About Me

I have always believed that Therapy is a personal experience. Before I, or a loved one, was to undertake any system of treatment of psychotherapy or hypnotherapy I would want to know some details of the training, experience and ethics of the practitioner involved.

My first qualification was in Dental Surgery, but rapidly discovered within a couple of years that I was more interested in treating anxious dental patients, particularly those with phobias, and so sought out training in psychological approaches.

Initially, I trained in Behavioural Techniques, and Hypnotherapy, which I found was a great platform for making rapid progress. I became a senior lecturer on advanced hypnotic techniques for the British Society of Medical and Dental Hypnosis.

I wished to widen my scope and experience, particularly of non-dental conditions, and was attached to the Department of Psychiatry for three years to study every area of psychology and treat every type of psychological problem and I qualified with the Diploma in Psychotherapy from University of Leeds.

For nearly ten years I was at St James’s University Hospital and Leeds Dental Institute, and in addition to teaching technical skills helped to institute patient management methods, and ran courses relating to Managing stress (for practicing Dentists). At St James’s I provided treatment to patients who were medically compromised and to those where there was a high psychogenic component e.g. facial pain, jaw issues and phobias.

I eventually became the National secretary to the Hypnosis Society and elected as Honorary Fellow.

I lectured nationwide, as far afield as Oxford, Edinburgh, London, and internationally in Dublin, Italy, (and most recently Cambodia!) Apart from formal connections to the Universities of Sheffield and Newcastle I also had media involvement; appearing on Yorkshire Television and on ‘Granada TV’s ‘Good Morning’ program as well as on Radio Leeds.

I obtained additional post-graduate qualifications in Sedation at Newcastle University and was awarded An MFGDP at the Royal College of Surgeons and was the National Winner of the Probe Dental Awards for services to Dental Phobia.

No Matter. You can have more degrees than a thermometer. At the end of the day, when the door closes, there is just myself and my patient. We have to form an alliance to deal with whatever is before us and it is that relationship and motivation which is the major factor in ensuring a successful outcome.

In those of my cases which are related to dentistry and so severe as to be a dental phobia, then working in combination with Donald Sloss, my role is to apply psychological methods to enable dental treatment to be carried out.