I grew up in South East London and discovered in school that art was my strongest subject. In 2003, aged 19, I moved to Scotland to study Fine Art Photography at The Glasgow School of Art. There I developed an interest in portraiture and began reading about infant psychology while exploring elements of the topic in my art work. This sparked an interest which I pursued after graduation.
Returning to London in 2007 I became an outreach worker with Autistic children as well as working in a nursery with 0-4 yr olds. I was then offered a position working full time to support an adopted 5 year old child through school. The child had been through traumatic experiences in his earliest years and was socially and developmentally injured as a result. I remained in the role for 3 years, which gave me a unique insight into the effects of early trauma on the brain. It was during this time that I applied to Birkbeck College London to study Child and Adolescent Counselling and Psychotherapy.
The training included a year-long weekly observation of a newborn, focussing on the interaction between mother and baby, in order to understand the mental processes the baby develops in order to cope with adapting to the world outside the womb. We also studied family dynamics, systemic theory and the psychology of organizations.
I have always had a multicultural caseload and I take a particular interest in cross cultural relationships, adoption and the consequences of early infant trauma on psychological development.