about me
I’m Julie, and I’ve been working in therapeutic counselling for over 10 years. Throughout my career, I’ve had the opportunity to work in a variety of settings, including a youth counselling service, school counsellor, a Family Contact Centre, the Prison Service, and a large NHS Health Centre.
I’ve worked with clients dealing with a wide range of challenges, such as anxiety, panic attacks, depression, self-harm, suicidal thoughts, loss, self-esteem issues, sexual abuse, family and relationship struggles, trauma, eating disorders, work-related stress, and much more. Whatever you’re going through, I’m here to help you navigate it.
As a psychodynamic counsellor, I focus on helping clients explore and understand the deeper, often unconscious factors that influence their thoughts, feelings, and behaviours. By examining past experiences, early relationships, and unresolved conflicts, we work together to uncover patterns that may be affecting their mental health and current life choices. I believe that bringing awareness to these underlying dynamics can lead to profound healing and personal growth. In my work, I support clients dealing with a variety of mental health challenges such as anxiety, depression, trauma, low self-esteem, and relationship issues, offering a safe, empathetic space for self-discovery and emotional release. My goal is to help individuals gain insight into their emotional world, build healthier coping strategies, and improve their overall well-being.
I take an integrative approach to therapy, because I believe that everyone is unique and deserves a personalised experience. I draw on Psychodynamic Theory and incorporate mindfulness techniques, ensuring that I adapt to what works best for you.
If you’d like to explore therapy together, we’ll start with an informal phone chat. This gives you a chance to share what you’d like to work on, and for me to explain how I approach therapy and see if I can offer the support you're looking for.
If you decide to move forward, we’ll find a time that works for both of us to start sessions.
What is mindfulness?
Professor Mark Williams, former director of the Oxford Mindfulness Centre, says that mindfulness means knowing directly what is going on inside and outside ourselves, moment by moment.
"It's easy to stop noticing the world around us. It's also easy to lose touch with the way our bodies are feeling and to end up living 'in our heads' – caught up in our thoughts without stopping to notice how those thoughts are driving our emotions and behaviour," he says.
"An important part of mindfulness is reconnecting with our bodies and the sensations they experience. This means waking up to the sights, sounds, smells and tastes of the present moment. That might be something as simple as the feel of a banister as we walk upstairs.
"Another important part of mindfulness is an awareness of our thoughts and feelings as they happen moment to moment.
"It's about allowing ourselves to see the present moment clearly. When we do that, it can positively change the way we see ourselves and our lives.".
What is Psychodynamic theory?
Psychodynamic therapy is based on psychoanalytic ways of understanding personal and emotional development. The way we see and relate to the world develops though relationships made in infancy, childhood and alter life.
Disturbances in these relationships can produce continuing vulnerabilities, and symptoms and relationship problems in later life. Symptoms have a meaning in the context of our lives, and difficulties in relationships often follow patterns laid down in earlier life.
The therapist offers a reliable and professional relationship, where old patterns may be repeated, but can be thought about and understood in a way that frees people to change. (Royal College of Psychiatrists)