I offer appointments online or in-person. My therapy room is located in Stamford, Lincolnshire.

Please note that the room I currently use is located on the first floor of the building and is therefore, unfortunately, not accessible for wheelchair users at this time.

I offer regular appointments on Mondays and can offer some ad hoc appointments on Sundays if required. 

I am happy to respond to emails in between appointments. However, I cannot guarantee I will always be able to do this in a timely manner, and I do not provide a crisis service. If you are in a mental health crisis, please contact NHS mental health First Response Service (FRS) by calling 111 and selecting option 2. If you have a medical emergency, please call 999 and/or visit your local A&E department.

Payment is due at least 48 hours prior to your appointment taking place. Appointments which have not been paid for cannot go ahead.

Cancellations with more than 48 hours’ notice are free of charge. Missed sessions and cancellations with less than 48 hours' notice will be charged at full rate, except in exceptional circumstances.

This is impossible to answer without at least a 20-minute initial consultation to understand what you are struggling with, how it affects you, and whether it relates to a single event or extended events over a long period of time. Sometimes, as few as 1-2 EMDR sessions can resolve the effects of a distressing event. For others, 4-6 CBT sessions may be sufficient to equip them with the knowledge and skills they need to continue their recovery from low mood or anxiety independently. Work on longstanding difficulties or childhood trauma may require 15-30 sessions as an estimate, whilst some people choose to remain in therapy for a number of years.

One factor that makes a huge difference in recovery is what protective factors are already in place for you (e.g., supportive friends/family, well-established positive beliefs about self or others, healthy lifestyle, etc.).

If this question is important to you, let me know and I can try to give you my estimation based on the information you provide in our initial consultation or assessment.

Therapy is best utilised during a period of relative stability. If there are ongoing stressors in your life that can be reduced or mitigated before starting therapy, it may be best to wait and prioritise addressing those first, so you can be in the best possible headspace for therapy when you do start. However, if you’re at a point where you’ve done what you can to mitigate those stressors and things are unlikely to improve without therapy, then it’s likely that now is the right time to start.

I generally would not recommend monthly therapy, especially if the focus is around processing trauma. There are several reasons for this. Most people understandably cope with trauma by avoiding thinking about it as much as possible. By revisiting trauma content in therapy sessions, things can resurface in a way that is destabilising at first. It would be unfair to you and unethical of me to leave you feeling destabilised for extended periods of time. Secondly, the evidence base supporting trauma-processing therapies such as CBT and EMDR is generally based on sessions that have taken place weekly, so these approaches may not be as effective delivered monthly. Thirdly, a lot can happen in a month and monthly sessions can be spent playing ‘catch up’ rather than continuing smoothly from where the previous session left off.

As you have likely noticed, rates for therapists vary hugely depending on their qualifications and experience. My charges reflect my extensive academic and clinical training (spanning eight years and three degrees), the additional time I put into planning, tailoring, and writing up therapy appointments, and my own overheads including sourcing high quality clinical supervision and continual professional development. Clinical Psychologists with even more experience tend to charge higher rates, whilst Counsellors / Psychotherapists tend to charge less on average. I do offer a lower rate for longer sessions, at £120 for a 90-minute appointment, which may be preferable for some.

Clinical psychologists are trained to doctoral level and registered with the HCPC (Health and Care Professions Council). Their training includes extensive work in the NHS and equips them to assess, diagnose, and treat a wide range of mental health difficulties and disorders, including more complex or long-standing issues. The structure of sessions with a clinical psychologist is often more active and goal-focused. Clinical psychologists are also trained in academic research.

Counsellors and psychotherapists are not regulated by law in the UK, although many are accredited by professional bodies such as the BACP or UKCP. Their training varies but is usually shorter than that of clinical psychologists. Counsellors often focus on helping clients with emotional distress, life changes, or relationship difficulties. They may use a specific therapeutic model such as person-centred or psychodynamic therapy, or integrate various models. Counselling sessions may feel more open-ended and exploratory than those with a clinical psychologist, with less focus on structured goals or psychological formulation (though again, this varies).

In practice, there can be some overlap between roles. What matters most is finding a therapist you feel comfortable with, and who is well-qualified to support the issues you want to work on.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is a structured, evidence-based form of therapy that helps you understand how your thoughts, feelings, and behaviours are connected. It focuses on identifying unhelpful thinking patterns and behaviours that may be keeping you stuck, and supports you in developing more helpful ways of responding.

An easy way to think about it is this:

• Cognitive = how we think.

• Behavioural = what we do and don’t do.

• We can’t usually directly change the way we feel but we can gradually learn to change our styles of thinking and behaving. So CBT is therapy that targets change in our thoughts and behaviours in order to improve the way we feel.

CBT tends to take a practical approach, where we work together to explore your current difficulties, set targeted goals, and work towards these in a structured way. It’s often used for problems like anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, OCD, and trauma, but can be adapted to suit a wide range of needs. It’s a present-focused therapy, though we may explore past experiences where relevant to current patterns.

Eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing (EMDR) is a structured, evidence-based therapy designed to help people recover from traumatic or distressing experiences. It’s particularly effective for treating PTSD, but can also help with anxiety, phobias, grief, and other difficulties linked to past (and future) events.

Rather than focusing heavily on talking about the trauma, EMDR helps the brain reprocess distressing memories so they become less intense and feel more manageable. This is done using bilateral stimulation (BLS) such as guided eye movements or tapping, while you bring aspects of the memory to mind in a safe and contained way. EMDR is a memory-focused therapy, and it is important to identify a specific memory (or feared future event) that you wish to target.

Both CBT and EMDR are effective, evidence-based, NICE-recommended therapies for processing trauma, but they work in different ways, and the best approach depends on your needs and preferences.

CBT focuses on how trauma has affected your thoughts, beliefs, and behaviours. It helps you understand the patterns that might be keeping you stuck (such as self-blame or avoidance) and supports you in developing more helpful ways of thinking and coping. CBT is structured, collaborative, and often includes learning practical new strategies to manage symptoms like anxiety, flashbacks, or low mood, which can be useful long after therapy has ended. Trauma-focused CBT involves talking through the trauma memory in detail to identify the worst parts (‘hotspots’) and what they meant/mean to you. These can then be ‘updated’ via various means such as narrative or imagery rescripting so that you are left with an enduring, felt sense of calm and safety.

EMDR doesn’t rely as much on talking through the trauma in detail. You will need to bring a memory to mind and identify an image that, to you, represents the worst part of that memory. You will identify the negative belief you have about yourself when you bring that memory to mind (which will likely fall within a theme of vulnerability, responsibility, defectiveness, or lacking control) and notice the emotions and physical sensations that arise. You will also identify a positive or more helpful belief you would like to have instead of the negative belief by the end of processing. Over time (and sometimes in a very short space of time), EMDR can facilitate full processing of traumatic memories so that the associated distressing symptoms significantly reduce or disappear completely.

Some people prefer the practical and skills-based focus of CBT, while others prefer the simpler approach of EMDR. If you're unsure which approach is right for you, we can explore both options during the assessment and decide together what feels safest and most helpful for you.

Both CBT and EMDR are effective, evidence-based, NICE-recommended therapies for processing trauma, but they work in different ways, and the best approach depends on your needs and preferences.

CBT focuses on how trauma has affected your thoughts, beliefs, and behaviours. It helps you understand the patterns that might be keeping you stuck (such as self-blame or avoidance) and supports you in developing more helpful ways of thinking and coping. CBT is structured, collaborative, and often includes learning practical new strategies to manage symptoms like anxiety, flashbacks, or low mood, which can be useful long after therapy has ended. Trauma-focused CBT involves talking through the trauma memory in detail to identify the worst parts (‘hotspots’) and what they meant/mean to you. These can then be ‘updated’ via various means such as narrative or imagery rescripting so that you are left with an enduring, felt sense of calm and safety.

EMDR doesn’t rely as much on talking through the trauma in detail. You will need to bring a memory to mind and identify an image that, to you, represents the worst part of that memory. You will identify the negative belief you have about yourself when you bring that memory to mind (which will likely fall within a theme of vulnerability, responsibility, defectiveness, or lacking control) and notice the emotions and physical sensations that arise. You will also identify a positive or more helpful belief you would like to have instead of the negative belief by the end of processing. Over time (and sometimes in a very short space of time), EMDR can facilitate full processing of traumatic memories so that the associated distressing symptoms significantly reduce or disappear completely.

Some people prefer the practical and skills-based focus of CBT, while others prefer the simpler approach of EMDR. If you're unsure which approach is right for you, we can explore both options during the assessment and decide together what feels safest and most helpful for you.

I don’t provide formal mental health diagnoses as part of my private practice. There are a few reasons for this:

• Diagnoses can change over time – mental health labels are not always fixed, and someone’s difficulties may look different at different points in their life. A label that feels helpful at first can sometimes become limiting.

• Psychiatrists vs. psychologists – a psychiatrist is a medical doctor who can diagnose and prescribe medication. As a clinical psychologist, my expertise lies in psychological understanding and therapy rather than prescribing.

• Formulation-driven approach – rather than reducing people to a single label, I focus on building a psychological formulation. This is a collaborative understanding of your unique combination of experiences, difficulties, and strengths, and how they fit together. This approach means therapy is tailored to you as a whole person, not just to a diagnosis.