How my journey began

For the technical stuff: I work from a person-centred approach which means that I will listen, reflect, accept you and show empathy. I will try to fully understand what you are saying to me and you will experience me as an honest and sincere person. I do not have all of the answers. I liken it to how we are both climbing our own mountains - I am able to see views of your mountain that you may have never noticed before, and my job is just to point them out to you. 

I also work from an Act perspective (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy), where we may work on your ability to be present in the moment, open up and accept your situation, defuse from difficult thoughts and feelings, and seek out your values or what is important to you. Flexible thinking can be crucial to living comfortably with painful emotions and all of these things pertain to this. 

I am passionate about self-compassion. When we are hard on ourselves, it does not tend to help us deal with daily stressors. Learning how to treat ourselves with kindness and care can be a crucial turning point in how we view ourselves - accepting ourselves just the way we are can be a powerful way to being ok with our own being. 

I also use other modalities in the counselling room: Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT), Narrative Therapy, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and Solution FocusedTherapy. What modality is used will entirely depend on what is going on for you. 

Personal:

I am married with 2 daughters and I am a farmers wife in Te Anau. I enjoy writing, exercise, gardening, and I was a professional cake decorator for many years so I still indulge in this occasionally. I have special interests in the areas of rural mental health, adolescence and family violence. Currently I work across the Te Anau and Southland region offering counselling services to all ages.