Sustainable Happiness, Meaning and Performance
Get personalised coaching and counselling to align your goals, health and purpose.
Live with flow and meaning.
How can I help?
Everyone has the inherit desire and capability for happiness and fulfilment. At times we all lose our way and feel lost, distant from meaning and a sense of achievement. My work is to create the right conditions and enable you to rediscover your pathway, remove obstacles, restore health and learn life tools to maintain purpose, resilience and happiness.
Integrative Coaching and Counselling
I and my colleagues use an approach to supporting clients that integrates method, skill and principles that draw from coaching, therapeutic counselling, mindfulness, yogic movement and breath work. No two clients needs are the same and our approach, through contracting and boundary setting, is tailored to support you with a positive blend of theory and practice.
We don’t use labels, we don’t diagnose and we don’t judge. We meet you where you are at, contract your needs, hold space and empower you with the tools and the confidence to live a rewarding and authentic life.
- Meet you where you are at.
- Contract your needs.
- Create and hold a safe space.
- Empower you with life skills and tools
- Enable confidence to life a rewarding and authentic life.
“Thank you for creating such a safe space for me to show up as my authentic self.”
If you are living with neurodiversity, then follow this link to find out how we can support you.
If you have questions about our services, counselling or coaching then keep scrolling or visit our FAQ section here.
Location
We are physically located in and around the beautiful home counties of Berkshire and Oxfordshire. We offer face to face appointments, both in the traditional setting of a comfortable room and in the outdoors where we find the therapeutic aspects of nature and movement to be beneficial to many.
With zoom and other online solutions we are also able to offer support virtually and at a time that suits you.
We offer free support group services, click here to find out more.
If you would like to know more we offer a free initial consultation so that you can see if you like what we do, in strict confidence.
- Reading
- Twyford
- Henley on Thames
- Maidenhead
- Virtually via Zoom or other
About me and my practice
If you are reading this then the chances are that you are considering inviting someone else in to your life to help you reconnect with sustainable happiness. That’s a big step and you should feel confident that myself or one of my associates are the right fit for you and can give you the support that you need.
I am a hiker, a sailor and a baker. I love being outdoors, I love exploring and I love making things that are useful. I am naturally curious and seek to understand, not judge.
I have worked with people as a learning facilitator and as a coach for 15 years. I am passionate about finding and maintaining happiness through meaning and good mental health practices.
Coaching and counselling takes many guises and there are many practitioners offering their own services. The difference we bring is that every one of our coaches has been trained to a minimum of level 3 in counselling and is competent to create and maintain the right conditions in which you, the client, can talk, share and grow in confidence and in practice. We are also a broad practice and seek to recommend physical, spiritual and lifestyle practices that complements the counselling informed coaching.
- Mindfulness
- Pranayama (Yogic Breathing)
- Meditation
- Forest Bathing
- Physical Movement
“You have a really considered and thoughtful approach, this has really helped. I appreciated your observations and inputs.”
We do not offer psychotherapeutic services and while we are trained to BACP standards and subscribe to their ethics, we do not describe ourselves as psychotherapists. We observe regular internal supervision to ensure that we are doing the right thing by our clients, providing value and benefit and observing best practice, ethics and safe boundaries.
Sustainable Happiness & Wellbeing
Part of my journey was reading the book, “Lost Connections” by the author Johann Hari. In his book he writes about the underlying reasons that create anxiety, low mood, depression and sadness; he suggests a number of connections that, if lost, can result in dissonance, low mood, depression.
- Meaningful Work
- Other People
- Hopeful Future
- Nature
- Status / Respect
- Purpose and Values
This very much resonated with my beliefs that happiness and wellbeing are sourced from inner connections that sometimes become neglected. We can help you to better understand where your energy, purpose and drive comes from and how to reconnect and maintain connections.
When we are disconnected from the connections and conditions for, what the author Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi writes in his excellent book “Flow“, optimal experience we experience a disconnect. What I have observed is that these disconnects create a dissonance between our happy place and being (some might say our true self) and our current place and being. Living with this compromise creates incongruence or unhappiness, life can become uncomfortable and unstable because at some level (s) our mind and our soul knows that we are not living in line with what our true soul purpose; or what the great psychologist Carl Rogers described as our organsmic self.
“Really appreciated your encouragement, empathy & warmth. You make great connections with people very quickly”
Have you ever felt like everything is easy, that you are performing at a high level and achieving lots? The chances are that you were experiencing a flow state, using your skills and talents, doing something that you enjoyed and serving purpose. We can help you to explore and reconnect with sustainable happiness and optimal experience.
Living with Neurodiversity
I was diagnosed with ADHD as an adult, I also present with symptoms and features of ASC. My journey started with self forgiveness but led to discovering my talents, my why and being able to celebrate my talents and authenticity with more confidence and joy.
For anyone living with neurodiversity or supporting someone neurodivergent, the world can seem like a challenging place with conflicting messages, blurred perspectives and negativity. The way in which we perceive and process information is different; we might find sitting still and quietly, paying attention to one thing, maintaining eye contact or completing repetitive tasks difficult. The way in which we process emotion can also be very different with physical discomfort being a common reaction to strong emotional stimulation.
Adults who have received a late diagnosis will have had a lifetime of building resilience while potentially masking, attempting to fit in, and or experiencing anxiety and depression at not being able to consistently meet societal expectations.
Our world describes neurodiversity in terms of the problems, challenges and dysfunction: however, the best and most important thing that I can say is that neurodivergence brings significant opportunities, talent and skills alongside the more commonly noted disablers. With understanding, support and practice, neurodivergence becomes a desirable quality … there has been no innovation in the history of the world without someone viewing a norm differently!
Everyone on the team has direct experience of living with neurodiversity, either through a personal diagnosis or supporting others. We are very passionate about supporting members of our neurodivergent community to live lives of belonging and appreciation and a profound love of one’s own uniqueness. It is a life’s journey and we want to help get you setup with the confidence and the competence to embrace that.
We do not diagnose, we do not judge and we do not prescribe. We create positive conditions that include:
- A Safe Space
- Empathy
- Unconditional, Positive Regard
- Listening with curiosity, to understand
“Thank you for being so open about neurodiversity in such a positive way. I think that your brain works in a similar way to mine, so it was nice to know that I am not alone.”
FAQ’s
What does Therapy mean?
Therapy helps someone heal, grow stronger or recover after some kind of trauma (which we believe is a disconnect).
The kind of counselling informed coaching and supportive therapies that I offer responds to trauma but also builds resilience, in turn this makes the human mind more flexible, adaptable and more able to deal with future challenges.
Do I need a mental health problem to see you?
No.
I can help you to find and build resilience, connect with your purpose, find greater meaning and importantly, to maintain sustainable happiness.
What is Walking Therapy?
Walking and talking brings many benefits and may be preferable to some, rather than sitting.
Movement and being outdoors, being side by side rather than face to face and the simple fact of being surrounded by nature; all of these factors make walking therapy a positive option.
What is Forest Bathing?
The ancient Japanese practice of Shinrin Yoku is also referred to as forest bathing and involves intentionally being in nature and experiencing it with all of our senses.
This practice encourages being present and mindful, two things that significantly enhance our ability to better understand and master the concept of self.
What about Neurodiversity?
I was diagnosed with ADHD later in life and spent a long time embracing the implications of that and my talent. I teach courses on awareness and competence building. I also offer one on one and group sessions to help individuals understand and live effective and empowered lives with a neurodiversity.
How much does it cost and how long will it take?
I charge from £95 for a 50 minute session*. If I have to travel to meet you then I charge traveling time at £10 per 15 minutes.
Typically we would start with 6 sessions and then review afterwards.
*If you have limiting financial means, please contact us to see if we can help you on a reduced cost or bro-bono basis.
Who do you work with?
We will have an initial consultation to make sure that you feel comfortable working with me.
I work with anyone that is responsive to therapeutic conditions and support.
I specialise in working with adults who have lost connection to sustainable happiness, want to rediscover their spark or establish more meaning in their lives.
I also offer a service for people living with a neurodivergence, please contact me to discuss this further.
Discover your Purpose
Curious about what drives and motivates you? Try this free tool to get to know more about why you are here, to reconnect with sustainable sources of happiness, purpose and drive.
The word purpose can mean many things: I believe that it is living a life that is in alignment with our values, utilising our skills and talents, serving something greater than ourselves, feeling valued and having fun.
We can help you to rediscover your purpose, explore your values, challenge limiting beliefs and find meaning and joy in everyday life.