Based in the North East of England, I am a dual qualified Humanistic, Integrative, Psychotherapeutic Counsellor for Adults with a specialism working with Children and Adolescents.  If you're wondering what all this means (you're definitely not alone!) one of my chief aims with this website and the writing I publish here is to explain the multitudinous aspects of a variety of therapies and to hopefully demystify/bring some clarity to them.  In my experience as both the therapist and client I see and have personally felt much confusion over who offers what, where you go for that, how you access this and what means what!   I am also developing a website - en-psych-lopedia - which will eventually contain a whole host of jargon-busting definitions to help navigate what is an often-times dense and overwhelming world of big, fancy words.  In the meantime the below will hopefully shed some light.  For now, Humanistic very basically means that  I offer empathy and unconditional positive regard for your perspective and Integrative means I am able to draw from a number of modalities rather than offering strictly one way of working.    

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Essentially, I offer the chance for you to 'find your bliss station' - I believe that within us all is the way of being that we all wish to arrive at, but that this place can so often feel so distant thanks to external factors cloaked in numerous guises diverting us from our route.  Guises like the demands of our responsibilities and the roles taken on or assigned to us therein, from childhood to adulthood.  Relational roles and responsibilities as a family member, parent, child or guardian; work, school, finances, friendships, community, gender, age.  The list is enormous.  Add to this the ever-accelerating pace of life and ever-expanding connectivity to a 'Global Village' with its constant information and social media bombardment and it's little wonder you aren't often your priority. 

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OK, Mark.  Sounds very 'therapisty'.  But what does that actually involve?  Drop the flowery metaphors.

50 minute sessions that are completely yours; uninterrupted and wholly contained.  Don't we all want to be listened to and heard?  Attention gets such a bad rap - there's nothing wrong with wanting or needing attention -  it is a completely natural requirement of every human being, children especially.  How many children are dismissed as 'attention-seeking'?  The fact is, children are seeking attention.  They are seeking attention for a reason and they must be seen and heard.

During your sessions you will have my fullest attention and together we can explore your world, with compassionate curiosity.  Together we can meet with any conflicts and find a way forward, so that you can develop your insight and feed your growth, for yourself.  

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Within my writings you will find my philosophy of responsibility and accountability.  For me, therapy is about taking the responsibility to 'do the work'; to investigate our inner lives to better understand how we relate to the outer world.  This can have a life-changing impact on our relationships and our 'way of being'.    

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'The relationships between observable phenomena are more important than the phenomena themselves' - Claude Lévi-Strauss.

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Underneath everything are blissings in disguise.  

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