High-impact, focused therapy that breaks lifelong patterns and helps you build a more secure and confident sense of yourself
You may find yourself constantly second-guessing decisions, saying “yes” when you want to say “no” or prioritising other people’s needs while losing touch with your own. Even when you recognise these patterns intellectually, they can remain deeply ingrained — leaving you anxious, over-adapted or disconnected from yourself.
Many of the people I work with have already spent years trying to understand why they think, feel and relate in these ways. What they want is not simply more insight, but a deeper shift in how they experience themselves, relate to others and move through the world.
These patterns are not fixed aspects of who you are. They are longstanding emotional and relational patterns that can change through focused therapeutic work. By working directly with the emotional conflicts and defensive patterns underlying them, it becomes possible to loosen longstanding patterns of self-doubt and over-adaptation, creating space to experience yourself with greater self-acceptance and a deeper sense of your own worth.
My Approach
My work is grounded in psychodynamic psychotherapy and Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy (ISTDP) — approaches that explore how unconscious emotional patterns shape the way you relate to yourself, other people and your own needs. Rather than working only at the level of insight, we focus directly on the emotional and relational processes that keep longstanding patterns in place.
Many of the difficulties people struggle with — chronic self-doubt, people-pleasing, perfectionism, over-adapting or losing touch with yourself in relationships — develop as ways of managing anxiety, maintaining connection or protecting against painful feelings. While these patterns may once have been necessary, over time they can become restrictive, leaving you disconnected from yourself, your feelings and what you want.
In our work, we bring these patterns into focus experientially and in real time. Together, we work directly with the defensive patterns, anxieties and emotional conflicts underlying them — helping you move beyond intellectual understanding alone and create deeper, more lasting change.
Often, therapy is not only about symptom relief, but also about living with greater freedom, vitality and connection to yourself.
Although the work is active and emotionally focused, it is always carefully paced and attuned to your capacity. I help you regulate anxiety throughout the process so the work remains grounded, effective and emotionally manageable.
My approach is focused, collaborative and emotionally honest. By facing what has previously been avoided, it becomes possible to develop a more secure, confident and authentic relationship with yourself and others — with greater clarity, self-trust and emotional freedom.
You can read more about my training and experience here.
What is ISTDP?
Much of my work is informed by Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy (ISTDP) — an evidence-based, emotionally focused approach that works directly with the unconscious emotional patterns underlying chronic self-doubt, people-pleasing, perfectionism and over-adapting. These patterns often operate automatically and outside awareness, shaping how you relate to yourself, other people and your own needs.
Rather than staying primarily at the level of reflection or insight, ISTDP focuses on what is happening emotionally in the moment. Together, we bring automatic patterns into awareness experientially and in real time — particularly the defensive habits that keep you disconnected from yourself, your feelings, what you want and from others.
The work involves gradually facing emotions, conflicts and realities that may previously have felt difficult to tolerate or fully experience. As these defensive patterns loosen, it becomes possible to feel more emotionally grounded, more secure in yourself and less driven by fear, guilt, self-criticism or the need to constantly adapt to others.
My approach is focused, collaborative and emotionally direct, while always carefully attuned to your capacity. Over time, this work can lead to profound and lasting change — helping you move beyond entrenched patterns of self-doubt and feel more confident, clear and grounded in yourself and your relationships.
How We’ll Work Together
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At the beginning of therapy, we’ll clarify the difficulties you want help with, the changes you want to make and the emotional patterns that may be keeping you stuck. These goals give our work a clear focus, helping us stay connected to what matters most to you and the changes you want to create in your life and relationships.
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With your consent, I video record sessions so I can review and reflect carefully on the therapeutic process between sessions. Recordings are treated as strictly confidential and used solely for professional reflection and development. This kind of deliberate practice — used across high-performance disciplines including psychotherapy — allows me to continually refine the work and approach each session with depth, clarity and precision.
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I receive regular supervision from senior ISTDP trainers and specialists. This helps ensure the work remains focused, emotionally attuned and therapeutically effective — particularly when working with entrenched patterns such as self-doubt, people-pleasing, perfectionism and difficulty asserting yourself.
As therapy progresses, your goals may evolve and we’ll revisit them together. This helps keep the work responsive, purposeful and anchored in meaningful change rather than drifting away from what is most important.
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I’m committed to ongoing professional development, advanced clinical training and continual refinement of my work. Alongside over ten years’ clinical experience, I have completed Core Training in Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy (ISTDP) and continue to deepen my practice through specialist workshops, supervision and further training.
Continued learning and supervision help me deepen the quality, precision and effectiveness of my work, so I can offer therapy that is thoughtful, emotionally engaged and grounded in the most up-to-date clinical understanding.
If this way of working resonates with you, you’re welcome to get in touch to arrange an initial call. This is an opportunity to explore what you’re looking for and whether it feels right to work together.