At my core I am humanistic and person centred. I believe in our nature as humans to grow and change. I believe that each of us is doing the best we can to cope with the life that we find ourselves thrown into. We didn’t choose to be here, but we can choose where we go from here. This relates to my psychological practice in that I see my role as supporting change in a way that respects each person, and identifies and develops the skills they already have, and helps to learn and try out new skills, if that is useful for them.

As a psychologist the idea of pluralism is particularly important. To me this means that there is no one “right way” of working. I tend not to use one specific approach but I would often be using aspects from Person Centred Therapy, from Compassion Focused Therapy and from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. My aim in suggesting different things is to respond to the client’s needs and goals and will be influenced by my prior training and experience. My belief is that the therapeutic relationship is the most important aspect of therapy, and that change often comes from the way that we feel in an accepting and warm relationship, rather than the specific things we might do in a therapy session. 

I do not have a strong belief in diagnosis of mental health problems. This means that I do not believe that mental health problems are an illness in the same way as a disease or an infection. That is partly due to the lack of scientific evidence for a biological basis as the cause of mental health problems, and partly due to the way that mental health and illness has been used as a way of reducing and classifying people’s experience in dealing with difficult life circumstances. Through my experience I would consider the social circumstances surrounding each person as a particularly important contributor and perpetuator of difficulties at times. I respect that sometimes using a diagnosis is useful for people to find a shorthand explanation for their difficulties, and to get a sense of ownership of a difficulty. As an alternative to diagnosis in psychology we have a process called formulation, which considers the many distinct factors in the individual’s life which contribute to the way their difficulties emerge and the way they cope with these. This helps us to explain and work on common difficult experiences like post-traumatic stress, anxiety, depression, or obsessions and compulsions.