Ann is an experienced therapist who has worked in the NHS for four years, in both primary and secondary care. Before this she was a peer mentor for her local Mind. She has extensive training in compassion focused therapy and is a fully accredited CBT therapist. She has also recently started training in EMDR. Her style is warm, gentle, and encouraging, and she believes it’s often helpful to bring a sense of lightness to therapy. She loves working with people in a collaborative fashion to help them lead the life that is important to them. Compassion is at the heart of her practice, and she finds it crucial when working with the high levels of self-criticism and shame she so often witnesses. She also utilises acceptance and commitment therapy extensively, which helps people relate differently to difficult and painful thoughts and emotions, while going towards what they value in life.

Ann has worked with a wide variety of mental health difficulties including anxiety, depression, OCD, PTSD, low self-esteem, and perfectionism. She also has experience of working with people who have endured long term ‘complex’ trauma, and it was working in this that led her to compassion focused therapy, which has its’ focus in the body, where trauma is often most felt.

Before becoming a therapist, Ann was a professional fundraiser but found she wanted to help and support people in a more direct fashion.

Ann loves animals and has 3 dogs and 3 cats. She is about to take on 2 goats to complete her menagerie. In her spare time, she enjoys yoga and running across the fields.