Throughout my practice, I have specialised in workplace and employment issues. I enjoy helping people to address the many pressures they face in the modern workplace. This has included supporting clients through processes of organisational change, the taking up of new management roles and dealing with workplace conflict.
My main interest is in using a psychoanalytic approach to explore with clients what is going on underneath the surface of their workplaces and their experience of their jobs. This includes looking at how each of us can interpret and experience our current working life in terms of earlier family roles and relationships, as well as our underlying blocks and drivers. This psychoanalytic approach is augmented by the use of techniques from both Transactional Analysis and EMDR, as well as my learning from a number of group relations conferences. My experience has shown me that people can step aside from or move past difficult workplace issues by developing an understanding of the personal underlying issues the current challenge touches upon.
Sessions involve an ongoing description and examination of the current issues. We can then take a specific approach to the most important issues. Many issues can be explored in terms of the internal and external obstacles an individual faces in:
- Managing the boundaries within their organisation
- Understanding and taking up their role within the organisation
- Understanding and taking up the key tasks of their role
- Dealing with issues of authority, including their willingness to take up their own informal authority
My workplace issues expertise is informed by my legal experience in the commercial sector, which has included work in a city law firm and a large plc. I have also worked as a manger in a large employee assistance programme, providing support and various workplace interventions to employees, their manager and their HR departments. I have also managed large teams of practitioners providing counselling within the NHS, and am a consultant in Organisational Development Team at The Awareness Centre.
