A path that led me here.

Before counselling, I spent over twenty years working in advertising and marketing. It was a career I valued - and one that taught me a great deal, not all of it comfortable. I came to understand, from the inside, how professional life can quietly take its toll: the pressure that builds gradually, the boundaries that erode, the slow sense of losing yourself in the demands of the day. That understanding now sits at the heart of how I work with people navigating similar experiences.

Finding my purpose.

During the pandemic, I did something I hadn't done in years - I stopped. I stepped back from the career I'd built and asked myself what actually mattered to me.

That question led me to volunteer at a local foodbank, supporting individuals and families in real crisis. It was there that something became clear: supporting people through their most difficult moments was something I was meant to do.

I retrained as a counsellor, and went on to work within the NHS and Macmillan Cancer Support as a bereavement and cancer counsellor. That role changed me. Sitting with people in the hardest moments of their lives - illness, loss, the strange and disorienting task of rebuilding afterwards - gave me a greater depth of understanding.

These kinds of life challenges are rarely fully seen by the world around us. People grieve in private. They receive a diagnosis and are expected to stay strong. They lose a version of themselves and have no language for it yet. Part of my work is simply making sure you don't have to carry that alone.

The chair on the other side.

I've been a client too. At pivotal points in my own life, I reached out for support - and I know exactly what that takes. The uncertainty before the first session. The vulnerability of speaking to a stranger. The relief, when it finally comes, of feeling truly heard. That experience never leaves you. It means I never lose sight of what it's like to be the person sitting across from me. I don't take that lightly - ever.

Challenges and areas I can help with.

Counselling can help with a wide range of life's difficulties - and you don't need to be in crisis to reach out. Whether you're feeling overwhelmed, stuck, anxious, low, or simply not quite yourself, I can offer a space to explore what's going on and find a way through.

Alongside this, I have a particular personal and professional interest in supporting people through:

• Grief and bereavement - the loss of someone you love, or a loss that others don't always recognise or understand
• Cancer and health diagnosis - the emotional impact of receiving difficult news, and everything that follows
• Burnout - the exhaustion that goes deeper than tiredness, and the slow process of finding yourself again
• Menopause - the physical, emotional and identity shifts that this stage of life can bring
• Life transitions - divorce, career change, loss of role, becoming a carer, or any moment that leaves you wondering who you are now

These are areas where I bring not just training, but genuine depth of understanding. Menopause in particular has been the focus of my academic research - reflecting a long-term commitment to understanding and championing women through a stage of life that is still too often dismissed or misunderstood.

And if something else entirely brought you here, please do get in touch - I'd be glad to talk it through with you. Let's have a chat to see if you'd like to work with me.