Physical health/ clinical health psychology
A serious illness, a difficult diagnosis, an injury, an operation, a long hospital stay — these don't only affect the body. They can change how you see yourself, your future, and your sense of safety in the world. Yet the psychological side of physical health is often the part that is not talked about. Often, the hardest part is what goes unspoken. You might struggle to talk to your family about how you're really feeling, or somehow you see yourself as a burden. Perhaps, now that you're told you're medically well, you feel you shouldn't still be anxious, low, or frightened — as though the feelings should have ended when the treatment did.
This is the work I have spent much of my career doing.
My experience working in clinical health
Over the years, I have worked in many specialised clinical health specialist services in the NHS— cancer care, HIV service, regional burns and plastic, regional sleep, and regional long-term ventilation services. These are settings where physical illness and psychological wellbeing are entwined, and where I supported people through diagnosis, treatment, recovery, uncertainty, and loss.
Having this background means I have extensive experiences working with people presenting with different and complex health and physical health problems in clinically demanding settings. That range of experience shapes how I work with anyone facing a health-related difficulty — I've seen how differently illness lands for each person, and I don't make assumptions about what yours means to you.
- You've had a physical health diagnosis that has turned your life upside down, and you're struggling to adjust
- You're living with a long-term health condition and the emotional weight of it builds over time
- You're carrying trauma from a medical event — an emergency, an operation, time in intensive care, a frightening period of treatment
- Your body has changed through illness, injury, or surgery, and you're grieving the person you were before
- Anxiety about your health, symptoms, or the future has become hard to switch off
- You're supporting someone else through illness and quietly burning out
The difficulties you may be experiencing....
Medical-related trauma
Having worked in many clinical services in the NHS, I understand how some of the hardest experiences to put into words are the ones that happened in hospital — a frightening diagnosis, an emergency, a procedure or surgery that left a mark long after the body healed. These experiences can stay with people in the same way other traumas do: intrusive memories, dread of appointments, a body that stays on high alert.
This is an area I'm specialised in, drawing on EMDR and other trauma-focused approaches that are well suited to processing medical experiences— so they no longer hold you back, and be able to move forward feeling more like yourself.
