Life and career
I’ve been an author, journalist and broadcaster in the UK and abroad. I’ve spent a number of years promoting sexual awareness through the arts and media.
Continuing Professional Development
I have completed a Masters in Counselling and Psychotherapy at the University of East London. The subject of my dissertation is Queer Menopause, and how therapists can support their queer menopausal clients.
I have regularly attended Pink Therapy’s ‘Advanced Clinical Discussions: Kink’ since 2013. In 2017-18 I attended a six-month long cycle of group supervision sessions focused on Out Of Control Sexual Behaviour, run by Dominic Davies and Doug Braun-Harvey.
In 2014 I started The London Gender, Sex and Relationship Diversity Practice. Six of us offer counselling, psychotherapy, mentoring and consultancy with a GSRD focus. We also offer training on a wide range of topics to media, charities and training organisations. We meet monthly for peer supervision.
To keep my practice up to date, I read books and journals and attend conferences and seminars. Here is a selection of CPD from the last two years:
- Feminist Studies Association: Feminist Perspectives on Neurodiversity and Neuronormativity
- Confer: Working with Toxic Shame
- Pink Therapy November 2020: Four seminars on Non-Monogamy
- BME Voices: Black Trauma in the Therapy Room
- TASHRA training: The Psychobiology of Kink
- Confer online conference module: Post-Slavery Syndrome
- TASHRA training: Clinical Training Workshop: Kink-claiming the Trauma: From Sexual Assault to Sexual Empowerment
- Pink Therapy – Kink on Pink – Living and Working in Kink Communities
- Pink Therapy – Kink on Pink – Understanding Adult Baby And Diaper Lovers
- CICS – Working with Domestic Violence and Abuse
- Carolyn Spring – Working with Dissociative Disorders in Clinical Practice
- Carolyn Spring – Dissociation and DID – The Fundamentals
- Pink Therapy: Queer Desire
- Confer: A Couple State of Mind: Insights into Couple Relating and Therapeutic Work with Couples
- Confer: Queering Psychotherapy
- Pink Therapy: Intersecting Identities
- Confer: The Use of Psychedelics in Psychotherapy
- Confer: Working with High Intensity States of Consciousness
- BME Voices Talk Mental Health
- Trans, Non-Binary and Intersex Conference 2018 at Brighton University
- Raise Your Gays: Gender Variance & Sexuality Diversity in Islam
- Family constellations workshop with Judith Hemming from the Centre for Systemic Constellations.
- Pink Therapy ‘Sex Works!’ conference about sex work and psychotherapy. Here’s my review of the conference.
Training given/Events/Facilitation
- When the Kinks Won’t Sync – Working with Mismatched Desires in Kink Relationships – part of Pink Therapy’s Kink on Pink season.
- Queer Menopause – Where Gender, Sexuality and Age Collide (talk) at the Pink Therapy Queer Desire Conference.
- ‘Menopause, Sex and Hormones’ (talk) at Transitional States at Birkbeck in May 2018. (In 2018 I was on the advisory board of Pharmacosexuality: The Past, Present and Future of Sex on Drugs, a new research project funded by a Wellcome Trust Seed Award in Humanities and Social Sciences.)
- I have trained other therapists about gender/sexual diversity in the therapy room.
- ‘The Sex Escalator’ (talk) at Hackney Attic.
- I have solo facilitated, and held space for other teachers, at a number of experiential workshops.
- I organised a section of Beyond The Rainbow, Pink Therapy’s 2015 conference for therapists of all genders and sexualities. (Keynote videos here.)
- I have provided counselling services at festivals.
Previous employment
- Honorary Psychotherapist, Bexley Psychotherapy Service, Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust (2012-14). Two years clinical placement at a highly respected NHS Trust.
- Counsellor, The Centre for Better Health, Hackney (2012-13). A year providing counselling for established community organisation that is also a social enterprise and community hub.
Qualifications
- MA Counselling and Psychotherapy, University of East London
- Level 7 Diploma in Integrative Counselling – Minster Centre, London
- AIT (Advanced Integrative Therapy) Basics.
- Mental Health First Aid (Camden Council).
- BA, MA, English Literature – Magdalen College, Oxford
Memberships
- Member of the NCS
- Member of the Psychotherapy and Counselling Union.
- I am insured with Oxygen Insurance.
Directories
- Listed in Counselling Directory.
- Listed in Pink Therapy Directory.
- Listed in Psychology Today.
- Listed in Poly Friendly Professionals.
- Listed in Kink Aware Professionals.