In my 20s, I experienced a huge depression and mental health crisis. I was raised in an alcoholic home and grew up with rock-bottom self-worth and a behavioural survival strategy of high academic achievement and pressure. The wheels were always going to fall off – and they did…quite publicly, in a corridor of a college where I was training to be a barrister. I dropped out, went travelling (ran away) and eventually found my way to a counselling room in North London.

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My experience of therapy (free, long-term psychotherapy – now on the endangered list) helped me crawl out of depression and ultimately (shortcut a winding road of civil service jobs and government programmes and public policy work in an educational charity) to me retraining as a counsellor. But it did more than help me out of a bad time. It transformed my understanding of myself and of how people work. I will forever be grateful to my therapist then and the time we had.

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My work isn’t a job. It's a deep passion to help more people make sense of themselves and find acceptance and empowerment. To share, with as many people as possible, what I have learnt in my years of personal growth, training and work as a therapist. I have expertise and wisdom to share but I am also human - in the mix of life; struggling, facing challenges, managing my own demons, finding ways to live with purpose and intention.  I believe I have an amazing life. But it will always involve some struggle.

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Whatever I share, I know to be true because I am living it or because I see others living it. I have the humble privilege of witnessing my amazing therapy clients figure out themselves and their lives and I learn from them. It's our shared humanity which brings me hope - hope for less shame, hope for more connection, hope for our environment, hope for a better world.