my therapeutic work, where I see how harsh self-judgement can pervade all areas of life for autistic and ADHD adults. I have a particular interest in supporting clients to understand and lessen the impact of this self-criticism, given how often it contributes to burnout.


I also have a keen interest in working with people as they move through further or higher education, or who are considering returning to education after earlier difficult or invalidating experiences.


Unfortunately, many autistic adults report poor experiences of counselling or psychotherapy where the practitioner has not had sufficient understanding of how differently the world can be experienced. I have a particular interest in supporting adults who are struggling to make sense of what it means to be autistic, and clients often tell me that the support I offer feels very different from what they have experienced elsewhere.

Qualifications:

  • Psychology BSc (Hons)
  • Diploma TA Counselling
  • Diploma Integrative Psychotherapy
  • MA Autism Spectrum
  • CBT Cert.
  • Mentoring Cert.

Current training & study/research:

  • Autism Spectrum -post-grad.  research via PhD


      I am registered Member of the

      British Association for

      Counselling & Psychotherapy.

      I work to their ethical and

      professional standards.


A brief overview of my professional training and experience:


  • I first began working in mental health in 1999, as a psychology undergraduate, initially in a psychiatric inpatient setting.
  • I went on to work on an acquired brain injury unit alongside behavioural psychologists, before beginning training in Transactional Analysis in Edinburgh.
  • During this time I worked with Hearing Voices Network and the National Schizophrenia Fellowship Scotland, supporting individuals and groups of voice hearers. I also ran a city centre mental health drop-in and was supervisor of a telephone support line.
  • After moving back to England, I managed projects for mental health charities in the north-west, recruiting, training and supervising volunteers and staff supporting people with experience of severe and enduring mental ill-health.
  • I worked for a number of years at Understanding Autism Northwest, a specialist autism counselling charity which has now sadly closed.
  • I have worked for a number of years, and continue to work, in private practice, based in Helmshore, Rossendale, East Lancashire.
  • I am a doctoral researcher at The Autism Centre in Sheffield.