Inspiration
Body Movement has delighted and fascinated me since I can remember. I loved rolling as a baby, jumping as a toddler and dancing as a child and adult. I have also always enjoyed seeing others move and early on realised that we all have particular ways of moving as well as not being able to move. Over time this has led me to understand that our bodily experiences and movements can speak volumes about our lives past and present.
I have lived in many different cultures around the world and often needed to rely on creative and non-verbal means to understand others and to make myself understood. This has further deepened my appreciation of the body’s ability to communicate and make sense when we are at our wit’s end.
Another source of inspiration is living with my husband of many years and together raising our two children whose creativity, imagination and insights give me much joy and much to ponder on.
Training, Experience and Expertise
I trained as a dance & movement psychotherapist at the Laban Centre London and since 1998 have been working in private, educational, health and creative arts settings. These include my own studios, NHS psychiatric wards and special needs schools in the UK, women rights organisations in Pakistan, and a home for homeless pregnant girls in Kenya. I have set up and run a graduate training course in Dance Movement Therapy at Makerere University in Uganda, and co-founded Art2Be, an association of artists and creative therapists who work globally with people experiencing discrimination in their society.
My career as a body mapping artist, facilitator and trainer started in 2004 in Kenya where I worked and lived with my husband and children for 5 years. Since my return to the UK in 2009 I have been focusing on my private practice as therapist and supervisor for body centred and creative arts therapist. The ongoing development of body mapping as a comprehensive, feminine and collective approach to embodiment remains at the heart of my passion.
My particular expertise is in working with gender, complex psychosomatic symptoms, life threatening illness such as cancer and HIV/Aids, and trauma including prenatal and birth trauma and sexual abuse. Recent further training in somatic trauma therapy with Babette Rothschild has contributed to my skills in this field.
In Practice
My work is informed by the practice of Authentic Movement, Developmental Movement Patterning, Jungian Depth Psychology and Pre-and Perinatal Therapy. I understand healing as a gradual process of allowing our deep and unique nature to manifest and come into harmony with our ways of living in the world. I don’t see our problems and body symptoms as obstacles to overcome but as incomplete attempts to change and grow. As such they can become gateways to a more fulfilling life if only we attend fully to what it is that is wanting to change.
My approach has fundamentally been shaped by my own experience of being in therapy (art therapy, movement psychotherapy and Jungian psychotherapy, pre-and perinatal psychotherapy) at different times of my life. I am committed to continued professional and personal development and maintain my sensitivity to body and soul as part of a weekly feminine awakening women’s group and a monthly authentic movement group, my own art making, professional workshops and training courses, and regular supervision.
As a registered practitioner with ADMP UK (Association for Dance Movement Psychotherapy) and UKCP (UK Council for Psychotherapy) I adhere to high ethical and professional standards and approach each therapeutic relationship with great care, respect and openness towards the unique journey of each person who works with me.