About the practice

Systemic therapy, coaching and mediation

Hello and a warm welcome from the staff at this one-woman practice! I’m a coach, systemic therapist, and mediator with skills initially developed through a long career in child psychiatry. I trained in London, at UCH (now called UCLH), Maudsley Hospital, GOSH and at The Marlborough Family Centre. I was fortunate to train with family therapists who inspired me to myself train in systemic (family) therapy. For most of my career I worked as a consultant in child & adolescent psychiatry in Cambridge. Mid-career, I went part-time to do a masters degree in Occupational Psychology, then led the Cambridgeshire children’s services as clinical director for some years.

The job of child psychiatrist is a real calling and one of the most worthwhile things you can do. But ultimately, I moved on. The medical role had changed a great deal, which meant psychiatrists had less time to talk to patients and families.

Upon retiring from the NHS, I trained in civil & commercial mediation including workplace mediation. I worked voluntarily as a community mediator. I then refreshed my accreditation as a systemic therapist and began to work at The Family Treatment Service in Wimbledon. Here, I became experienced in mediation in family situations where there were tensions between one or more parents and their adult child, or between adult siblings, sometimes leading to estrangement. Though I routinely work as a therapist with children and families, my mediation work is specifically only with adult issues. This is because a separate type of mediation (Family Mediation) is recommended for parents seeking mediation, which is aligned to the work of family courts.

As if this were not enough, after retiring, I also trained as a coach, and in recent years, have become an experienced doctors’ career coach. Together with Dr Caroline Elton (who is not related to me), I wrote the book, Career Planning for Doctors: an evidence based guide, published by Oxford University Press in September 2025.

Here is what I now do –

Please browse the site and get in touch, either to ask questions or to make a comment – feedback is always useful!