QUALIFICATIONS
I work full time as a psychotherapist and I see clients in my private practice in Victoria/Westminster (central London) area. I worked in the NHS as a psychotherapist for almost a decade in primary and secondary care units. I have experience working with a number of clients who suffered a wide range of problems with different levels of complexity.
I hold a Diploma in Counselling, an Advanced Diploma, a Diploma in Clinical Supervision and an MA in Integrative Psychotherapy awarded by the Minster Centre in conjunction with the Middlesex University.
I am a registered member of the UKCP, the UK Council for Psychotherapy as well as the BACP (MBACP), the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, and, as such, I abide to the Code of Ethics and procedures of both organizations. I am also a Member of the Relational School and the Minster Centre.
In order to maintain my work at high standards I am regularly supervised by accredited professionals. I also keep myself up to date with the most recent research and developments in the psychotherapeutic area regularly attending CPDs, seminars and workshops.
I hold a Diploma in Counselling, an Advanced Diploma, a Diploma in Clinical Supervision and an MA in Integrative Psychotherapy awarded by the Minster Centre in conjunction with the Middlesex University.
I am a registered member of the UKCP, the UK Council for Psychotherapy as well as the BACP (MBACP), the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, and, as such, I abide to the Code of Ethics and procedures of both organizations. I am also a Member of the Relational School and the Minster Centre.
In order to maintain my work at high standards I am regularly supervised by accredited professionals. I also keep myself up to date with the most recent research and developments in the psychotherapeutic area regularly attending CPDs, seminars and workshops.
EXPERIENCE
I have extensive experience working with individuals who are living with a wide range of difficulties including:
- Depression, anxiety and panic attacks.
- Anger issues and their impact on relationships, work and family.
- Relationship problems including: couples and family dynamics, divorce, separation, parent/children relationships as well as issues of enmeshed families.
- Attachment issues: anxiety, co-dependency, issues with separation and isolation.
- Relationship problems at work, in friendships, bullying and toxic environments.
- Career changes, life transitions, redundancy and unemployment.
- Transition between adolescence/adulthood as well as adulthood/middle age and beyond.
- Loss, bereavement and new beginnings.
- Childhood and adult trauma including sexual abuse (historic and recent).
- Intergenerational transmission of trauma.
- Sex, sexuality, questions of sexual identity, sexual problems.
- Cultural issues, adaptation, geographical changes, interracial/inter-ethnic relationships.
- Chronic diseases, diagnoses and psychosomatic problems.
- Pregnancy and related issues, infertility, miscarriages.
- Motherhood.
- Spirituality and the search for meaning in life.
My work within organizations include:
- Primary Care Mental Health Service IAPT/NHS - Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust - Community Living Well St. Charles Hospital.
- Primary Care Mental Health Service IAPT/NHS - Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Mental Health Trust in North London at the Edgware Community Hospital as well as the Finchley Memorial Hospital.
- Primary Care Mental Health Service IAPT/NHS - Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust.
- Primary Care Mental Health Service IAPT/NHS - Ithaca House in partnership with Mind Tower Hamlets.
- Secondary Care Mental Health Service IPTT/NHS - South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust – specialized service for psychological trauma.
- Families Without Fear Programme – specialised service for women who experienced psychological trauma.
- Women and Girls’ Network - specialized service for women who were recovering from sexual abuse in relationships and domestic violence.
- Depression, anxiety and panic attacks.
- Anger issues and their impact on relationships, work and family.
- Relationship problems including: couples and family dynamics, divorce, separation, parent/children relationships as well as issues of enmeshed families.
- Attachment issues: anxiety, co-dependency, issues with separation and isolation.
- Relationship problems at work, in friendships, bullying and toxic environments.
- Career changes, life transitions, redundancy and unemployment.
- Transition between adolescence/adulthood as well as adulthood/middle age and beyond.
- Loss, bereavement and new beginnings.
- Childhood and adult trauma including sexual abuse (historic and recent).
- Intergenerational transmission of trauma.
- Sex, sexuality, questions of sexual identity, sexual problems.
- Cultural issues, adaptation, geographical changes, interracial/inter-ethnic relationships.
- Chronic diseases, diagnoses and psychosomatic problems.
- Pregnancy and related issues, infertility, miscarriages.
- Motherhood.
- Spirituality and the search for meaning in life.
My work within organizations include:
- Primary Care Mental Health Service IAPT/NHS - Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust - Community Living Well St. Charles Hospital.
- Primary Care Mental Health Service IAPT/NHS - Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Mental Health Trust in North London at the Edgware Community Hospital as well as the Finchley Memorial Hospital.
- Primary Care Mental Health Service IAPT/NHS - Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust.
- Primary Care Mental Health Service IAPT/NHS - Ithaca House in partnership with Mind Tower Hamlets.
- Secondary Care Mental Health Service IPTT/NHS - South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust – specialized service for psychological trauma.
- Families Without Fear Programme – specialised service for women who experienced psychological trauma.
- Women and Girls’ Network - specialized service for women who were recovering from sexual abuse in relationships and domestic violence.
NEUROSCIENCE
In the last years I have been particularly interested in neuroscience, in the new discoveries and studies of the brain as well as how early relationships and traumatic events may shape our emotional life and behaviour in the present moment. I am also interested in how family dynamics and intergenerational transmission of trauma and experiences may affect individuals on a deep, unconscious level and how the clarification of these issues may help clients to live a more satisfying life. I believe that the present moment is a small piece of our past experiences and I work with past and present in a way to integrate both in a creative way.
IMAGERY, METAPHOR, THE BODY AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
Lately I have also been interested in the relationship between imagery, metaphor, embodied experience and the unconscious. According to Ferenczi, a key theorist of the psychoanalytic school, when a person focus her attention on trying to describe what something is like, which is one of the principles of being attentive to her embodied experience, she activates a process that is capable of bringing forth unconscious material. The expression of the unconscious material can then be facilitated through the use of images or metaphor as both aspects are connected to our body/mind space and our felt sense. This is the reason why I have been integrating these important elements into my practice.
A HOLISTIC AND CONTEMPORARY CONCEPT OF THE MIND
“Mental Health” has become less stigmatized and the public and the media are talking much more about “mental health issues”. The problem with the use of these words is that, very often, the mind is generally identified with the brain. If a person has “mental health issues” it is assumed that there are problems related to the brain and associated thoughts generated by it.
This has been proved wrong by interpersonal neurobiologists, and, one of the most accepted concepts of the mind nowadays is provided by Dan Siegel a clinical professor of psychiatry at the UCLA/USA. To him the mind is: “an embodied and relational process that regulates the flow of energy and information”. This means that the components of the mind include the brain, the body as well as our interpersonal relationships. Yes, our relationships are a crucial component of our mind and cultivating wellbeing include integrating all these aspects of the mind.
For that reason it’s important to “think” considering “feelings”, experiment “bodily sensations” including “logic”, access “emotions” engaging our “thoughts” as well as being able to experience a sense of self which can be autonomous but at the same time linked to others in empathic communication.
Mental wellbeing, therefore, is directly related to integrating all of those parts in a holistic way without categorizing which one is most important or excludes one for the sake of the other and this is also an important aspect of my clinical practice.
This has been proved wrong by interpersonal neurobiologists, and, one of the most accepted concepts of the mind nowadays is provided by Dan Siegel a clinical professor of psychiatry at the UCLA/USA. To him the mind is: “an embodied and relational process that regulates the flow of energy and information”. This means that the components of the mind include the brain, the body as well as our interpersonal relationships. Yes, our relationships are a crucial component of our mind and cultivating wellbeing include integrating all these aspects of the mind.
For that reason it’s important to “think” considering “feelings”, experiment “bodily sensations” including “logic”, access “emotions” engaging our “thoughts” as well as being able to experience a sense of self which can be autonomous but at the same time linked to others in empathic communication.
Mental wellbeing, therefore, is directly related to integrating all of those parts in a holistic way without categorizing which one is most important or excludes one for the sake of the other and this is also an important aspect of my clinical practice.
RELATIONAL TRAUMA
I am also greatly interested in the field of what we call “relational trauma”, in other words, trauma caused by adverse experiences lived in the context of relationships. These, are not related necessarily to a specific big traumatic event or event (s) but directly linked to neglect, dismissal, abuse and maltreatment which happens throughout the days/months and years of a child’s life. This type of trauma which happens repeatedly and on an ongoing basis and are known as the “small t”s.
Small “t”s, as they are called, are not small at all, they wound our hearts and frighten our souls as they are repeated over and over again. An example of this type of trauma would be for a child to be ignored when crying, hungry or in need for emotional soothing on an ongoing basis. Being frequently dismissed and invalidated, criticized, shamed and bullied are also examples of this type of trauma.
Relational trauma or “small t”s are gestures of mis-attunement and maltreatment that happens in the context of our very needed close relationships. A small child is completely dependent on parents and primary care givers to survive. If these attachment figures are responsible for the very survival of the child and at the same time, they also act in uncaring ways, this creates an impossible situation for a child who has to “split off” their psychological structures and “fragment” their experience. One part of the child wants and needs closeness and care, another part fears and moves away from neglect and dismissal. Yet, another part needs to function in the everyday life, get up and make sure that they take themselves to school, for example. The complication for the child in this situation is that the very person who provides care is also the one hurting them.
This situation ends up affecting relationships in adulthood – as human beings we want closeness and comfort but to approach others we need to feel safe and trust that we won’t be hurt. Relational trauma, if not treated, ends up emerging in our adult relationships as we may move away from the very people that can offer us love and care. A cycle of approach and distance gets created confusing potential partners, friendships and work colleagues in such a way that the result end may be re-creating the sense of loneliness and need that was once experienced as a child.
Apart from my integrative and Gestalt psychotherapeutic experience I draw on the work of IFS (Internal Family Systems), a methodology that was developed by Richard C. Schwartz in the 80’s as well as Janine Fischer’s trauma work in order to promote changes in such cases. These authors consider that traumatic experiences generate internal fragmentation – one “part” is traumatized and connected to our child within and our past, another part may be represented by the “adult” that get up and go to work, for example. Helping clients promoting a “dialogue” between these parts in the context of a trusting therapeutic relationship can greatly enhance the clients’ capacity for love, connection and healthy relationships.
Small “t”s, as they are called, are not small at all, they wound our hearts and frighten our souls as they are repeated over and over again. An example of this type of trauma would be for a child to be ignored when crying, hungry or in need for emotional soothing on an ongoing basis. Being frequently dismissed and invalidated, criticized, shamed and bullied are also examples of this type of trauma.
Relational trauma or “small t”s are gestures of mis-attunement and maltreatment that happens in the context of our very needed close relationships. A small child is completely dependent on parents and primary care givers to survive. If these attachment figures are responsible for the very survival of the child and at the same time, they also act in uncaring ways, this creates an impossible situation for a child who has to “split off” their psychological structures and “fragment” their experience. One part of the child wants and needs closeness and care, another part fears and moves away from neglect and dismissal. Yet, another part needs to function in the everyday life, get up and make sure that they take themselves to school, for example. The complication for the child in this situation is that the very person who provides care is also the one hurting them.
This situation ends up affecting relationships in adulthood – as human beings we want closeness and comfort but to approach others we need to feel safe and trust that we won’t be hurt. Relational trauma, if not treated, ends up emerging in our adult relationships as we may move away from the very people that can offer us love and care. A cycle of approach and distance gets created confusing potential partners, friendships and work colleagues in such a way that the result end may be re-creating the sense of loneliness and need that was once experienced as a child.
Apart from my integrative and Gestalt psychotherapeutic experience I draw on the work of IFS (Internal Family Systems), a methodology that was developed by Richard C. Schwartz in the 80’s as well as Janine Fischer’s trauma work in order to promote changes in such cases. These authors consider that traumatic experiences generate internal fragmentation – one “part” is traumatized and connected to our child within and our past, another part may be represented by the “adult” that get up and go to work, for example. Helping clients promoting a “dialogue” between these parts in the context of a trusting therapeutic relationship can greatly enhance the clients’ capacity for love, connection and healthy relationships.
