How I Work

Supporting Your Recovery with Experience, Science, and Compassion

I offer a calm, supportive space where you can begin to feel safe, understood, and hopeful again.

Living with chronic pain or persistent symptoms can feel exhausting, confusing, and isolating - especially when you've tried countless tests, treatments, and therapies without finding lasting answers. I understand that journey personally.

When working with people on their path to recovery, I draw on three key pillars:

My personal experience of overcoming chronic pain
Over fifteen years of helping people create lasting change
The latest evidence-based science

Since 2011, I have supported people through challenges such as anxiety, depression, trauma, stress, and emotional well-being. After overcoming my own chronic pain, I became passionate about understanding more about the growing evidence in this area and how to help others achieve it too.

I know how alone, unsupported, distressed, and powerless chronic symptoms can make you feel. That's why I am committed to helping others discover that recovery is possible.

A New Approach to Chronic Symptoms

If you've been living with chronic pain, anxiety, fatigue, IBS, headaches, dizziness, or other persistent symptoms despite countless tests and treatments, you're not alone.

Over 1.2 billion people worldwide live with chronic pain, and many more experience chronic symptoms that significantly affect their quality of life.

The good news is that there is now a growing body of evidence helping us understand why chronic symptoms persist - and how recovery can occur.

Pain is not a signal coming from the body. All pain is created and processed by the brain and nervous system. While pain often serves an important protective purpose, sometimes the brain continues producing pain or symptoms long after an injury has healed, or even when no structural damage can be found.

This does not mean the symptoms are imagined. They are real.

They are being generated by learned neural pathways and protective responses within the nervous system.

This process is often referred to as neuroplastic pain or mind-body symptoms.

selective focus photography of woman holding yellow petaled flowers

The central nervous system can also create other symptoms such as inflammation, fatigue, tinnitus, gastric symptoms and so on.

These symptoms can develop following injury, illness, trauma, chronic stress, difficult life events, or periods of prolonged pressure. Over time, the brain learns patterns of danger and protection that can keep symptoms active long after they are needed.

The encouraging news is that the brain can also learn something new.

Through education, nervous system regulation, emotional processing, behavioural change, and symptom reprocessing techniques, these neural pathways can be changed.

This is the foundation of recovery.

My Approach

I chose to train with SIRPA (Stress Illness Recovery Practitioners Association), one of the leading organisations in chronic symptom recovery.

The SIRPA approach incorporates key elements of Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT), Emotional Awareness and Expression Therapy (EAET), and modern pain neuroscience. Together, these approaches address the biological, emotional, psychological, and behavioural factors that contribute to symptom persistence.

As a trauma-informed therapist, I also understand the profound connection between past experiences, the nervous system, and chronic symptoms.

Healing is not about fighting your body. It is about helping your brain and nervous system feel safe enough to let go of protective patterns that are no longer needed.

Because of my varied training, I may also draw upon:

Clinical Hypnotherapy
NLP
EFT Tapping
Somatic therapy
Mindfulness and meditation
Nervous system regulation techniques

Every client is different, so I tailor our work together to your individual needs, goals, and preferences.

The Four Pillars of Success

🧠 Education

Understanding how chronic symptoms are created within the brain and nervous system is often one of the most important steps in recovery.

When we reduce fear and uncertainty, the nervous system can begin to settle and new neural pathways can emerge.

❤️ Emotions

Stress, pressure, learned behaviours, trauma, and unprocessed emotions can keep the nervous system in a protective state.

Together, we create a safe space to explore and process these factors so the brain no longer perceives them as threats.

👣 Behaviour

Avoidance, symptom monitoring, fear of activity, and protective habits can unintentionally reinforce symptom pathways.

I help you gradually rebuild confidence and create new experiences of safety.

🌱 Lifestyle

Many people with chronic symptoms place enormous pressure on themselves.

Perfectionism, people-pleasing, overworking, and chronic stress can all contribute to nervous system dysregulation.

Together, we identify areas where greater balance, self-compassion, and resilience can support recovery.

Benefits of working with me

During sessions, you’ll learn practical self-help tools to support your daily life, empowering you towards recovery while enhancing your mental and emotional well-being.

Key Components of Recovery

Understanding the Brain’s Role in Symptoms – Learn how symptoms are processed in the brain and discover its potential for reversibility.
Building Personalised Evidence for Healing – Identify and reinforce the proof that your brain has the capacity to reduce and eliminate symptoms.
Somatic Tracking for Pain/ Sensation Reprocessing – Develop a safe and mindful approach to observing sensations (eg pain), reducing fear, and retraining your nervous system.
Addressing Underlying Emotional Factors – Explore and release emotional patterns that may be contributing to persistent symptoms.
Shifting Towards Positive Sensations – Cultivate a mindset that fosters comfort, resilience, and well-being.

Reduce the stresses you can control - Come to understand the ways you are causing your own internal pressure, so you can make a change for the better.
Living a Full and Symptom-Free Life – Step into a future where you feel free, whole, and empowered to enjoy life again.
Insight into what is holding you back - you may not be aware of the factors that are prolonging your cycle of pain. Our work together will help you have those a-ha moments to set you free.
6 Weeks of Curable App FREE - when you book a package of 6 sessions or more. Curable has a host of resources such as meditations and information to help you recover from chronic symptoms.

You have the ability to recover - let’s work together to unlock that potential. Why not book a Free Discovery Call to see how I can help you?

book

The Boulder Back Pain Study (University of Colorado, Boulder)
Published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Psychiatry in October 2021, this landmark study demonstrated significant pain reduction—even in participants who had suffered for decades. Conducted by leading neuroscientists, doctors, and psychiatrists, the study highlighted how retraining the brain’s response to pain can lead to lasting relief.

Dr. Howard Schubiner: The Brain’s Role in Chronic Pain
Dr. Schubiner, founder of the Mind-Body Medicine Center, explains how the brain generates and perpetuates chronic pain—and, more importantly, how it can be reversed. His work sheds light on the power of neuroplasticity in pain recovery.

Professor Lorimer Moseley: The Science Behind "Explain Pain"
World-renowned pain scientist Lorimer Moseley explores the latest research on chronic pain and alternative treatments beyond medication. With compelling examples, he explains how understanding pain can be the first step toward recovery.

Georgie Oldfield MCSP: A New Perspective on Chronic Pain (TED Talk)
Physiotherapist Georgie Oldfield shares her journey of treating chronic pain and how scientific findings led her to challenge traditional pain management approaches. Her talk highlights the potential for true recovery rather than just symptom management.

Evidence-Based Approach to Chronic Symptom Recovery

Below are key experts and studies that support a mind-body approach to healing. You may also wish to read further here:

Hope for Healing

These experts and studies reinforce a powerful message: chronic pain doesn’t have to be a lifelong struggle. By understanding the brain’s role in pain, we can unlock new pathways to healing—offering real, lasting relief.