How We Will Work Together
Everyone brings a unique self to therapy. There is no universal roadmap for our work together.
Instead, I draw on tools and skills from a range of evidence-based therapies, weaving together what feels most relevant and useful for you. Each approach outlined here is grounded in decades of clinical research and practice. More importantly, each one begins with the same foundation: a deep respect for your individual pace and your own wisdom.
Person-Centred Therapy
At the heart of everything I do is a deep belief in you. Not as a problem to be solved, but as a person with the innate capacity to understand yourself and find your own way forward. Developed by psychologist Carl Rogers in the 1940s, Person-Centred Therapy begins with a simple but profound idea: that given the right conditions — genuine warmth, unconditional acceptance, and honest, empathic presence, people naturally move toward growth, clarity and wellbeing. My role is not to diagnose, advise or direct. It is to be genuinely present with you, to step into your world and see it through your eyes, without judgement and without agenda. In this approach, three things matter above all else: Empathic understanding: I work to truly understand your experience from the inside, not just observe it from the outside. Unconditional positive regard: you are valued here completely, as you are, without conditions or evaluation. Congruence: I show up as a real person, honest and genuine, not hidden behind a professional role. This foundation underlies all of our work together. Whatever other approaches or tools we draw on, the quality of our relationship is always at the centre.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
ACT is about building a life that feels genuinely yours; not a life free of pain, but one rich with meaning and purpose. Rather than trying to eliminate difficult thoughts and feelings, ACT invites you to change your relationship with them. We learn to notice thoughts without being ruled by them, to make room for uncomfortable emotions without letting them drive our choices, and to take meaningful action toward what truly matters, even when it's hard. At the core of ACT is values clarification, exploring not what you think you should want, but what genuinely matters to you and how you want to be in the world. From there we develop psychological flexibility: the capacity to stay present, open, and committed to living in alignment with those values. ACT is a practical, skills-based approach. Between sessions I will often invite you to practise specific techniques or complete structured exercises, such as values clarification activities, mindfulness practices, cognitive defusion exercises, or committed action planning. This is where real change happens, not just in our sessions, but in the daily practice of living differently. You won't be doing this alone — we build these skills together, at your pace, in ways that feel relevant and real to your life. I have trained directly with Dr Russ Harris, Australia's leading ACT trainer and author of The Happiness Trap, and draw on his evidence-based approach in our work together.
Focusing
Sometimes what we carry inside doesn't have words yet. 'Focusing', developed by philosopher and psychologist Eugene Gendlin, is a gentle practice of turning inward and listening to what your body already knows. Gendlin discovered through decades of research that the clients who made the most meaningful progress in therapy were those who could access what he called the felt sense, a directly felt, bodily experience of a situation or feeling that hasn't yet found its words. The felt sense is not one thing; it can arrive in many forms. Sometimes it comes as a physical sensation, like a tightness, a heaviness, a warmth. Sometimes it arrives as an image, a colour, a memory, or a wordless knowing. When we gently attend to it, without rushing or analysing, something begins to shift. A word or phrase arrives that feels exactly right. Something releases. That release is where real change begins. In our work together, Focusing might look like simply slowing down and paying quiet, open attention to what's happening inside, waiting with curiosity rather than urgency for something to emerge. It is entirely experiential. Something we explore together in the session itself, gently and without pressure. There are no worksheets or homework, just a deepening capacity to listen to yourself. Focusing is particularly valuable if you feel you know something is wrong but can't quite articulate what, or if you've talked about your problems for years but still feel stuck. Sometimes the answers aren't found in thinking, they're found in listening more deeply to yourself.
Sexual Therapy
Our sexuality is woven through our sense of self, our relationships, and our overall wellbeing, yet it remains one of the areas most women find hardest to talk about, even with a therapist. As women's lives change through relationship shifts, menopause, illness, loss, or simply the evolving question of who we are, our experience of intimacy and sexuality changes too. These changes can bring confusion, grief, disconnection, or a quiet longing that's difficult to name. What the research tells us is both surprising and reassuring. Studies consistently show that sexual satisfaction in women often increases with age and that emotional connection, intimacy, and self-knowledge play a far greater role in women's sexual wellbeing than physical factors alone. Emerging research continues to challenge the persistent myth that sexuality fades with age. What changes is often not capacity, but context, relationship, and self-understanding. Sexual therapy provides a safe, completely non-judgmental space to explore these deeply personal aspects of your life. Not in a clinical or prescriptive way, but with the same warmth, curiosity and respect that informs all of our work together. This is a space where nothing is too uncomfortable to share, and where your experience of yourself as a whole woman is honoured completely. If this is an area you would like to explore, please mention it in your initial consultation form.
Ready to Have That First Conversation. I'm Here
If you relate to any of these approaches or are simply curious to learn more, I'd love to hear from you. Request your free 30-minute initial consultation, and we can talk through what feels most relevant to where you are right now.