I qualified as a psychologist in South Africa in 1991 and as a psychoanalytic psychotherapist in 1995. I later went on to complete a PhD in psychoanalytic psychotherapy. For 17 years I worked in private practice before immigrating to New Zealand. In New Zealand I worked for the National Health Service for a year after which I moved to Auckland where I was manager and lead clinical psychologist for a Child and Family Psychotherapy Centre. I now live in the UK with my British-born husband. From 2010 I worked as the lead Clinical Psychologist in an Acute In-Patient Unit in North East Lincolnshire and also as the lead Clinical Psychologist in an In-Patient Eating Disorder Unit. I supervised and supported other psychologists and clinical members of the teams and conducted in-house training sessions. For 18 months I worked in a brain injury injury. I later worked as the Consultant Clinical Psychologist for The Tuke Centre, The Retreat, York. I now work mainly in private practice. I work with highly complex individuals and conduct specialist psychological assessments and treatment.
I love my job and gained immense satisfaction from helping people when they came into hospital, some of whom were finally able to experience a sense of well-being again. So why have I then chosen private practice? The NHS and mental health services are stretched beyond capacity resulting in long waiting times for services. I want to provide a private practice service for individuals seeking professional help sooner rather than later thereby facilitating timely treatment and a return to wellness. In short, my aim is to help you on your journey to wellness.
My interests are varied and my original training in South Africa was in Health Psychology and then Clinical Psychology. In South Africa I was the Consulting Psychologist and one of a panel of experts for the Heart Foundation of South Africa. Psychological rehabilitation after a heart attack, and/or coronary artery by-pass for the patient and their family members was the topic of my doctoral dissertation. Learning how to manage stress as well as prevention of ill-health is therefore a key interest of mine. Working with eating disorders is another specialty. In addition to these specialties I enjoy working with a range of problems (please see the list of treatment areas).
If I have not mentioned your worry, please ask me. Above all, I want to help you to discover what troubles you and together we can work to complete a thorough assessment, if needed, come up with a formulation and diagnosis, and most certainly develop a treatment plan that works for you.
