Hi, I am Penny
I work with the whole family or with different combinations of family members such as couples, individuals or siblings, with the aim to maximise on the couple or family’s strengths and to support individuals to overcome the problems they are experiencing.
I support you in therapy to express and explore difficult thoughts and emotions safely, appreciate each-other’s needs, build on strengths and make useful changes in relationships and family life. A key objective of mine is to support you to identify how your family or relationship functions with the aim of developing more helpful ways of interacting and supporting each other.
My style of therapy is conversational, interactive and I ask questions to help us think through whatever is on your mind. In theoretical terms, my practice is based on a relational model of therapy as people live in many kinds of relationships. So much of how we see the world and understand ourselves is influenced by the people we are and the cultures that surround us.
I am interested in what ideas you are drawing on and how these ideas might be working for you or keeping things feeling stuck and frustrating. Together we talk about your patterns of communication, unhelpful behaviours and handling of different emotions. You decide how often you want to meet and how many sessions to book. I often encourage gaps between appointments to allow time to process new ideas and change.
My Approach
I have over twenty years of therapeutic experience as I initially trained as an Arts Psychotherapist before qualifying as a Systemic Family and Couple Psychotherapist. Over time, I have worked in a variety of settings where I have worked with families and children individually in CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service), couples and families in adult mental health NHS, and providing specialist parenting coaching as being a parent is one of the most challenging jobs we will ever undertake.
I have extensive experience of working in teaching, inclusion and education leadership and so I understand the impact of additional educational needs on young peoples’ well-being. For children or young people in your family, particularly those who often struggle in classrooms or show distress through challenging behaviour, I am able to offer individual and family sessions. ADHD, ASD, their associated conditions and impacts on education and family life are the main areas we will explore together.
I also have a special interest in the well-being of educationalist's as well as developing whole school methodologies to embed systemic thinking into education organisations. I provide systemic supervision sessions for head teachers, school leaders and groups of pastoral staff.
It is always my aim to make therapy sessions accessible and purposeful. I take pride in the feedback that children, adolescents, parents and couples find me warm, creative and relatable. When you contact me, I will arrange an initial 30min phone call to hear a bit more about the issues you are seeking help for, so that we can think together what the therapy might look like and if I am the right kind of couple and family psychotherapist for you. Just send me a message and I will come back to you.
