Associate Work at Purple House

My Career So Far

I trained as a Forensic Psychologist and worked initially at the South London and Maudsley NHS Trust carrying out work with forensic clients. I started EMDR training in 2005 and became an accredited EMDR practitioner in 2008. I started seeing non-forensic clients alongside my NHS work to offer trauma therapy. I then moved to work in female services with clients with offending, and non-offending, backgrounds before moving on to work with children and adolescents in an NHS Forensic CAMHS department.

I really enjoyed my work with children and young people in Forensic CAMHS and so leaned towards specialising in helping children with complex trauma, attending workshops and training related to EMDR with this client group. I started facilitating on Alexandra (Sandi) Richman’s EMDR training, and became an EMDR Child and Adolescent Consultant in 2014.  I am currently working toward becoming a Europe Accredited EMDR Child Trainer.

I always had a private practice running alongside my NHS work but in 2018 I decided to take this to the next level, leaving the NHS and opening a Purple House Clinic franchise in Lincoln. I have enjoyed the development of my career towards management responsibilities, overseeing staff and service development, as well as still carrying out clinical work myself.

My Clinical Work at The Purple House Clinic

I work with a range of presentations including anxiety, low mood, single event trauma and complex trauma. As well as using EMDR, I incorporate all my other psychological skills and knowledge, and will sometimes use schema therapy formulations in conjunction with EMDR. Due to my forensic background I have skills and experience in working with the more complex trauma presentations.. 

It’s great to see the positive outcomes in my clients at the clinic. I see people develop more ease with themselves, more ability to face difficult situations in their lives, a sense that they are no longer triggered by trauma memories.  They have a feeling of being free from the weight and legacy of trauma.  People change their way of interacting with their lives, with important people in their lives, and they are no longer held back.  It’s extremely rewarding work.

What I love about EMDR

I am passionate about EMDR. EMDR can be transformative, and people start to function in a way that they would not have expected to, often this is just incorporated into a new way of being, and they feel more confident and happy in their skin.  It transforms trauma and they experience post traumatic growth and are no longer crippled emotionally by the traumatic memories, and re-experiencing in their body.  ‘The body keeps the score’, as Bessel Van Der Kolk teaches us, and in EMDR this is the route to healing. EMDR has advanced to be applicable in different ways to many different clinical problems, and presentations and not just those we would consider related to trauma. 

I am passionate about children and young people getting timely interventions in EMDR to help them process trauma and continue to meet developmental milestones.

What does your broader role as Clinical Director at The Purple House Clinic Lincoln entail?

Further to my clinical work, as the owner and Clinical Director of The Purple House Clinic Lincoln, I’m responsible for the day to day management of the clinic and the development and growth of the practice. I oversee a team of administrative and clinical staff and enjoy working closely with the wide range of clinicians we have in our team. I’m immensely proud of the services and facilities we’ve developed at the clinic since opening in 2018.