My Approach

If you are struggling with a mental health difficulty, I can offer you assessment and evidence-based psychological treatment. I also welcome clients with non-clinical difficulties who can benefit from psychological support. Read more about my approach to therapy below and my answers to some FAQs.

I use a range of evidence-based models when supporting my clients, including cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), dialectical-behavioural therapy (DBT), acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), internal family systems therapy, narrative therapy and psychodynamic theory.

I will be training in Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) from October 2025, and clients interested in this approach are welcome to get in touch.

I find that therapy can help my clients to achieve equanimity and emotional balance, rediscover their joy for life, conquer fear and anxiety, gain clarity on their purpose, or find self-compassion.

My approach to every client is individual and tailored to their needs. However, I will usually begin with a close assessment of the presenting issue in order to create a ‘formulation’.

A psychological formulation is a working hypothesis about the cognitive, behavioural, interpersonal, neurocognitive or subconscious factors that are generating and maintaining the difficulty in your life. This could be for example the way in which you have learnt to manage emotions, how you respond to interpersonal situations, or habitual ways of thinking about yourself and the world based on past experience or trauma.

Formulation-informed therapy

We will usually begin with an exploration of your difficulty. We then draw from psychological theory and collaboratively develop a formulation to gain new perspectives. This could lead to ideas about how to intervene upon and change the target problem. The formulation is a guide to action, and always develops as the therapy progresses. Clients hoping for problem-focused or change oriented therapy can find this approach helpful. Some clients however may be less change-focused, and prefer to remain in the exploratory and reflective stages, which I also welcome.

Do I give a diagnosis?

Some clients find that a diagnosis helps to make sense of their problem and makes their difficulties feel real and valid. I am happy to work within a diagnostic framework if this is helpful for you. I have most experience supporting clients with depression, social anxiety, health anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), borderline or emotionally unstable personality disorder (EUPD), and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). I also have experience working with neurodiverse people.

I also support clients who find diagnostic labels unhelpful, or prefer to think of their difficulties in terms of psycho-social processes, or other more personal, culturally-bound or spiritual processes. I will sometimes adopt a power-threat-meaning framework in understanding difficulties, in which emotional suffering is understood as a reaction to imbalances of power and trauma.

Whatever your situation, my approach is always to help you understand how your challenges result from understandable responses to your particular circumstances or stressors in your life, and how to navigate these difficulties effectively and with self-compassion.

Case Study: "Tomas"

(Social anxiety)

Tomas came to therapy asking for support with anxiety at work. Tomas was highly competent at his job, but described dreading going to work, particularly when asked to make a presentation. He would sometimes call in sick and spent time on the weekends feeling anxious in anticipation of the week ahead.

Tomas and I adopted a CBT approach to formulate the factors that were maintaining his anxiety, including catastrophising thoughts, and avoidance behaviours. We then implemented a behavioural experiment and exposure-based treatment in which Tomas watched videos of himself speaking at work to reality test his negative beliefs about himself. He also began to gradually approach rather than avoid feared situations in which he would be required to speak publicly.

By the end of the treatment, Tomas described still having some anxiety at work, but no longer finding this overwhelming. He was better able to leave work at the office and focus on being present with his family and other activities he enjoyed on the weekend. He also felt able to start thinking more clearly about his career goals.

(details and names have been altered to protect client anonymity)

Clinical interests

I welcome clients of all backgrounds, cultures, and genders, facing all kinds of questions and challenges. I appreciate and welcome diversity my work. However, I have certain clinical and research interests that my clients may find of interest.

Men and masculinity

I have a particular interest in supporting men of all ages coming to terms with constructions of ‘masculinity’, and grappling with questions regarding their confidence, success, or sexuality. I have published previously on how men experience the use of psychiatric medication.

Psychedelic therapy

I conducted my doctoral research on psychedelic therapy as an emerging therapeutic modality. My research looked at how ‘bad trips’ (or ‘challenging psychedelic experiences’) can lead to important psychological insights.

I do not provide psychedelic therapy nor can I endorse its use, although I can provide psychological support to clients hoping to integrate altered states and psychedelic experiences. I would always recommend caution in approaching these substances, which are known to lead significant difficulties for some people.

Working cross-culturally

I have significant experience working cross-culturally and am particularly interested in working with people from mixed-cultural backgrounds, or experience living between cultures. I spent much of my childhood living in South-East Asia, and as an adult have lived in North America, the Middle East, and South America.