About Me
I am a registered UKCP attachment based Psychoanalytic psychotherapist, a training supervisor and a training therapist with more than 20 years experience. I trained at The Bowlby Centre, London where I regularly teach attachment theory and trauma. I have had various roles on the executive committee at the Bowlby Centre, including chairing the conference planning group. I was on the editorial board of the journal "Attachment-New Directions in Psychotherapy and Relational Psychoanalysis" from its inception and was Editor of the journal from 2016 until 2021. I have also been co-editor of ESTD (European Society for Trauma and Dissociation) newsletter from 2010 to 2020. I specialise in attachment theory and trauma and regularly write articles, book chapters and present in international conferences on these topics.
My work is informed by theorists such as Ferenczi, Suttie, Bowlby, Sullivan, Fairbairn, Kohut, Balint, Alice Miller, Daniel Stern, Bromberg, Stephen Mitchell, Allan Schore, Beebe, Holmes, Slade, Fonagy, Lieberman, Van der Hart and others.
In my spare time I enjoy the cinema, philosophy, poetry and fiction.
My clients
I see a range of clients from different backgrounds and diversities. I work with individuals who suffer from: relationship issues, such as separation anxiety, rejection and intimacy. I also deal with clients with employment issues, depression, anxiety, sleep-problems, eating issues, obsessions, phobias, addiction and sexual problems. People who have been abused emotionally, physically and sexually. I also specialise in working with people who have been diagnosed with Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) and Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), including adults who attended boarding schools as children, army veterans and survivors of domestic and sexual abuse.
My Approach
"Many of the most intense of all human emotions arise during the formation, the maintenance, the disruption and renewal of affectional bonds..." John Bowlby, 1979.
I recognise that early life experience, childhood adversity,and the environment in which one grows up essentially define who we are. I take a relational and trauma-informed approach to working with people who come to see me. My focus is on the centrality of early life experiences and its impact later on in adulthood. I believe that no child is born bad, sad or mad and that the client’s unhelpful behaviour is their adjustment to their early life difficulties. Therapy seems to work best in a reparative and reflective relationship. Taking an attachment and trauma-informed approach enables the therapist to avoid using the pathology of mental illness which tends to objectify and stigmatise people.
I approach all of my clients with warmth and curiosity and provide emotional support to enable them to feel validated, understood and recognised . Using a relational approach, means that fundamentally the healing capacity lies in the collaborative relationship between the client and the therapist. Using a deep theoretical understanding of Attachment and developmental theories, offers the possibility for a transformative shift in life that can lead not just to stabilisation of symptoms but to add meaningful change in the client’s relational lives in a long lasting way.
Other
Languages: English, Hebrew
I undergo continuing professional development and as with all psychoanalytic psychotherapists I receive regular supervision from both Attachment and Trauma Supervisors.
I also offer consultancy for TV and drama productions, journalism and court reports.
I teach and lecture on Attachment Theory, parenting skills, trauma and dissociation.