Understanding Therapist with Lived Experience

I work as a psychotherapist, but I’ve also lived a full and varied life. I bring a lot of lived experience into the room, and it helps me understand and support the people I work with in a genuinely human way.

Before becoming a therapist, I spent years in the creative and printing industries as a designer, manager, and company director. I know what it feels like to live with pressure, perfectionism, people-pleasing, and burnout. I see the drive to perform, the fear of failing, and the quiet exhaustion that comes from holding everything together while trying to appear strong.

When I turned 40, I felt the need for change and took a new path: I trained as a yoga teacher and opened a small studio, a journey that led me into Zen meditation and eventually into Internal Family Systems (IFS). I didn’t step into IFS as a therapist - I stepped into it as someone who needed a kinder, deeper way to understand myself and break long-standing patterns. Over the past six years, I’ve continued my own IFS journey and trained with some of the most respected teachers in the field.

Today, I’m a PACFA-registered clinical counsellor with master’s degrees in both business and professional counselling, and a registered Level 2 IFS therapist. But credentials are only one part of what I bring. The rest comes from lived experience—creativity, curiosity, compassion, and the ability to sit with people in a calm, grounded, Self-led way.

My work isn’t about fixing you. It’s about helping you understand the parts that have been working so hard to protect you and supporting you in reconnecting with your deeper Self—the steady, compassionate place inside that knows how to lead your life with clarity.

If you’re navigating transition, burnout, inner conflict, or a sense that something more is possible, you’re not alone. You’re welcome here.