After graduating (1990) in European Business with French (BA Hons) I spent a year working and travelling around the world. By 1993, following two years working for a commercial bank in London, I had itchy feet again. I found myself a job with a global travel firm as a holiday representative in the French Alps. A succession of rapid promotions, and a passion for travel and adventure, lead me to spend a further six years abroad. I managed various overseas operations including a large Alpine chalet programme. In 1999 I returned to the UK to help integrate a newly acquired luxury ski tour operator into the larger business. In 2005 I took on the role of Managing Director of that same niche business, a position I held for two years before finally leaving the corporate world in 2007 to focus on my personal life.  

I began my training as a therapist in 2010. My growing interest in this area was born out of a long-standing curiosity about my own general sense of unease, and a deeply personal search for autonomy and meaning. My introduction to the world of psychotherapy represented an immeasurably helpful turning point in my own journey. Having qualified as a Humanistic Psychotherapeutic Counsellor (PG Dip) in 2016, and a Master of Science in Psychotherapy (MSc) in 2018, I have spent the last few years as a psychotherapist in private practice. Along the way I have also had the privilege of volunteering for a number of local charities.   

A key advantage of being a mature therapist (I am 57 years old) is the humility and wisdom I have gained through an examination of my own life. I first had to make sense of painful life experiences and, in doing so, learn how to honour my own truth. I leant heavily on existential notions of freedom of choice and personal responsibility to help me.  Slowly, I began to understand the importance of balancing the need to steer my own ship with the need to accept that there is much in life I cannot control. With greater self awareness and a growing sense of confidence, I turned to spiritual teachings to help me connect more deeply to the people and natural world around me. I finally emerged as a more grounded and integrated individual with a renewed sense of aliveness. An important aspect of my learning has been to acknowledge my own irrationality. In the words of philosopher, Alain de Botton, we are all a bit mad! We are not the reasonable, rational beings we like to think we are. The unconscious dimension of our existence, and our innate emotionality, dispose us to all kinds of unhelpful, if not disastrous, acting out.