I have come to believe that to fully understand and properly attend to people experiencing mental distress and disturbance we need to consider the culture, environment and relationships within which distress arises. I believe we need to attend to all the dimensions of being human – physical, psychological, social, cultural and spiritual – in a fully integrated and holistic way, as complex as this is. I also view the quality of the therapeutic relationship as one of the most needed, and most neglected, ingredients of helping and healing within mental health and wider healthcare cultures.
After leaving school in 1987 I went to Southampton University and graduated with a medical degree in 1994. However, I have not followed a conventional career path. I began psychiatric training in 1995 but left for a year in order to train as a counsellor, receiving a diploma in counselling from the University of East Anglia in 1998.
I subsequently returned to psychiatric practice and have worked in a number of NHS posts across a variety of settings (hospital and community), which has included ten years working in inner city Gloucester and then ten years working in Herefordshire. During some of this time I also worked as a counsellor within the voluntary sector in Gloucester.
I left my psychiatric job in the autumn of 2020 in order to work more exclusively as a therapist and trainer, including setting up my own independent practice in Gloucestershire in 2021. In 2022 I also started to provide supervision.
Having held a dual allegiance to psychiatry and the world of counselling and psychotherapy for many years, I have been interested in interdisciplinary dialogue and bridge building between these two often very different worlds. I have been doing this mainly through delivering workshops, talks and various publications, particularly my most recent book Psychiatry and Mental Health. A guide for counsellors and psychotherapists (PCCS Books, published 2020).
I believe I bring a wealth of experience to my work, including my own experiences of being in therapy. I also draw on my interest in mystical, wisdom traditions that are open to mystery and paradox, and on my interest in both Western and Eastern philosophical systems. I aim to develop and maintain a spirit of wonder at how human beings and all life develops and grows. What is it that gives life?
But my life isn’t all about work. I started having piano lessons again in my late 30s and I have sung in choirs for most of my life. Long distance running has also held a particular appeal at various times, and I have got to know the Cotswold Way very well.