WELCOME TO EAST KENT THERAPY

This online counselling and psychotherapy service offers you a modern trauma-focused approach to help you achieve what you want in your life.

There is an undeniable link between stress, trauma and our health. Individuals with a history of trauma are more likely to develop chronic illness and pain conditions. If your system is confused and dysregulated you may develop emotional and relationship problems. As Dr Bessel van der Kolk aptly says, "The body keeps the score" and we cannot simply talk or think our way out of traumatic stress.

Fortunately there is an answer. We can work together to promote and restore your health and well-being. I use a combination of modern trauma-informed therapies: EMDR (eye-movement desensitistion and reprocessing) and IFS (Internal Family Systems' therapy).

As author and physician Gabor Mäté says: “All of the diagnoses that you deal with - depression, anxiety, ADHD, bipolar illness, post traumatic stress disorder, even psychosis, are significantly rooted in trauma." This is true, very often past problems stick around and this is the reason changing your life can be so difficult. 

But by integrating IFS and EMDR together we can process trauma stored in your nervous system, making safe your inner child with attachment-focused EMDR and IFS. It isn't complicated, it is a way of getting to know your 'software', that is, your nervous system and healing the traumatised parts of you. 

Thank you and hope to hear from you. I'm an EMDR Europe Accredited Practitioner and IFS level 1 and 2 registered practitioner with the IFS Institute. I have worked in the NHS for over 20 years in a liaison psychiatry service. 

Integrating modern trauma-informed approaches to therapy

Based in Canterbury in the UK, I have worked in the NHS for over 24 years in liaison psychiatry services, and A&E departments, and the general hospital, and GP surgeries.

It is better to meet for an initial free 30-minute conversation, on zoom or telephone, but i can give some brief information about myself. 

 I am registered with the British Association of Counselling & Psychotherapy; I am accredited with the UK's EMDR Association and EMDR Europe; i used to be a clinical nurse specialist in an NHS liaison psychiatry service. I am registered with the IFS Institute having completed their level one and two trainings. 

IFS has been described as ‘completely life-changing’, both by therapists using the method and by individuals who have experienced it. With IFS i help you begin to notice how parts of you can control you and to take back control of your nervous system but having a caring, compassionate conversation with your whole self. 

 I have completed further training in attachment-focused EMDR with Mark Brayne and Laurel Parnell, who are pioneers of linking trauma to attachment and using EMDR for 'developmental repair' for issues such as neglect, abuse and abandonment.

I often add some somatic and mindful techniques from mindfulness and meditation, to invite some awareness of reactivity and bodily sensation. This includes visualisation, with somatic approaches like tapping. 

I really like George Orwell's writing and am again a judge on the Orwell Dystopian Fiction Prize this year. Last year was a good success. In many ways our parts have some difficult stories to tell. Thank you.