Before I retrained as a therapist, I went through my own psychological difficulties with anxiety and burnout. I was working long hours and trying to meet everyone’s expectations, becoming even more challenging after returning to work following fertility issues and the arrival of identical twins. I kept pushing through until I hit a point where I realised, I couldn’t keep going like that. I was stretched thin, trying to be everything to everyone, and ended up feeling unhappy, overwhelmed, lost and not really present anywhere.

Therapy became a turning point for me. I reached out at a time when I felt like a failure, unsure who I was and uncertain about my purpose. These thoughts and emotions were amplified by a significant loss in my life due to cancer.

Therapy isn’t easy and neither is life. Doubt, stress and wobbles still show up. But learning to understand myself at a deeper level has been profoundly empowering and not because I have all the answers, yet because I trust myself in the not-knowing.

Alongside my private practice I’m a volunteer counsellor at Macmillan Cancer Support. This is a space where people can let their guard down, say the things they don’t feel able to say elsewhere, voice the fears that feel too much or too dark, and speak what feels unimaginable.

To be trusted with someone’s emotional and psychological vulnerability at a time when their are facing one of the greatest threats to their life is something I hold with deep respect. Every person I have the privilege of working alongside has shown me something profound about vulnerability, courage and resilience. Not the kind that looks strong from the outside, but the kind that exists when someone is facing one of the greatest threats to their life and still shows up and with honesty.