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I am a Jungian analyst and psychotherapist working in consulting rooms in Findon Village, near Worthing, West Sussex. I offer a secure and confidential setting in which to discuss whatever issues may be troubling you - whether that is anxiety, depression or long-term emotional difficulties, or a lack of fulfilment or sense of meaning or purpose in life.

I have been working in the field of mental health and psychological well-being for over 35 years, and qualified originally as an analyst and psychotherapist of the Society of Analytical Psychology in 1996; I am now a Jungian Independent. In this time I have worked with almost all kinds of difficulties, problems and issues.

Analysis, Psychotherapy and Counselling

The training I originally undertook provided an in-depth study and personal experience of Jungian analysis. As well as 4 years of study of theory and detailed supervision of intensive clinical work, it also required a personal analysis for a minimum of 5 years at a frequency of four times per week. Analysis is the term used to describe work at this kind of frequency and depth, and those who have trained in this way are known as analysts.

Psychotherapy is a general term used to describe all kinds of psychological work and is sometimes used specifically to describe meetings at a frequency of once, twice or three times per week. Psychotherapy and analysis look at a person's particular difficulties broadly, taking into account an individual's personality as a whole, as well as their upbringing and any particular life events.

Counselling is a term that many people (particularly the 'man-on-the-street') use nowadays to describe any kind of psychological work, although it is sometimes used more specifically to describe short-term psychotherapeutic work with a specific focus; for example, when someone has had a particular trauma or difficult experience, such as a car accident, a divorce or redundancy.

I am not a counsellor (counselling trainings are usually much shorter and less intensive) although I am happy to work with short-term, focused issues, and have found that bringing the in-depth knowledge and experience from analytic work can offer a fuller perspective to such difficulties.

Jungian Analysis and Psychotherapy

Jungian analysis is based on and grew out of the work and thinking of the Swiss depth psychologist, Carl Gustav Jung. The field of psychotherapy and Jungian therapy have developed a great deal since Jung's time, in particular integrating modern understandings of infant development, neuroscience, trauma therapy, relational psychotherapy and body therapy, the beginnings of which Jung often presaged. There has also been a confluence with and integration of the work of the many other important theorists, including, of course, Sigmund Freud, as well as Melanie Klein, Donald Winnicott and Wilfred Bion, to name a few.

Jung's unique way of working

It is difficult to sum up Jung's contribution and way of working succinctly, but perhaps one could say that he had a profound respect for the individual and the wisdom held in the individual's own psyche, and he saw it as the analyst's role to help the person to discover and live according to their true nature.

In this light, he thought that 'breakdowns' or 'neuroses' were often due to conflicts between different parts of the individual's personality and that whilst these difficulties could be supremely painful and challenging, they can also be creative and lead to personal growth.

I will say more about Jung, Freud, and analytical psychology on other pages and offer links to other websites where their work can be explored in more detail.

The Soul

After all this experience I have come to a simple conclusion that informs the heart of my work - that the essential process of therapy is about working with that most sensitive and sacred part of ourselves, our soul. It is through our souls that we are connected to others and the environment around us; it is through our souls that we divine what is true and right for us; it is through our souls that we find motivation, energy and life (and this can be described in terms of neuroscience too - see the further pages on this site about the soul and therapy and also the true self and its shadow). 

However, due to that very sensitivity, and in an attempt to protect it, we sometimes become alienated from our souls, disconnected from others and the world around us, and lose a sense of meaning, purpose, energy and ‘life’. 

Putting the soul, with its sensitivity and vulnerability, at the heart of the work puts a new perspective on what we are doing, on our journey. In the past, these sensitive parts of ourselves have too often been pathologised, and we come to feel that they are too much, too bad, or selfish. Essentially the process of therapy is about coming to terms with who we are, with being human, with being soulful.