What treatments do you offer?
My core approach is psychodynamic and humanistic psychotherapy, informed by existential philosophy, attachment theory, trauma theory, and my background in clinical psychology and anthropology. I am interested not only in symptoms, but in the deeper patterns, histories, relationships, losses, defences, meanings, and social contexts that shape a person’s life.
I work in an integrative way, drawing on different approaches when clinically appropriate, while maintaining a thoughtful, depth-oriented therapeutic frame.
Treatments I offer include:
- Psychodynamic Psychotherapy – exploring unconscious patterns, early relational experiences, defences, attachment histories, and the ways the past may continue to shape present-day life, relationships, identity, and emotional experience.
- Relational Psychotherapy – focusing on how relationships form us, including how patterns of closeness, distance, trust, conflict, shame, longing, avoidance, and self-protection may emerge within the therapeutic relationship itself.
- Humanistic Psychotherapy – offering a deeply respectful, empathic, and non-judgemental space in which the person can begin to feel more fully met, understood, and able to develop a more authentic relationship with themselves.
- Existentially Informed Therapy – working with questions of freedom, responsibility, mortality, meaning, identity, aloneness, choice, and how to live with greater honesty and emotional depth.
- EMDR Therapy (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing) – an evidence-based treatment for trauma, PTSD, and complex trauma, helping the brain and body process disturbing memories so they become less intrusive and emotionally overwhelming.
- Narrative Exposure Therapy (NET) – a structured trauma therapy that can be especially helpful for survivors of multiple or repeated traumas, supporting the organisation of traumatic memories within a coherent life narrative.
- ACT, CBT, and DBT-informed work – where appropriate, I may draw on elements of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, or Dialectical Behaviour Therapy to support emotional regulation, distress tolerance, behavioural change, and psychological flexibility.
This means that therapy can be tailored carefully to the individual. Some clients come to focus on trauma recovery or EMDR. Others come for longer-term psychotherapy, identity work, relationship patterns, grief, anxiety, depression, self-development, or the quiet but persistent feeling that the life they have built no longer fully reflects who they are.
How can I start?
After you have taken time to browse my website, you are welcome to contact my assistant with any questions or to make a confidential enquiry.
Email: assistant@comfortshieldspractice.com
You can also send a WhatsApp message to: 07464 798730
Alternatively, you can book an initial consultation of 50 or 90 minutes directly here:
Because I maintain a small private caseload, new enquiries are considered individually, depending on clinical fit, availability, and the kind of work being requested.
What happens in my first session?
The first session is an opportunity to explore what has brought you to therapy and how I may be able to help. It is a relaxed, confidential conversation rather than a test or formal interrogation.
I will usually ask about your current concerns, your life circumstances, relevant history, symptoms, relationships, previous therapy or mental health treatment, and what you may be hoping for from the work. You are welcome to raise any questions or concerns you have about the process.
The first session also gives you a chance to get a sense of me and how I work. If we decide to continue, we can discuss whether weekly psychotherapy, more intensive work, EMDR, assessment, or another approach would be most appropriate.
For complex trauma, C-PTSD, dissociation, or more longstanding difficulties, longer 90-minute sessions or more frequent sessions may sometimes be clinically helpful. EMDR also often benefits from a longer session length because it allows more time for preparation, processing, and grounding.
If your needs are better suited to another clinician or service, I will say so thoughtfully and, where possible, suggest an appropriate referral.
How long does therapy last?
The length of therapy depends on the nature of the work and what you are hoping to address.
For open-ended, long-term psychotherapy, such as psychodynamic or relational work, therapy often unfolds over months or years. This is not a quick-fix model, but a deeper process of understanding and change. Many clients attend weekly, and some benefit from more frequent sessions, especially where the work involves complex trauma, longstanding relational patterns, identity, grief, or profound self-development.
For shorter, more structured work, therapy may be more time-limited. EMDR, for example, may be helpful within a focused block of sessions for certain traumatic memories or recent trauma symptoms, though complex trauma, childhood trauma, or C-PTSD usually requires a more careful and sustained approach.
Some people come for a few months to work on anxiety, depression, grief, a life transition, a relationship crisis, or a particular decision. Others enter therapy because they sense that something more fundamental in their life, identity, or relationships needs attention.
Whatever the length of the work, endings matter. If we decide to finish, I usually recommend allowing time to reflect on what has changed, what remains unfinished, and how to say goodbye properly. Clients are also free to stop therapy at any point, and many return later when new questions or life circumstances arise.
What happens in ongoing sessions?
In ongoing psychotherapy sessions, you are free to bring whatever feels most important. This may include current difficulties, memories, dreams, relationships, losses, fears, dilemmas, conflicts, symptoms, fantasies, bodily feelings, or thoughts that feel difficult to say elsewhere.
Most often, we sit together and talk. My role is to listen closely, to help you understand what may be happening beneath the surface, and to create a therapeutic space in which your experiences can be explored rather than judged.
Sometimes the work is quiet and reflective. Sometimes it is painful, searching, and emotionally intense. Sometimes it involves making connections between the past and the present. Sometimes it involves staying very close to what is happening now.
Over time, therapy can support deeper self-understanding, emotional freedom, greater relational capacity, and a more honest relationship with the life you are living.
Confidentiality, privacy, and discretion
Confidentiality, privacy, and discretion are central to my practice. I work with many clients for whom privacy is not merely preferred, but essential. This may include people in public-facing roles, performers, artists, writers, politicians, senior professionals, executives, international families, and others whose personal or professional lives require a particularly careful and discreet therapeutic setting.
Everything you share in therapy, whether in person in Harley Street or online, is treated as private and confidential. Notes are stored securely and handled in accordance with professional and legal standards.
Many clients come to therapy with sensitive concerns, including trauma, PTSD, C-PTSD, sexual abuse, grief, shame, relationship difficulty, family rupture, public pressure, or the emotional cost of living under expectation or scrutiny. I understand how important it is to feel that your therapy is protected, serious, and not part of the public world in which you may already feel over-seen, over-interpreted, or over-exposed.
There are only rare exceptions to confidentiality, such as where disclosure is required by law or where there is a serious risk of harm to you or someone else. These limits will be explained clearly so that you understand the therapeutic frame from the beginning.
Do you work with people in the public eye or highly visible roles?
Yes. I work with clients whose lives involve visibility, responsibility, public scrutiny, artistic exposure, political pressure, family expectation, reputation, or significant professional demands. This may include performers, artists, writers, public figures, politicians, senior professionals, entrepreneurs, and internationally based clients.
For people in these positions, therapy often needs to offer more than ordinary support. It needs to provide a protected psychological space in which the person can speak freely, without performance, management, or the fear of being reduced to their role.
My practice is private, discreet, and clinically serious. I do not treat public visibility as glamour. I treat it as a psychological condition that can bring its own burdens: scrutiny, projection, loneliness, pressure, mistrust, family complexity, loss of privacy, and the difficulty of finding relationships in which one can be known rather than merely seen.
I’ve never talked to anyone. I’m used to handling things on my own. Does going to therapy mean I am weak?
No. Many people who come to therapy have spent years coping alone. They may be capable, disciplined, thoughtful, successful, or deeply responsible. Often, the problem is not that they cannot cope. The problem is that coping has become too costly.
Therapy is not a sign of weakness. It is a serious form of self-examination and care. It offers a confidential space to understand what you have been carrying, why certain patterns keep repeating, and what may need to change.
Many clients come to therapy precisely because they are tired of managing everything privately. They want a space where they do not have to perform competence, minimise pain, protect others from their feelings, or keep translating their inner life into something acceptable.
What is the difference between talking to you and talking to a friend or family member?
Speaking with a trusted friend or family member can be valuable, but it is not the same as psychotherapy.
Therapy provides a confidential, professional relationship in which the focus is entirely on understanding you. I listen without needing anything from you, without being part of your family system, social circle, workplace, or personal history. This allows us to explore things that may be difficult to say elsewhere.
As a clinical psychologist and psychotherapist, I bring psychological training, clinical experience, and a depth-oriented understanding of trauma, attachment, personality, development, relationships, culture, and the unconscious. Therapy can help you notice patterns that may be difficult to see alone, especially when they have become familiar ways of surviving.
For many people, the privacy of therapy is essential. You do not have to worry about burdening someone, being judged, damaging a relationship, or having your most private thoughts become part of family or social knowledge.
Why shouldn’t I just take medication?
Medication can be helpful and sometimes necessary, particularly for conditions such as depression, anxiety, PTSD, bipolar disorder, psychosis, severe insomnia, or other psychiatric difficulties. I respect the role of psychiatry and often support clients who are also working with a psychiatrist or GP.
However, medication does not usually address the whole psychological picture. It may reduce symptoms, but it does not necessarily help a person understand trauma, grief, relational patterns, shame, identity, family history, unconscious defences, or the meanings attached to suffering.
Psychotherapy offers a space to understand the roots of distress and to work with the person as a whole. For many clients, the most helpful approach combines psychological therapy with medical support where appropriate.
Do you work with all genders and backgrounds?
Yes. My practice is inclusive and welcoming to people of all genders, sexualities, cultural backgrounds, nationalities, and family structures.
A significant part of my work is multicultural and international. My background in anthropology informs the way I think about identity, family, language, migration, belonging, power, shame, cultural expectation, and the different meanings that distress may carry across contexts.
I see clients from London’s diverse communities, as well as clients who travel to Harley Street from abroad or work with me online from other countries. I regularly work with international clients, including those based in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, the UAE, Asia, India, Europe, and North America.
I am also experienced in supporting clients who have felt unseen, misread, pathologised, or marginalised elsewhere, and I aim to offer a respectful and psychologically nuanced therapeutic space.
Do you offer online therapy?
Yes. I offer secure online psychotherapy and, where clinically appropriate, online EMDR via Zoom across the UK and internationally.
Online therapy can be especially useful for clients based outside London, clients who travel frequently, international clients, or people whose professional, family, or public responsibilities make regular in-person attendance difficult.
For online work, it is important that you have a private, confidential space where you will not be interrupted. For trauma work and EMDR, we will also consider clinical suitability, safety, grounding, and the nature of the material being addressed.
Do you accept insurance?
Yes. I am recognised by selected private medical insurers, including Aviva, Bupa Global but not Bupa UK, Cigna and Cigna Global, WPA, and Aetna International/Allianz.
If you plan to use health insurance for psychotherapy, please obtain pre-authorisation from your insurer before beginning therapy. When enquiring, it is helpful to include your insurer, membership number, authorisation code, number of sessions approved, expiry date, and any policy excess.
Please note that insurance policies vary, and some insurers require a GP or psychiatrist referral before authorising treatment.
Do I need a referral?
No referral is required for self-funded psychotherapy, EMDR therapy, or most private psychological assessments. You are welcome to contact me directly.
If you are using private medical insurance, your insurer may require a referral from a GP or psychiatrist before authorising treatment. It is best to check with your insurer before booking.
For solicitor, medico-legal, CICA, or AFCS-related assessments, the referral process may depend on the nature of the report required and whether the instruction comes from you, a carer, a solicitor, an organisation, or another professional.
What issues can therapy help with?
I specialise in trauma, PTSD, complex PTSD, sexual abuse, dissociation, emotional abuse, relational trauma, and the psychological effects of difficult childhoods and family systems.
I also work with anxiety, depression, grief, shame, low self-esteem, relationship difficulties, identity questions, neurodivergence, burnout, life transitions, divorce, breakup, pregnancy, parenting, public pressure, and the emotional consequences of living a life organised around duty, expectation, or performance.
Therapy can support symptom relief, but it can also offer something deeper: a way to understand your life, your relationships, your defences, your longings, and the parts of yourself that may have had to remain hidden.
Is EMDR effective for trauma and PTSD?
Yes. EMDR, or Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing, is an evidence-based treatment for trauma and PTSD. It can help the brain and body process distressing memories so that they become less vivid, less intrusive, and less emotionally overwhelming.
Many clients find EMDR helpful when traumatic memories continue to affect sleep, mood, relationships, sexuality, bodily safety, concentration, or the capacity to feel present in ordinary life.
For complex trauma and C-PTSD, EMDR needs to be carefully paced. It is not simply a matter of “going into” the worst memory. Careful assessment, preparation, stabilisation, and attention to dissociation are essential.
Do you offer intensive therapy?
Yes. For some clients, especially those working with trauma, PTSD, C-PTSD, grief, relational trauma, or complex life circumstances, more intensive therapy can be helpful.
This may involve longer 90-minute sessions, more frequent sessions, or a focused period of EMDR and trauma-focused work. The purpose is not to rush the process, but to create enough continuity and containment for deeper psychological work.
Intensive therapy may be particularly useful for clients travelling from abroad, clients with demanding schedules, or those who wish to approach trauma work in a more structured and sustained way.
Do you work with couples as well as individuals?
Yes. I work with both individuals and couples. In couples therapy, I help partners understand repeating patterns, improve communication, repair after conflict or betrayal, and rebuild emotional safety and trust.
Couples work may involve attachment patterns, trauma histories, infidelity, distance, conflict, resentment, sexual difficulties, family pressures, parenting, or the challenge of remaining emotionally alive to one another over time.
Please note: I do not currently have spaces for new couples. If you would like to be added to a waiting list, you are welcome to contact the practice.
What languages do you work in?
I work in English.
I regularly support international clients who travel to Harley Street from abroad or who prefer online therapy. I am experienced in working across cultural contexts and with clients navigating migration, family expectations, cultural displacement, multilingual identities, and complex international lives.
How do I pay for sessions?
Most clients self-fund and pay by credit card or bank transfer. Some clients use approved private medical insurance.
I am recognised by selected major insurers, including Aviva, Bupa Global, Cigna, Cigna Global, WPA, and Aetna International/Allianz. If you plan to use insurance, please mention this when enquiring so that authorisation and any referral requirements can be confirmed.
For current fees, please see the Fees & Services page or contact the practice directly.
Where are you located and when do you see clients?
I see clients by appointment at 4 Devonshire Street, Harley Street Medical District, London W1W 5DT.
I also offer online therapy across the UK and internationally, where clinically appropriate. Appointments are available on weekdays.
Do you work with clients referred by solicitors after accidents or injuries?
Yes. I receive referrals from solicitors and work with clients who have experienced psychological injury following accidents, workplace incidents, road traffic accidents, assaults, traumatic events, or other life-altering experiences.
Many clients in these circumstances experience PTSD, anxiety, depression, adjustment difficulties, pain-related distress, loss of confidence, trauma symptoms, or significant changes in functioning and identity.
I provide therapy and, where appropriate, comprehensive psychological assessment reports for solicitors, insurers, compensation processes, and related medico-legal contexts.
Do you provide CICA psychological reports?
Yes. I provide CICA psychological assessments and reports. CICA stands for the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority, which is the UK body that considers compensation claims from people who have been physically or psychologically injured as victims of violent crime.
I offer CICA psychological assessments for adults who have experienced sexual abuse, sexual assault, physical assault, domestic abuse, traumatic violence, or other criminally inflicted trauma.
A CICA psychological report may include a detailed clinical interview, psychometric measures, assessment of trauma symptoms, diagnostic opinion where appropriate, consideration of functional impairment, and recommendations for treatment. Reports are written carefully and professionally, with an awareness of the sensitive and often painful nature of the material being discussed.
Where clinically appropriate, some clients choose to begin therapy with me after their assessment, so that treatment and recovery can be integrated with the reporting process.
Do you provide AFCS psychological assessments and reports?
Yes. I provide psychological assessments and reports for the AFCS, which stands for the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme.
The Armed Forces Compensation Scheme is a UK government compensation scheme for service personnel and veterans who have suffered injury, illness, or death caused by service on or after 6 April 2005. Psychological injuries may include PTSD, complex trauma, depression, anxiety, moral injury, adjustment difficulties, dissociation, or other service-related psychological conditions.
An AFCS psychological assessment may be appropriate where a serving or former member of the Armed Forces requires an independent clinical opinion regarding the psychological impact of military service, traumatic experiences, operational exposure, injury, loss, or other service-related stressors.
My reports typically include a detailed clinical interview, review of relevant documents where available, psychometric assessment, diagnostic formulation where appropriate, consideration of functional impairment, and recommendations for treatment. I aim to write reports that are clinically careful, psychologically nuanced, and clear enough to be useful within the compensation process.
I am particularly attentive to the ways in which military culture, discipline, loyalty, stoicism, identity, shame, moral conflict, and the pressure to remain functional can shape how psychological injury is experienced and disclosed.
Do you provide ADHD or diagnostic clarification assessments?
Yes. I provide psychological assessment where there is diagnostic uncertainty, particularly where ADHD, trauma, dissociation, anxiety, depression, neurodivergence, attachment history, or personality patterns may overlap.
Many people come for assessment because they are unsure whether their difficulties are best understood as ADHD, trauma, C-PTSD, dissociation, autistic traits, burnout, depression, anxiety, or a combination of factors.
My approach is not to reduce the person to a label, but to understand the whole clinical picture: developmental history, current symptoms, functioning, trauma history, relational patterns, strengths, vulnerabilities, and the context in which difficulties have emerged.
What makes your practice different?
My practice is private, discreet, and depth-oriented. I work with a small caseload so that I can offer careful attention to each client, rather than a high-volume model of psychological care.
I am a Chartered Clinical Psychologist and psychodynamic psychotherapist with a background in clinical psychology, psychotherapy, and cultural anthropology. This means that I think about psychological distress not only in terms of symptoms, but also in terms of history, relationship, culture, language, power, trauma, identity, and meaning.
Many clients come to me because they want more than brief advice or surface-level support. They are looking for a thoughtful, clinically serious space in which complex emotional lives can be understood with care.
My work is especially suited to people whose lives require confidentiality, nuance, and depth: clients with complex trauma histories, public-facing roles, demanding professional lives, international backgrounds, family complexity, or a long-standing sense that something important in the self has not yet been fully heard.
