As well as my psychotherapy training, I have a degree in music from Goldsmiths and a master’s degree in philosophy from UCL.

Music has remained a constant throughout my life, and I continue to play classical and folk guitar, lute, piano and, more recently, the low whistle. I also spent many years composing music for performers and small ensembles in London.

However, unlike music, my relationship with philosophy has changed over the years. I ended up moving away from academia as I became gradually more interested in personal answers to questions around how to live a good and meaningful life, rather than in what had begun to feel like a kind of intellectual game. I found that psychotherapy offered a welcome way of exploring these kinds of questions that felt grounded in lived experience and unique to each person, and it was this realisation that eventually led me to training as a therapist myself.

I have always enjoyed books and libraries, and prior to becoming a therapist I worked in various roles in academic libraries, most recently as a specialist working with historic early-printed books at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.

Outside therapy, I enjoy joinery and instrument making, particularly building lutes. I also have a soft spot for dogs in general and sighthounds in particular. I have a whippet called Sammy.