Over the last 25 years, I’ve worked as a youth worker, drug rehab worker, teacher, and pastor at a multicultural church on a London council estate, and I’m now a counsellor. This work has given me the privilege of working with a wide range of people from different ethnicities and social classes. I’ve always found myself working in and around trauma, but for the last few years, I’ve had a particular focus on this, including facilitating therapeutic self-help groups, and counselling individual trauma survivors. I like to use Judith Herman and Diane Langberg’s approach to Trauma to help survivors grow in their voice, power, thinking and relationships. I am also influenced by Janina Fisher’s approach to counselling, but more importantly I tailor my counselling work to the individual client’s needs.
My first experience of counselling put me off therapy! But years later, a good therapist helped me work through my childhood trauma, and I saw how helpful good therapy can be. This motivated me to train as a therapist to pass on the warm, safe experience my therapist gave me. I talk about this in the first video below.
Having grown up in and lived around poverty, I’m keen to provide counselling for people who would not usually have access to it. My belief that each person is unique and immeasurably valuable inspires me to provide therapy for people of all faiths and none. I feel very comfortable working with people of different beliefs and try to work within people’s frameworks. My approach is to provide a warm, safe, non-judgmental environment where someone can be themselves.
When not seeing clients, I enjoy going to Richmond Park with my wife and four children (two are adults), cooking and DJing.
My Qualifications & Experience relevant to counselling:
2025 Started private counselling practice.
2024-present Counsellor at Ember Community Counselling. This role involves providing individual counselling to a wide range of people and issues.
2024 Counselling Trainee placement at Kairos Community Counselling.
2023-2025 Advanced Diploma in Counselling Practise at Counselling Pastoral Trust. NCPS Accredited, Level 5 equivalent. Studying Person-Centred, Psychodynamic, CBT, and Schema Therapy modalities of counselling.
2023-present Facilitating Small Groups for Boarding School Abuse Survivors. Including developing a curriculum based on categories of voice, power, relationship, and thinking.
2023 Small Group Facilitator Training Four day intensive residential course with Dr. Penny Freeman LPC.
2023 How Do We Get Out Of This Mess: The Image of God and Cultivating Non-Abusive Church Cultures. Paper written (furthering the work of my doctoral dissertation on voice, power, and relationship), 15,500 words.
2022-present Advocacy & support for boarding school survivors of abuse.
2013-23 Urban Ministries Providing training and consultation to Church leaders and workers working in deprived communities. This included teaching at Universities & large organisations.
2011-2018 Doctor of Ministry (Dmin) professional doctorate, Westminster Theological Seminary, PA, USA. Included counselling training. My doctoral dissertation explored using Dr Diane Langberg’s counselling categories of Voice, Power, Relationship in spiritual mentoring on council estates.
2008-2011 BA HONS Theological and Pastoral Studies, Oak Hill College/Middlesex University. (I over credited modules to meet the criteria for going onto a doctoral program).
2005-2008 DTLLS Teacher Training for QTS, Canterbury Christ Church University.
2005-2024 Pastor at New Life Church Roehampton. This role included on the job training and I took an integrated approach to helping/counselling people for a wide variety of problems including trauma, addiction, marriage problems and grief.
2002-2008 Tutor in Music Technology at South Thames College. I taught adults and children (year 10 and upwards). This included helping students with problems they were facing. I also ran a special program for young people who had been excluded from school and were in a Pupil Referral Unit.
2001-2002 HNC in Music Production, South Thames College. As a musician who has experience in running music workshops over the years, I have seen how much music can boost people’s mental well-being both in a group setting and in a someone’s personal time.
1998–2008 Youth Worker on the Alton Estate, Roehampton, S.W. London. This involved various on the job training and helping young people with problems they faced, including anger management, substance abuse, and family problems.
1999 The Arbour Drug Rehab worker (Clapham). As well as receiving on the job training, I helped people with their drug addiction recovery, facilitating 12 step sessions, and mentoring.
1998 Stepping Stones, Half-way House Deputy Manager (Clapham). I was a deputy manager of this half-way house for men leaving prison. I received on the job training and was involved in helping our clients with anger management, addictions, family problems, returning to work, and spiritual formation. I also developed a recovery curriculum for our clients.
1995-1998 BSc HONS in Sports Studies from Chichester Institute of Higher Education. Including modules in Sport’s Psychology.