My first experience with mental health services was in 2010 when I became severely depressed which led to my first suicide attempt.  This developed into Psychosis and I totally lost track of reality.  This was an incredibly difficult time for myself and my family.

I was treated by the Crisis Team in Rotherham who were fantastic.  I was put on medication and over time came back in touch with reality.  But this was preventable.  Once I became stable I was moved to the care of the Early Intervention Team who then arranged for me to see a Psychologist – this was my first experience of therapy.

This process was very difficult – unravelling your life in an hour then having to put it all back in a box and carry on with normal life is extremely tough. I will never forget the stress that therapy can bring.  In the same breath I can also say that I would not be where I am today without going through that process.  What I now know helped me from those therapy sessions is that having someone in whom I trusted to share my story with was worth its weight in gold.  Having someone who you can really open up to is the secret to effective therapy.

I set up GrayDays with a vision of improving people’s mental health.  I know first-hand that, put simply, talking saves lives.   It also can dramatically improve someone’s situation and enhance the quality of their life.

I completely value my non-judgemental approach to my clients. My voluntary work with Rotherham Samaritans showed me how important it is to not judge anyone and also studying the work of Carl Rogers cemented this for me.  Judgement is a very big blockage to effective listening.

My journey has taken me to some dark places and I’ve also been through some incredibly manic stages with my illness but I’m now very much in the middle, where I aim to stay.

I don’t have the answers but what I do have is the ability to find those answers within you.

When you discover these for yourself the effects are far greater and longer lasting.

Having therapy can be a frightening prospect but sometimes in order to get somewhere you need to take a calculated risk and that’s scary but not as scary as living a life in the dark.

My course involved learning many different models but I lean towards a person centred approach. However experience has shown me that people sometimes need that little extra; what that ‘little extra’ is differs from person to person.

All my work is fully insured and I am a registered member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy MBACP (member number 383564) and follow their Ethical Framework.