Analytic

Almost everything we now call psychotherapy began with Sigmund Freud. Love him or loathe him, his psychoanalytic ideas changed how we understand human beings. We are still living in the long shadow of that revolution.

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My core training is psychodynamic, rooted in that tradition. I still find real value in some of Freud's foundational ideas: That we have an unconscious, and that it shapes us in ways we are not always aware of. That early relationships leave a lasting imprint on how we relate to others. And that we all develop defences — ways of protecting ourselves from pain — that can inform our lives.

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Part of my role is to gently notice patterns as they emerge — in the way you talk, think, behave, and how you relate to yourself and others. And most usefully, where something seems to get stuck.

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I have also been exploring neuropsychoanalysis — an emerging field that asks what happens when neuroscience and psychoanalysis talk to each other. It offers a way of understanding how our earliest experiences are written not just into memory, but into the body and the nervous system. I find this increasingly relevant to working with trauma and neurodivergence.

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I have moved on from how classical psychoanalysis is practiced in the UK towards a more holistic approach. In my experience, traditional approaches have real limitations, esecially around how we understand trauma, sexuality, and neurodivergence. While some of the analytic tradition informs how I work, it is not the whole picture.