About Paulina

Specialisms

• Helping clients to develop a friendly relationship with themselves and influence aspects of their personality they would like to change.
• Healing.
• Stress management and wellbeing, personal and in the workplace.
• Relationships and communications.
• Working in nature.
• Working creatively.
• Transitions and bereavement.
• Sexuality.
• Family work and work with children.
• Groups on developing and achieving visions, connecting with nature, and dreams work.

Professional background

I work as a psychotherapist and coaching psychologist, and have more than thirty years of learning about and using psychology in my work. With a background in primary teaching in the years where one could be creative and have time to truly respond to the wholistic needs of children, I re-trained initially in relational counselling. Realising that I felt that to be deeply effective with clients I needed both more training and more personal development work myself, I then began a full humanistic psychotherapy training. I graduated from the Spectrum Centre for Humanistic Psychotherapy in 2001 after nearly 10 years of training. I have a wide experience base including corporate training and coaching as well as psychotherapy and coaching psychology. Having lived and worked in West London, and travelled extensively in Central and Eastern Europe and South Africa for work and pleasure,  as well as my home county of Sussex, I have grown knowledge and experience of cultural difference, richness, and ways of building bridges. Sadly from the age of five I witnessed racism, and so grew up being both anti-racist and aware of the sometimes devastating impact of racism and other prejudice.

Nature, creativity and being for a sustained time amidst people from other cultures has given me precious different perspectives on life and a great curiosity. Working in a transition (between teaching and psychotherapy) role in 1998/2000, I supported children who cared for a parent who was terminally or chronically ill or disabled, and their families.

 Amongst the personal experience that propelled me to train as a psychotherapist was growing  up in a school for children labelled  "maladjusted with high IQs," my mum bringing me up alone was a school cook there. The school was abusive: I was lucky that mum working there provided me some protection, but witnessing the abuse of already hurt and vulnerable children made me committed to work to help others. 

Qualifications and Training

Over eight years of training led to my Graduation from the Spectrum Course for Humanistic Psychotherapy in 2002

1991 BA Honours (Open) . Psychology. ( 2.1)  

1977 Certificate in Education, English and History 

1974 Certificate in Preliminary Residential Child Care (a preliminary social work qualification).

I am committed to continuing professional development in stress management, formative work and coaching, and I undertake regular supervision.

Professional Membership:
I am a graduate member of the British Psychological Society, and a member of their Coaching Section.

I take a minimum of 10 days further training every year and undertake regular supervision.  Always feel free to ask about qualifications and experience.

Contact me

Personal Background

I love to write, often about nature, and making things: weaving, sewing, collage, and when I can use equipment: jewellery making, glass fusing and pottery. I love walking and being in nature and garden a lot. I adore opera and will often pop into a gallery or exhibition in my lunch hour when I am working in London. My primary passion is wildlife, especially South African mammals, and adore elephants especially. I have studied wildlife and conservation a little between working walking and creating! My favourite experience in South Africa is to walk in the wilderness in a small group for a week, sleeping under the stars and taking turns to do night watch round a fire, scanning for cats eyes, listening for alarm calls or braking branches, all signs of the need to take great care as there are lion, leopard, buffalo, elephant rhino and hippo in the reserve. I also have a small non-profit supporting projects started and run by Zulu people for the benefit of their communities and conservation. 

I feel lucky to have had, a long time ago now, a rich healing journey with skilled psychotherapists, and to have transformed pain and damage to become happy, happy and whole in myself, and to have developed a life full of richness, art, adventure and treasured friends. I love my work, seeing people heal and grow is incredible moving and a great privilege.