My Story
With over a decade of experience as an Occupational Therapist (OT) in the field of mental health, I worked with a large number of clients whose sleep problems consumed their lives.
As an OT, I work with clients holistically, but without a deeper understanding of sleep problems, I felt I was leaving a crucial part of their treatment unaddressed.
More and more I realised that the issue lay wider than mental health alone. We live in an ‘always on’ culture, which is developing an increasingly sleep deprived population. This goes on to seriously affect other areas of our lives, and I want to help.
I have struggled with sleep too. For periods of my teens and twenties, my sleeping schedule was all over the place. Then years of shift work within NHS services lead to further struggles with sleep and impacted on my day to day life and wellbeing.
So I know just how lonely and frustrating it can be, to lay in bed unable to sleep, stuck with your thoughts, worrying about how to cope with the looming day ahead.
I needed to be able to sleep. I needed to know more than just a basic ‘how to’.
So I learnt.
I am now a trained Coach and CBTi specialist, and I know ways to help you improve your sleep without the use of medication, fancy teas or expensive gadgets.
My days of sleep deprivation are in the past, and I can now experience life on my own terms.
Now I would like to support you, so that you can do the same.
What is CBTi?
CBTi is Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Insomnia and is:
A structured, evidence based therapy that is considered the the ‘gold standard’ treatment for insomnia.
Designed to support people to improve their sleep through learning more about how sleep works and adjusting thoughts and behaviours that are contributing to their sleep challenges.
Tailored to your individual sleep needs and challenges.
Aims to target the route cause(s) of your sleep issues.
Shown to be highly effective in improving sleep in the long term in comparison to other treatments for insomnia including medication.
Rest assured, you are in safe hands…
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Royal College of Occupational Therapists (RCOT) and Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) registered Occupational Therapist with over 13 years clinical experience in private and NHS mental health services and independent practice.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapist for Insomnia (CBTi) Practitioner (CBTi is the NICE recommended gold standard treatment for Insomnia).
Certified Transformational Coach (Animas Centre for Coaching).
Member of The British Sleep Society (BSS).
Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS ) checked.
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My approach goes beyond standard CBTi and sleep hygiene techniques you can find in a quick online search or with some other sleep professionals.
As an Occupational Therapist and Coach, I steer away from medical model interventions and focus on you. Through a comprehensive initial assessment I seek to understand your difficulties, strengths, needs and goals for your sleep and overall health and wellbeing. This enables me to provide your bespoke programme involving the appropriate combination of therapeutic and coaching techniques.
Sleep, whether good or bad, does not occur in isolation. Multiple physical, psychological and social factors of our daily lives all influence sleep so are considered and addressed in our ongoing work together.
I also believe education and knowledge is empowering and leads to positive and sustainable change so I will always focus on you understanding the science, evidence and processes utilised in our work together.
Small shifts lead to big change.
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Real change takes time and dedication, however the majority of clients start to experience improvements within a few sessions. In the longer term, you will inevitably experience not only improved sleep but a positive and long term impact on your overall health, wellbeing and productivity including improved concentration, alertness, mood, memory and relationships.