Psychotherapy for Becoming More Fully Yourself
Psychotherapy can offer a space to slow down, listen more deeply, and begin to understand what is happening beneath the surface of our lives.
You may be experiencing anxiety, depression, grief, relationship difficulties, work stress, questions around identity, sexuality or gender, or simply a feeling that something in life is no longer working. You may be struggling with shame or self-criticism, feeling disconnected from yourself, or sensing that something important in you wants to be understood.
I work particularly openly with LGBTQ+ and queer people, and with people exploring questions of gender, sexuality and identity. I also welcome people for whom spirituality, meaning, nature or a sense of belonging in the wider living world are important parts of their experience.
Whatever brings you to therapy, I aim to offer a space where you can explore yourself with warmth, curiosity and without assumptions.
A different way of meeting ourselves
Over time I have come to understand that our difficulties are rarely the whole story.
Alongside anxiety, sadness, anger or fear are the ways we have learned to meet those experiences. We may tighten around fear, judge our sadness, suppress our anger, lose ourselves in caring for others, become highly self-critical, or simply feel numb.
At one time these ways of being may have protected us.
Now they may be limiting the possibility of living more freely.
Rather than trying to eliminate uncomfortable feelings or become somebody different, psychotherapy invites us to become curious about our experience. As we gently bring awareness to our thoughts, emotions, bodily sensations and deeply held patterns, we can begin to discover what lies beneath them.
This may include exploring the protective parts of ourselves that have developed over time: the inner critic, the part that feels ashamed, the part that tries to stay in control, or the younger parts of ourselves that may still carry experiences that have never felt fully met.
With compassion and awareness, these parts do not necessarily need to be fought or overcome. They can begin to be understood.
Often, this feels less like becoming somebody new, and more like returning to ourselves.
How I work
My work is grounded in Core Process Psychotherapy, a contemplative approach that integrates Western psychodynamic understanding with mindfulness and Buddhist psychology. Before training in Core Process Psychotherapy, I practised as a Humanistic-Existential counsellor, and today I work integratively, drawing on different perspectives according to what best supports each individual.
The therapeutic relationship itself is central to this work.
Many of our deepest wounds are formed in relationship, and it is often through relationship that healing becomes possible. I pay attention not only to what you tell me, but also to what unfolds between us.
Together we may explore:
- recurring relationship patterns that no longer serve you
- painful emotions that have never felt fully met or understood
- self-critical, protective or defensive parts of yourself
- childhood experiences that continue to shape the present
- questions of sexuality, gender, identity and belonging
- the relationship between thoughts, emotions, bodily experience and awareness
- questions of meaning, purpose and spiritual experience
- how greater compassion and understanding can create space for new possibilities.
I don't see therapy as something that should tell you who you are.
My role is to become curious with you about what is already there.
Queer, identity and difference
I am committed to LGBTQ+ affirmative practice and to creating a therapeutic space where sexuality, gender and identity can be explored openly and without assumptions.
As a gay man myself, I understand something of the importance of being met in the fullness and complexity of who we are. I have undertaken specialist training with Pink Therapy, including work exploring LGBTQ+ and queer intersectionalities. I also continue to deepen my understanding through engagement with queer communities and spaces, including exploring the intersections between queerness, identity, spirituality, nature and belonging.
Our identities are never experienced in isolation. Sexuality, gender, relationships, culture, family, community, class, age, place and our relationship with the wider world can all shape how we experience ourselves.
Therapy can offer a space to explore these intersections without reducing you to any one part of your identity.
You do not need to arrive already knowing exactly who you are.
Spirit, meaning and the living world
Alongside my psychotherapeutic training, my work is increasingly informed by ecopsychology, and my developing interest in Wild Therapy. I am interested in the relationship between psychological wellbeing, place, landscape, seasonality and our sense of belonging within the wider living world.
For some people, questions of meaning, spirituality or spirit are an important part of psychological life. I believe these experiences can be explored within therapy with openness and curiosity, without imposing a particular belief system.
Our inner lives do not exist separately from the world around us. The places we live, the landscapes we inhabit, the seasons, our bodies and our relationships with the more-than-human world can all influence our sense of who we are and where we belong.
For some people, this remains a way of understanding their experience. Where appropriate, therapy may also include meeting outdoors, allowing landscape, seasonality and the living world to become part of the therapeutic process.
I am particularly interested in the possibility that healing can involve not only becoming more at home within ourselves, but also finding a deeper sense of belonging in the world around us.
Finding your own way
One of the deepest values that guides my work is a respect for your own capacity to find your way through difficulty.
My role is not to tell you who you are, offer ready-made answers, or simplify experiences that may be complex. Instead, I aim to create a space where every part of your experience is welcome, including those parts that may feel uncertain, contradictory, frightened, ashamed or not yet fully understood.
Together we can stay with that complexity, allowing it to unfold at its own pace. Often, clarity does not arrive because we have forced it. It emerges naturally when our experience has been given enough time, attention and care. Over time, many people discover something they had almost forgotten: that they already possess a deep capacity for awareness, wisdom, integrity and growth.
Therapy is not about becoming dependent on another person's insight. It is about rediscovering your own ability to listen to yourself, trust your experience, meet life's challenges with greater compassion, and become an active participant in your own life.
My hope is that therapy offers more than relief from immediate difficulties. I hope it helps you develop a relationship with yourself that is grounded, compassionate and resilient, with a growing capacity to meet life with greater courage, openness and authenticity.
Perhaps, over time, this can lead to something very simple: a growing sense that you are enough, and that you can find your own way.
Practical details
- Sessions are 60 minutes and take place weekly
- I offer sessions in person in Cardiff and online
- Fee: £65 per session
