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A General Description of my Psychotherapeutic Work:
I have been working as a psychotherapist for about 35 years, mainly using a combination of Body-Oriented, Humanistic and Transpersonal Psychotherapy, as well as with some Phenomenological and Cognitive-Behavioural methods, working with adults, couples, adolescents, and occasionally with parents and children and families. Whilst very familiar with traditional clinical work in psychotherapy, I am also interested in complementary medicine and holistic approaches, especially involving personal empowerment. Currently, I work in Edinburgh, Scotland - in the NHS and privately; and also privately in the Scottish Borders (Galashiels). I also now give sessions by phone, Skype, Zoom to on-going clients. I also have been trained in Counselling Supervision and work as a Counselling / Psychotherapy Supervisor.
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The situation has changed considerably in 2020 & 2021, with the CoVid-19 "lock-down". Most of my work is now on-line.
Location 1: The Edinburgh private practice address where I work has been at: Tara Trust, 12 Marchhall Crescent, EH16 5HL.
I give sessions there only on: some Monday mornings; most Monday evenings; Wednesday mornings; Friday afternoon and evenings. I am usually there about 5 mins before the sessions. Please ring the main bell (not the box on the side). The therapy room is usually up one flight of stairs, but there is also a ground floor room, if needed. There are toilet facilities on the ground floor. There is on-road parking - with spaces usually available after 11:00 am weekdays. There are also several buses to the Commonwealth Pool, and it is then about a 5 minute walk down the Old Dalkeith Road, turning left and then right into Marchhall Crescent.
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Location 2: The Scottish Borders address where I work is: 'Complete Health Borders'. I only give sessions here, when needed and when it is available, and only ever on Tuesdays or Thursdays. The usual therapy rooms are up one flight of external metal stairs from the car park: there is occasionally a ground-floor room available.
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Fees: I currently charge between £60 and £80 per session, depending on what you 'attune' to ... with respect to your income and outgoings.
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(Please remember that, out of that amount, I have to pay: room fees, travel, parking, membership of professional associations, professional insurance, agency fees, CPD, supervision, etc. ... so that is not what I 'get'.)
Sessions are usually an hour long - sometimes the 1st session is a little longer and the frequency can be weekly or fortnightly or 3-weekly;
(often closer together, if there is a serious problem) - or whatever works for you.
I am fully insured and a registered member of several professional associations, including UKCP, and I abide by all their Codes of Ethics.
I am professionally insured by Towergate.
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Over the years, I have also had quite extensive experience in a number of different settings: with adolescent girls in a secure residential hostel in Greenwich; in a psychiatric half-way house residential setting in Brent; in one of the first "Care in the Community" projects, as a Mental Health Day Centre worker, also in Brent; as the resident psychotherapist at the Findhorn Foundation, an educational & spiritual community in north-east Scotland; in Morayshire, as a director of a charitable company providing day services for long-term psychiatric patients and people with ongoing mental health issues; and, more recently, in the NHS in and around Edinburgh offering psychotherapy & counselling to primary care referrals in clinics, in doctors' surgeries, and in departments of Clinical Psychology.
Whilst I originally trained as a body-oriented, humanistic and transpersonal psychotherapist, I have been working much more eclectically and using many concepts and techniques from the field of brief psychotherapy, family systems, cognitive behavioural therapy, as well as some concepts from object relations theory and from psychodynamic and transpersonal psychotherapy; really whatever seems appropriate to the person and conditions.
I have also been working with people in (fairly extreme) emotional and psychological crisis states. So, accurate diagnosis, evidence-based techniques, measurement indexes, examination of dysfunctional thought processes, and the setting of achievable goals are all fairly critical, as well as utilizing a large range of methods for reducing stress levels and anxieties; both self-induced, social and environmental; keeping proper records; making formulations, and being a solid & informed presence for the person in crisis and the people around them.
I have supervised other staff members and practitioners and been in fairly consistent and appropriate therapy and supervision myself. I have taught courses to psychotherapists in training and to other staff members. Having done a Counselling Supervision course (COSCA - accredited) at Edinburgh University, I have recently started to supervise other counsellors and psychotherapists. I also line-manage trainee counsellors on placement.
I have worked quite extensively in the social work and community mental health field and with a number of different client groups: parents & children; adolescent girls; psycho-geriatrics and dementia; self-harming & suicidal clients; people in psychotic episodes & people with severe & borderline personality disorders; people being re-habilitated out of long-stay psychiatric hospital; people with chronic mental health issues (ex-psychiatric patients), learning difficulties; alcoholics and drug addicts trying to stay in the community; as well as people with chronic illnesses, marital disorders, abandonment, abuse issues, criminal convictions & imprisonment, major life transitions, break-downs, sectioning and psychotic episodes, severe debt, chronic illnesses, epileptic fits, dissociated states, and various types of spiritual crises. These experiences have also involved working with Social Services, psychiatrists, medical doctors, the police, courts, community mental health teams, employers, couples and families, foreign tour guides, enthusiastic 'helpers'; as well as with the patients' families and friends, and, on odd occasions, in some quite strange settings!
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