A teacher who became a therapist.

I trained as a secondary teacher through a PGCE and spent many years in the classroom before moving into senior leadership and completing an MA in Educational Leadership. I have marked the books, chaired the department meeting, sat in the safeguarding room and written the report at eleven o'clock at night.

The move into psychotherapy and counselling was not a rejection of teaching. It was the same instinct, followed into a different room: an interest in what is really going on for the person in front of me. I hold a Level 4 Diploma in Counselling and I am currently completing an MSc in Integrative Psychotherapy. I am a Trainee-MUPCA and a trainee member of UKCP.

Because of that dual training, I do not need you to explain the acronyms, the reporting cycles or the particular loneliness of a Sunday afternoon in November. We can start from there and go on to what actually matters to you.