About Me
Hi, I'm Heather
​I have worked as a psychotherapist for over 14 years, mostly within the NHS, and have supported many people to overcome a wide range of difficulties. I bring my experience as a therapist, a mother, and a fellow human being to our sessions.
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I am happy to work with anyone over 18 and have a special interest in supporting mothers and parents. I know first-hand that the intensity of parenthood can be the perfect environment for struggles to emerge, resurface, or intensify. I really think the best thing we can do for our children is to take care of ourselves. Sometimes doing that is really tough.
For me, parenthood exposed past difficulties I thought I had either worked through or successfully buried. These difficulties were impacting across all my relationships. I reached out for support and found that being able to choose my therapist, the therapeutic approach (in my case, EMDR), and being able to access it when I felt ready was a huge advantage. Seeking therapy privately was a big investment, financially, emotionally and practically, but the results have been worth it in every way. I am passionate about offering others that same opportunity.
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I work in a way that is affirming of all identities including neurodiversity, cultural, sexual, and gender identity. I aim always to carry no assumptions, to hear your experience as you describe it, and to adapt therapy to best fit you as an individual.
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Please send me a message or book your free initial consultation. I'd really like to hear from you.
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Qualifications and Training
Here is a list of my core qualifications and a sample of additional training I have completed:
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2024 Aimee McKinnon (OXCADAT) - PTSD & CPTSD In the Perinatal Period - BABCP Perinatal Special Interest Group
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2024 Janina Fisher - Unlocking the Living Legacy of Trauma: An Immersive Workshop
2023-4 Laurel Parnell –Attachment-Focused EMDR: A clinician’s guide to healing trauma and developmental deficits
2024 Chris Irons - Using Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT) for trauma: Enhanced applications for understanding and using compassion in trauma treatment
2023 Master Series Trauma Conference – multiple workshops including:
Bessel van der Kolk – The Mind-Body Connection: Approaches to Trauma Healing
Bessel van der Kolk – The Neuroscience of Expanded Awareness in the Healing of Trauma
Deb Dana – Navigating the quest for connection: a polyvagal guide to co-regulation
Linda Thai – Fawning, appeasement and the somatics of trauma within the dynamics of oppressive systems
Frank Anderson – LGTQIA+ & Trauma
Janina Fisher – Healing the Fragmented Selves of Trauma Survivors
Stephen Porges - Polyvgal Theory: The science of safety
Ruth Cohn - Much Ado About Nothing: The Developmental Trauma Of Childhood Neglect
2022 EMDR Training - Parts 1, 2 and 3 (1 year), Richman EMDR Training
2021 Birth Trauma and Considerations for the Perinatal Period, University of Reading
2021 Cognitive Therapy for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Oxford University
2018 - 2020 CBT Masterclasses - Advance Skills Working with Panic Disorder and Agoraphobia, Social Anxiety, Generalised Anxiety, OCD, Insomnia, Oxford Academic Health Science Network
2016 IAPT Supervisor Training (CBT), University of Reading
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2016 Foundation Course in Group Analysis (1 year), Institute of Group Analysis
2014 Compassion Focussed Therapy for Shame Based Difficulties, Compassionate Mind Foundation
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2010 Postgraduate Diploma in Evidence-Based Psychological Treatments (CBT) (PgDip), University of Reading
2009 Postgraduate Certificate in Low Intensity Therapies (PGcert), University of York
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2008 Masters in Social Work (Ma), Keele University
“The willingness to show up changes us. It makes us a little braver each time.”
Brene Brown