My background
This is not my first career, I spent a few years working in corporate hospitality, then over 15 years in the film and TV industry. When I turned 40, I moved back to the South Downs from London, albeit slightly to the east of where I grew up. Once I moved down here, I studied and qualified to teach English as a foreign language. After a few years, and looking for a change I retrained and worked as a Personal Assistant working with vulnerable people. I worked with many clients who had life limiting illnesses and who wished to live at home independently, enabling them to live a fuller life. This experience made me want to expand from being of purely pragmatic, to a more emotionally and fully rounded support for those in need of understanding. I had found my vocation.
Four years of training in Person-Centred humanistic counselling led to a BSc (Hons) degree. During that time, I had two placements; one as a counsellor at the Royal Sussex County Hospital’s NHS cancer centre and the other at St Wilfrid’s Hospice as a volunteer bereavement counsellor. I still volunteer part-time as a counsellor at St Wilfrid’s; a role I find both enriching and an honour
Listening to peoples’ stories truly is a privilege and one I don’t take lightly. When someone sits in front of me, I see a unique individual, I want to do all I can to help them figure out what is going on for them and to start exploring ways of living a mentally more healthy and happier life.
Whatever training one has done, it comes down to the relationship and a mutual compatibility, I believe I embody warmth, a natural curiosity and humour.
