this is me

Therapy is an extremely personal and difficult journey to undertake. The success of your journey will depend on the relationship between you and your therapist. It is vital that you feel understood, accepted and valued as a fellow human being, no matter what your life story.

Here’s a bit of information about me that I hope, will make your search for a therapist a little easier:

I was born into a Greek Cypriot family who emigrated to the UK in the early 1950’s They eventually settled down in north London, where I was born and raised.

I am a mature woman, twice married and I have two adult children. I lived abroad for three years, and in 1993 I moved to Cambridgeshire and have been here ever since.

During a pivotal time in my life I realised that the only way to affect real and positive change in my life and for those around me was to face up to and conquer my demons; denial was no longer an option.

It was a life changing journey, one that has led me here. By the end I finally realised that the way to lasting change was through honest self awareness, acceptance and finally compassion for myself and to those who hurt my life.

I first began my journey into social care in 1997. I volunteered as a Classroom Support Assistant at Meldreth Manor Residential School; a residential school for young people with severe and profound multiple disabilities.

This is where I learned that the absolute foundation for any meaningful relationship (be it student-teacher, parent-child, lover-lover, employee-employer, sibling-sibling, client-carer etc) was through effective communication; being heard, being understood and being noticed.

The young people that I worked with taught me that communication is more than just mere words. They taught me that a raised eyebrow, a lifted finger, a hunched shoulder, a twitch of the lips were just as loud and expressive as words.

All I had to do was stop and listen.

I have also worked for Cambridgeshire’s Children and Young People Services in a Residential Home for Young People in Care. I worked and lived with these young people for twelve years.

These young people taught me to hear what was behind their words and actions. Verbal abuse, petty and violent crime, sexual abuse, addictions, promiscuity; all screamed of pain and betrayal and loss.

All I had to do was stop and listen.

It was while I was working with Looked After Children that I went to college and dedicated my spare time to gaining a professional counselling qualification.

During my twenty years working as a support worker I have supported adults of all ages, children and young people from all walks of life and with varying problems. I have worked with the elderly (including dementia), with clients suffering from addictions, homelessness, looked after children, unaccompanied minors, the chronically excluded, severe and enduring mental health issues.

I was a volunteer counsellor at ‘Centre 33’ counselling young people for nearly three years.

In March 2015 I became a volunteer counsellor at ‘Choices’, an outstanding local charity offering specialised long term counselling for adult survivors of child sexual abuse. I became an associate counsellor at ‘Choices’ in May 2016.

During the early part of 2016 I decided to dedicate my time to building my own counselling practice. I began working from rented therapy rooms in Cambridge and in February 2018 began working from an office in Histon (Cambs). During the Covid pandemic I took the opportunity to build a small office at the side of my home in Willingham. This is now my permanent place of work.

I have extensive and specialist training and knowledge in adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse and all its related traumas (PTSD, dissociation, personality disorders etc).

By being free of the past we no longer react to life’s challenges. We are able to live and respond to life as it unfolds before us as empowered, self controlled adults, no longer driven and controlled by repressed anger and denied memories.

Allow me to assist you in your journey.