Experience:
- 1990 - current: 30 years in private practise as a Psychotherapist and Supervisor in London, and recently in Zürich.
- 1993 - 2008: Member of Staff at The Centre for Counselling & Psychotherapy Education, London, where I trained, supervised, and lectured students from all years, and worked with final year and M.A. level students.
- 1994 - 2007: Founder member and Head of Training & Development for the charity Hospice Home Support.
- 1980 - 1992: 12 years as an IT Consultant to The International Stock Exchange, British Aerospace, Toyota, and other international corporations.
Qualifications/Memberships:
- 1980 Bachelor of Arts in Psychology, with minors in Philosophy, Sociology, Education, and Literature
- Diplomas: 1994 Counselling & Psychotherapy; 1995 Supervision; 1997 Advanced Diploma in Psychotherapy
- 2000 Master of Arts in Transpersonal Counselling & Psychotherapy
- 2005 Member of the Society of Authors - Pilgrims published by Random House.
- 2015 - current: Senior Associate Member of the Royal Society of Medicine.
Approach:
Your life is a path, a journey, and it is rich with meaning and purpose, even if that is not immediately apparent. I have been a psychotherapist for almost thirty years, listening to people's stories, accompanying them on their paths; I trained and supervised psychotherapists for over fifteen years; and I continue my own journey of learning and developing and becoming - all of these experiences have shown me, repeatedly and consistently, that life presents us with precisely the challenges we need in order to learn, develop, grow, and move towards our original nature. Because of this, it is best to meet life's challenges with humility and receptivity, openness and truthfulness, love and acceptance.
Life's challenges and difficulties are the hurdles on the journey of becoming oneself, of freeing oneself from social conditioning, and of re-connecting to the natural order and pattern of life. We can develop by facing what life presents us with, by recognising our problems as our responsibility, and seeing them for what they are: opportunities to learn and grow. If such challenges are faced patiently, with a compassionate curiosity, there is no end to how far they can take us.
Depth psychotherapy necessarily addresses social conditioning or programming. Often unconscious at the beginning of therapy, social conditioning undermines a person's relationship with their own nature and with life itself. As a person is gradually liberated from their conditioning, they begin to return to their original being, and thus to a loving, fulfilling, accepting, and meaningful relationship to life and to themselves. Thus
depth psychotherapy is a process of coming into harmony with your original nature, and with life itself.
Successful psychotherapy depends on the quality of relationship between the psychotherapist, the person coming to see them, and the unfolding pattern of that person's life. It is the quality of these relationships that is healing. And for healing to be whole, it is not only the psyche that needs to be addressed, but also the body and spirit, so healthy disciplines around diet, physical & spiritual practices, and interactions with the world are a corollary to successful therapy. These disciplines bring about an inner stability, and this stability leads to wisdom.
What is the purpose of a human life?
My position is that it is to come to manifest one's original nature, and thus to be the person life most needs one to be. This necessitates a re-connection to the natural order of things, and from this foundation one becomes open to a way of being in the world that is both meaningful and fulfilling. This, in turn, brings about a deep and robust experience of well-being, self-acceptance, and the ability to give and receive love. It requires hard work and discipline to get there, but the journey is also intimate and rewarding and affirming. As Sigmund Freud said, people who go into psychotherapy are the true heroes of our society.
Life presents us with the challenges we must face in order to win ourselves back, and my work is to accompany people on these extraordinarily rewarding journeys.