About Me

There’s often talk about a “power imbalance” in counselling, as counsellors invite clients to share their most vulnerable parts, while disclosing little about themselves. To help redress that, I’d like to tell you a bit about me.

I was born in the former Yugoslavia and came to the UK in the early 1990s as an au pair. I’d always wanted to live abroad, but I never imagined I’d end up staying because of war. My best friend and I laughed through our difficulties, not realising (until much later) how deeply traumatic our experience was – made worse by the silence as we had never spoken about what losing our country and identity meant to us, or how we really felt.

At the time, talking about feelings was difficult for me. I had a poor emotional vocabulary and coped by pushing down, hiding, and masking my emotions – and soldiering on! That continued until the end of a significant relationship that “cracked me open,” and I found myself sitting across from a woman I’d never met before: my first therapist.

That experience changed everything. It helped me heal, shaped who I am today, and inspired me to become a counsellor. It also began a lifelong journey of personal growth, which I continue to embrace and bring into my work.