Social Worker, Relationship Counsellor, Clinical Supervisor
My Approach
My small, Sydney-based private practice specifically focuses on relationship counselling where both (or all) individuals are willing and able to attend. I offer brief, affordable, face to face counselling that helps people see the impact of family of origin patterns, notice and use the resources that are already present in their relationship and find ways of speaking to each other and hearing each other which maximise connection. Mine is an integrative approach, chiefly drawing on Solution Focused ideas, Imago and Gottman Relationship Therapies, Narrative Therapy and Bowen Family Systems. I am careful to create safety for each person as they practise new conversations with me present.
Why Counselling?
As an experienced relationship counsellor, I know that relationships which used to be safe and life-giving can start to feel lonely and even destructive. Attempts at solutions can end up, counter productively, increasing pain and it can eventually feel frightening to try and sort things out without a third person in the room. My 30 years in practice and my hundreds of clients during that time have taught me (and continue to teach me) so much. Using this knowledge, I work at supporting couples who are feeling stuck and discouraged, to find ways out of patterns that are not working and into different ways of connecting that are healing for them.
In my experience, when people are in a counselling space that is safe and confidential, they can be supported to better understand the impact of their family of origin experiences, grow in awareness of their own current patterns of interaction and learn ways of communicating that help them rebuild connection and rediscover what brought them together in the first place.