I first realised that I wanted to work within the caring professions when I was 25 years old. I had arrived home from a trip to India and without a job decided to do voluntary work at St. Andrew's Hospital in Northampton. I was eventually offered a post but had to decline it, as I had accepted a job within the local Social Services Dept. as a Residential Social Worker, working with adults with learning difficulties. After 12 yrs I changed my learning direction and trained in Complementary Therapies, which I practised privately for about 6 years. However, I missed working within a team of people so along side my private practise I joined the Nurse Bureau at St. Andrew's Hospital and gained invaluable experience within the acute admissions ward (as was), working with patients with depression, drug and alcohol misuse, eating disorders, stress/nervous breakdown and bi-polar disorder. While there I realised that I wanted and needed to put the 'counselling skills' I had acquired over the years into a new career that I could do for the rest of my working life and longer!
My experience of life in India, including meeting the Dalai Lama, and my earlier studies in psychology and philosophy are specifically of great value to me as a counsellor. They developed my thinking on many issues and my awareness on many levels including to be considerate of the diversity of others lives, thoughts, feelings, attitudes and opinions.
I don't view any wisdom I may have as just mine. My desire is to use it in order to help you find the solutions to your problems, so you can live your life with more insight, more purpose and above all more happiness.
