Four Powerful Traditions.

One Coherent Path Forward

My work is grounded in an integrative approach that draws from several powerful therapeutic traditions to help you understand yourself more deeply and create lasting, meaningful change. At its core is the belief that we are not trapped by our past - we have the capacity to become aware, make conscious choices, and build a life that feels authentic and fulfilling.

Transactional Analysis

We explore your life script - the unconscious story begun in childhood, shaped by drivers ("be perfect," "please others") and injunctions ("don't succeed," "don't feel"). Once aware, you can gently rewrite it.

Existential Perspective

Drawing on Irvin Yalom's four givens - death, freedom, isolation, meaninglessness - we learn to face life's realities with courage, using them as a springboard for a more purposeful, intentional existence.

Person-Centred Foundation

Your unique subjective experience is the most important guide. I offer a safe, non-judgmental relationship - empathy, unconditional positive regard, genuine presence - allowing growth at your own pace.

Human Givens

The 9 essential emotional needs - security, autonomy, intimacy, meaning, and more - alongside your innate resources. When needs are met and resources used well, distress dissolves and resilience grows.

Nervous System Regulation

Before the mind can rewrite its story, the body must first feel safe. Stress isn't just a feeling - it's a physiological state driven by ancient survival systems that were never designed for modern life. Understanding how your nervous system works is the first and most transformative step.

When the brain perceives threat - real or imagined - it triggers a cascade of responses that hijack thinking, feeling, and relating. Chronic stress keeps this system on high alert, eroding health, relationships, and quality of life. The good news? The nervous system is plastic. It can be retrained, regulated, and restored.

Somatic Therapy and Trauma

Somatic therapy recognises that trauma is not only stored in the mind but is deeply held within the body and nervous system. When a person experiences trauma, the autonomic nervous system (particularly the sympathetic “fight or flight” branch) can become chronically activated, leaving the body in a state of hyperarousal or shutdown (dorsal vagal response). This image beautifully illustrates how the nervous system responds to perceived threat and why regulation is essential for healing.

Somatic approaches work directly with the body’s physiological responses — through breathwork, grounding techniques, gentle movement, interoception (awareness of internal sensations), and titration (processing trauma in small, manageable amounts). Rather than focusing solely on talking about the story of the trauma, somatic therapy helps clients release stored survival energy, restore safety in the body, and strengthen the parasympathetic “rest and digest” response. This bottom-up processing allows the nervous system to move out of chronic stress and into greater regulation, creating the foundation for the mind to effectively rewrite its story.

By understanding and working with the body’s innate wisdom, somatic therapy offers a powerful pathway to resolve trauma symptoms such as anxiety, hypervigilance, emotional numbness, and disconnection.

Polyvagal Theory:

Polyvagal Theory, developed by Dr Stephen Porges, helps us understand how our nervous system constantly scans the environment for cues of safety or danger. This unconscious process, called neuroception - directly influences our thoughts, emotions, behaviours, and ability to connect with others.

We move between three core physiological states:

Ventral Vagal (Safe & Social) — Our optimal “rest and digest” state where we feel calm, connected, and able to engage with life.
Sympathetic (Fight/Flight) — Activated when we perceive threat, preparing us for action.
Dorsal Vagal (Shutdown) — An ancient survival response that kicks in when fight/flight is not possible, leading to dissociation, numbness, or collapse.

Healthy nervous system regulation means being able to move flexibly between these states and, most importantly, return to the Ventral Vagal state of safety.

“The Ventral Vagal Complex (VVC) is the beginning and end of the stress response. Healthy regulation involves fluidly returning to this state of safety.”

Understanding your nervous system is often the missing piece in trauma recovery, anxiety, depression, and relationship difficulties. Somatic and trauma-informed therapy focuses on helping you recognise your current state and gently guide your body back into safety.

The body's slower stress response system — powerful, but damaging when chronically activated.

When the brain detects a threat, the Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) axis (within the endocrine system)triggers a hormone cascade that prepares the body for action.

The HPA Axis

Hypothalamus → Pituitary → Adrenal

Short-term cortisol (helpful) - Boosts energy, sharpens focus, reduces inflammation temporarily

Chronic cortisol (harmful) - Anxiety, sleep disruption, low mood, suppressed immunity, weight changes, exhaustion — “cortisol burnout”

Chronic stress keeps this cascade running on a loop

— with cumulative consequences for both body and mind.

Vegas Nerve

The vagus nerve is the longest cranial nerve in the body - a two-way information superhighway running from your brainstem through your heart and lungs all the way to your gut. It is the primary nerve of the parasympathetic nervous system: your body's rest, digest, and restore system.

Crucially, around 80% of vagal fibres run upward - from body to brain - which means the fastest way to calm an activated nervous system is through the body, not through thinking alone. This is the scientific foundation of all bottom-up regulation work.

Vagal Tone

High vagal tone = greater capacity to recover from stress quickly, regulate emotions, and feel socially connected. Low vagal tone is associated with anxiety, depression, and inflammation.