About me
I am a registered Family & Systemic Psychotherapist (United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy member – UKCP) with over 15 years experience working with individuals (adults and children), families, couples and kinship networks based in Hertfordshire (St. Albans) and London. I work in the NHS and in private practice and I have experience of working with a range of presenting difficulties.
I am enthusiastic about systemic ideas and the potential they offer to help change the way we see the world, ourselves and the tools it offers for transformative relationships.
What is Family & Systemic Psychotherapy?
A systemic approach provides an opportunity to pause and reflect on the problems people face as individuals or within specific relationships. It creates a space to help people understand themselves in the context of their relationships (past and present), communities and social worlds and their influence on thoughts, feelings, choice of action and behaviour.
Family & Systemic Psychotherapy with
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Systemic psychotherapy seeks to help you make sense of the relationship between your distress and the world you live in. This means thinking about how your significant family and kinship networks and your histories as well as your social and cultural contexts might be impacting on how you make sense of yourself, other people and the world around you.
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I also work with partners, families, and others in close relationships to better understand and support each other. To help people express and explore difficult thoughts and emotions and work through their difficulties. Sometimes people feel stuck or need help to make sense of repeating patterns of unhelpful, destructive or hurtful behaviours.
My Approach
I’ve set up my practice to reach out to people who struggle to feel at home within themselves, networks or communities. I pay particular attention in the work to issues of power, identity, culture, difference and belonging.
I am interested in the richness of our identities and how we make meaning of our experience often in the face of invisible and oppressive power structures.
Contact me to schedule a 15 minute telephone consultation to discuss your situation.
Brief telephone consultation
Schedule an appointment for assessment or therapy
Assessment (if required)
Begin your therapy
What I can help with
I work with individuals, couples, partnerships, parents/caregivers and families and at a frequency which works for you. Family & systemic psychotherapy can benefit anyone and in many areas such as:
Renegotiating or rediscovering relationships
Negotiating aspects of identity such as gender and sexual orientation
Living beyond abuse or adverse experiences
Parenting
Communication in relationships
Feelings of depression, sadness or emptiness
Managing intense and difficult emotions
Making and/or sustaining relationships
Overcoming anxiety
Coming to terms with bereavement, separation or loss
This list is not exhaustive. I work with a whole range of presenting problems. Please get in touch and we can discuss your needs and difficulties
“Reaching out for therapy can feel really hard and people can feel quite apprehensive, particularly for the first time. The thought of speaking out loud our difficulties can feel overwhelming. But through collaborative conversations we might begin to hope to find ways to live more comfortable and fulfilling lives.“
– Helen Zacharias MA, Msc, PGDip
Registered with
Qualifications MA Family & Systemic Psychotherapy, Msc Social Work, PGDip Family & Systemic Approaches
