Choosing a therapist is a bit like a first date, except the stakes are higher and you’re hoping it doesn’t end in tears.

If you’ve landed on this page, you’re probably weighing up whether I’m the right person to sit with you and your partner through some of the harder conversations of your life. That’s a big ask. So let me try to answer it honestly.

What working with me actually feels like

I’ve been told I make complex things feel simple, which, coming from a former high school teacher, probably makes sense. I bring that same instinct into the therapy room: taking the science of relationships (and there is a lot of science) and translating it into language that actually lands. No jargon. No therapy-speak. No nodding while you talk in circles.

I’m warm, but I’m not passive. I’ll gently challenge you (both of you) when I think it’ll move things forward. I hold space for big emotions and hard conversations, and I’ve been told I have a knack for making people feel safe enough to say the thing they haven’t been able to say yet.

I also have a sense of humour. I take what you're going through seriously. I just happen to think a good laugh can be as connecting as anything else we do in a session.

I’m endlessly curious about people - what makes them tick, what gets in their way, what they’re really trying to say underneath the surface argument. That curiosity is what drives the work.

Real tools, not just talking

As a Gottman Method trained couples therapist based in Wollongong, I don’t just listen - I give you tools. Evidence-based, research-backed skills you can actually use between sessions:

•  How to raise a concern without it becoming a grenade

•  How to recognise when your nervous system has taken over (and what to do about it)

•  How to actually repair after a fight, rather than just waiting for it to blow over

•  How to break the cycle of the same argument happening on repeat

The goal is that you need me less over time, not more. I want to equip you, not make you dependent.

A bit about my background

I hold a Bachelor of Psychology, a Bachelor of Teaching, and a Graduate Diploma in Counselling, and I’m an ACA accredited counsellor verified by Psychology Today. But what those qualifications don’t tell you is that I spent over a decade as a secondary school teacher in Australia and the UK - which means I know how to read a room, hold attention, and explain difficult things in ways that actually make sense.

I’ve worked extensively in domestic and family violence, supporting people through some of the most complex relational dynamics imaginable. Very little surprises me, and nothing you bring to a session will make me flinch.

As a mother who has navigated postnatal depression and the very real strain a new baby can put on a relationship, I also bring lived experience to the work. I know what it feels like to love someone and feel completely disconnected from them at the same time. That’s not something you learn in a textbook.

In sessions I draw on the Gottman Method, IFS (Internal Family Systems), somatic approaches, and psychoeducation - adapting to what each couple needs, rather than running a one-size-fits-all program.

I’m based in Fairy Meadow and offer in-person couples therapy in Wollongong as well as online sessions for couples across NSW.