The New Forest Mind Clinic | Nurse-Led CBT Therapy

After gaining extensive experience working with both mild-moderate and severe/enduring mental health problems, I have opened The New Forest Mind Clinic with the vision of creating a truly trauma-informed, person-centred and professional service to support people with their mental health and wellbeing. In addition to my professional experience, I bring a real understanding of what it feels like to seek support, and to finally feel heard and seen.

My journey into psychology began through my own life experiences. In my early twenties, after years of instability, becoming a mum prompted a deep need for change and self‑understanding. I had spent time within mental health services myself and tried a few different therapies/therapists, including CBT, but I never engaged properly, or for very long. And I didn’t walk away from those because I was difficult, but because something essential was missing - I never felt properly understood, I believed it was a waste of time and that talking therapy couldn’t really help.

Everything shifted one evening during a psychology class on my access course. I was introduced to the idea that our experiences shape who we are, that there are well‑developed theories behind human behaviour, and that the brain has the capacity to change and rewire itself. I began to realise how limited my understanding of the brain and behaviour was, and I found myself deeply fascinated by the human mind.

I went on to study Psychology at University - I wanted to understand why people do what they do, why we behave towards and relate to people the way we do, why some experiences leave lasting marks while others fade, and why we can know something in our mind yet feel something entirely different emotionally. In many ways, I was trying to make sense of (and peace with) my own story, seeking to understand myself through understanding others.

But I quickly learned that understanding why others do what they do was never going to be enough to heal me. So I returned to therapy - and that journey, as messy and nonlinear as it was (and still can be, because we’re all human) became one of the most important things I have ever done. In seeking to finally understand myself, I discovered that our struggles, when met with curiosity rather than shame, have an extraordinary amount to teach us. That the patterns we develop, however painful, were once our best attempts at coping. That we are not broken, we are adaptive.

Ultimately, what I came to understand is this: self‑understanding is not a luxury, it is the foundation of everything. 

It changes how you relate to yourself, how you move through the world, and how you connect with others. And once I found it, I knew it was invaluable.

That belief sits at the core of my work.

My path to becoming a therapist was also not a straight line. Before training in psychotherapy, I built my career working in some of the most complex and often overlooked areas of human experience - substance use, homelessness, probation, and psychiatric nursing. These were not easy environments. They brought my face to face with people navigating poverty, addiction, trauma, the criminal justice system, and profound social marginalisation - people who are too often dismissed or misunderstood by the very systems designed to support them.

Working in these settings taught me far more than any textbook could. I came to understand that shame is one of the heaviest burdens a person can carry, and one of the greatest barriers to change. What may appear as self-destruction from the outside is so often an attempt to cope, to survive, to feel something - or feel nothing at all. I also witnessed people achieve remarkable transformation, even after years of pain, but only when they felt genuinely safe, heard, and respected.

These experiences shaped the way I work. I learned, deeply and genuinely, how to sit alongside people without judgment. When you have supported someone through the realities of rough sleeping, active addiction, or acute mental health crisis, you quickly realise that life is complex, people are complex, and that the world needs more understanding and compassion.

During my nursing career, I also became increasingly aware of something that didn’t sit right with me - the tendency to pathologise trauma and lived experience. Distress was often reduced to labels and diagnoses, treated as symptoms to be managed rather than experiences to be understood. While the medical model has its place, it cannot tell the whole story. People are not their diagnoses, and when we approach distress without curiosity, we risk missing what truly matters.

For me, the most important question became not “What is wrong with you?” but “What has happened to you?” and I knew I needed to do something different.

I bring every one of those years into my practice. At The New Forest Mind Clinic, I offer psychological care that takes you seriously as a whole person. Your history, your identity, your experiences, your way of seeing the world - these are not obstacles to your progress. They are the very place where healing begins. I will not hand you a label and a leaflet. I will sit with you, think with you, and help you find your own way through, at your pace, in your own language, on your own terms.

You deserve care that sees all of you. That is what I am here to provide.