I specialise in providing support to people living with, or supporting someone with, a cancer diagnosis, or other long-term illness. Additionally, I have a 10-year history of research in this area and am currently completing my PhD within psychosocial oncology.
The impact of any diagnosis is going to be connected to the way you managed the news and the support available to you. There are so many factors which can affect this, such as the feeling of needing to be strong for people around you or having to endure a time of not fully understanding what the diagnosis means and what treatment might look like.
A life changing diagnosis can impose a barrier to sharing how you really feel with those around you, for fear of upsetting other people or being judged. I can offer you the room to be honest about the changes you’ve experienced, be it physical, emotional or shifts to your identity and roles.
If the diagnosis is life-limiting, we can also explore the grief this will bring up. There may be a sense of loss for yourself, but also this can open the door for previous losses to rise back to the surface. Working through your own feelings about the diagnosis can also help you to have the conversations you want to have with the people you care about.
If you are providing support to someone else, it may feel like there isn’t a space for you to talk about how you feel. Perhaps you think you aren’t justified in needing support because someone else has a medical diagnosis. However, you deserve the space to explore what’s happening to you and how it’s impacting your life as well.
A Deeper Way of Working
We will work together to understand not only what’s happening for you now, but where it comes from and how to make sense of it. By exploring your patterns, experiences and relationships, you gain a better understanding of what’s happening beneath the surface.
A Warm, Human Therapeutic Relationship
It’s normal for therapy to feel strange at first, opening up to a stranger is a difficult thing to do. I offer a space where you don’t have to perform, know the right thing to say, or even know where to start.
Experience with Grief, Illness and Identity Change
I work with people who have experienced grief, cancer and other long-term illnesses, along with people who have lost a sense of who they are. These experiences impact the way you relate to yourself and others. Therapy gives you the space to share your feelings honestly, without pressure to say or do what others may want you to.
Face-to-Face Therapy in Haywards Heath
I offer face-to-face cancer therapy from a private consulting room in central Haywards Heath, providing a confidential and supportive space to explore the emotional impact of diagnosis, treatment, recovery, uncertainty and the changes cancer can bring to everyday life and relationships.
My Haywards Heath practice is accessible for people travelling from Lindfield, Cuckfield, Burgess Hill, Hassocks, Hurstpierpoint and the wider Mid Sussex area. You can also find out more about my wider approach to therapy in Haywards Heath, including the other issues I support clients with.
Online cancer therapy is also available for clients across the UK, offering a flexible alternative if travelling to the practice is not convenient.
To protect client privacy, I provide the full address and directions once an introductory consultation has been confirmed.