It’s a big step to reach out for counselling, especially if you’ve had a lifetime of feeling different and not understood or heard. 

I’m a queer, neurodivergent integrative therapist, with 25 years’ experience as a teacher working with autistic children and teens, and the adults who support them. I retrained as a therapist 6 years ago and now work primarily with neurodivergent adults, often around issues of identity and the processing of past griefs and trauma usually resulting from not fitting in at school or within the family. 

My own sense of not fitting in was never more acute than when I became a mother nearly 30 years ago. My own mum had died 4 years before and in those pre-internet days, I assumed I was the only person who felt as isolated and desperate as I did. I didn’t speak to another person about my experience for 25 years and when I spoke to another motherless daughter, it was the first time I realised there were people who felt the same as me, and who had the same kinds of thoughts and experiences. There was great support and personal growth in that but it made me think about how different my life might have been if I’d found this support and processed my grief many years before – and so I’m really keen for this not to happen to other motherless mums.

I draw on a variety of counselling techniques and am a huge believer in the power of self-compassion. I’ll meet you just as you are, so we can work together in whatever way suits you. You’ll be in a space of non-judgement, where you're free to be yourself and acknowledged as the expert on you and your life. I can’t eliminate the pain of not having your mum around, but I can gently and consistently be alongside you while you explore what that means for you, and how you want to move forward with your life now, as a daughter and as a mother. I’m looking forward to meeting you.