As well as my psychotherapy training, I have an undergraduate degree in music from Goldsmiths in 2010, and a masters degree in philosophy from UCL in 2011. 

My love of music has never faded, and I continue to play the classical and folk guitar, lute, piano, and, more recently, the low whistle. For many years, I was also a composer of experimental music for a variety of performers and small ensembles in London, as well as an organiser of concerts.

However, unlike music, my relationship with philosophy has changed quite a bit over the years. During my MA course, I came to realise that I was actually much more interested in personal answers to questions around things like how to live a good, meaningful life, rather than in what had begun to feel like a kind of intellectual game. The writers I have always enjoyed the most didn’t see philosophy as an academic exercise. They wrote as though the answers to these questions really mattered. They certainly do to me.

So, instead, I turned towards psychotherapy, where conversations about how to understand ourselves and how to live a good life (and how to die a good death) seemed so much more meaningful. I enrolled on a course at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Clinic and felt an immediate affinity with the work of psychotherapy. 

Throughout my training, I undertook a series of one-to-one work placements in a variety of mental health settings in London, and then, following a move to Norwich, I continued to gain experience with various work placements, as well as completing the rest of my training at the Norwich Centre. 

Besides therapy, I also worked for several years in academic libraries in London, before eventually landing on a role working with rare books and manuscripts at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.

I also enjoy joinery and instrument making, specifically making various different kinds of lutes.

Besides music, books and woodworking, I also have a soft spot for dogs, and sighthounds in particular. I have a whippet called Sammy.