Professional qualifications:

I am a qualified mental health nurse (RMN) and hold registration with the nursing and midwifery council (NMC). I completed my training at London south bank university in 2013.

My professional experience:

I am a qualified mental health nurse and fully qualified DBT therapist. I have over 13 years experience working across a variety of service areas including acute mental health inpatient services, and specialist community services working with high risk and complex young people. The majority of my career I have worked within CYPMHS (child and young person mental health services) helping young people and their families. In the last 5 years I have worked as a DBT therapist delivering full programme DBT.

Over the span of my career I have set up new specialist services supporting those who are most complex and then continued to manage these services. I have varied experience in working with parents, carers, children’s services and a range of educational settings. I deliver training to other CYPMHS colleagues and to other partners such as social care and schools.

Roles I have undertaken:

• Working across acute inpatient mental health services as a staff nurse and team leader.

• Working as a high risk liaison nurse for young people in the community

• Managing a specialist tier 4 community team and managing a caseload as part of this.

• Working as a senior nurse therapist with a DBT service delivering full programme DBT.

My personal approach:

My approach will be different depending on each persons individual needs. For me the most important part of any therapeutic approach is that there is a good relationship with trust and openness. I will initially get to know you with the aim of understanding your life and what has led you to needing support. I will want to understand what your goals are, but if this is difficult to do I can help you develop some. I also like to involve important people in your life in your care wherever possible. I can do a range of things in our sessions:

• Provide you with emotional regulation strategies and skills to feel more in control.

• Help you to understand what may have contributed to your difficulties.

• Teach you mindfulness and how this can help you in your life.

• Provide trauma informed intervention.

• Provide you with a supportive space to work/talk through any difficulties.

It may be hard to engage at first but I will continue to be patient and develop ways for you to be able to communicate with me the best. I view our work as shared and that we are working towards your goals together as a team. I have also added something (as per your request) in terms of what can be expected from the first session or two:

What you can expect from our first few sessions:

The initial meeting will consist of some assessment around your needs and getting to know you. If you have a parent or important person with you they may also be invited to join part of the session (likely the first or last 10-15 minutes). 

After we have completed our introductions and developed some goals. You will be given plenty of time to understand what type of work we will be doing and have a chance to ask any questions you may have. After this I may recommend booking just 4-6 sessions with the aim of reviewing how the work is going, and deciding together if you would like/or if you need further sessions with me.

We can also talk over the phone prior to having your session with me so that you feel more prepared and at ease. Talking over the phone before sessions can be helpful for me to put in place anything that may be helpful for you in session, for example, sensory needs. At times we may need to do the initial introduction and goal setting over 2 sessions, some may prefer this so that they do not feel rushed and so that we can be as thorough as possible.

What I can help with includes:

• Trauma focused therapy

• CBT for anxiety, depression, OCD

• DBT for mood symptoms

• Support to children and young people with neurodiversity and comorbid mental health symptoms

• Attention and organisational skills, ADHD coaching

• Support for loss/ bereavement

• Parenting support