Emily uses various modalities such as person-centred counselling, systemic, holistic and CBT to ensure that IFM can support people with any kind of process they may be experiencing and works with compassion and understanding and her aim is to empower the client to attain their own strengths and resources to enable you with tools of recovery and resilience. Emily has over 20 years’ experience of working within the field of therapy and mental health.
Emily also supports individuals with long term complex and chronic conditions, which stems from her own personal experience of having a long term chronic & complex health condition such as lupus. She is a qualified Therapeutic Counsellor and registered with the BACP.
A member of BAATN (Black African & Asian Therapeutic Network), and ATPN (African Therapist Practitioners Network), supporting individuals from the Black & Asian community. By providing counselling and holistic therapies such as Therapeutic Play, Aroma Therapy, Guided Meditation, CBT, Person-Centred Therapy and much more.
Over the past 6 years, Emily has proactively been providing & promoting Therapeutic Counselling amongst the Black and Asian communities. Working with charities such as Hestia, The Gift of Manhood and Manhood Academy. Supporting individuals from the age of 4yrs right through to adults with no upper age limit. I provide therapeutic services in schools, within the NHS and privately.
In schools, Emily facilitates Therapeutic Play for children experiencing the effects of trauma and who display behaviours which impact their ability to flourish in school. She also works with the parents to support them with better communication with their children and provide them with tools and strategies to cope with their children and enabling better parent and teacher communication which allows parents to understand the complexities within the educational system, which enables their children to reach their full potential.
Emily is currently working with Guys & St Thomas Hospital to provide Culturally Appropriate Counselling and Advocacy for Black People suffering from long term chronic ill health and Mental Health.
Emily joined the Board member of BMC (Black Men’s Consortium) in August 2020 where her role is Integrated Service’s Coordinator which involves assisting with creating & promoting their social media presence and facilitating online therapeutic support groups. Emily currently co-facilitate ‘Let’s Talk Black Men’, a Therapeutic Zoom Group for Black Men and Men of Colour and on 6 November 2020, ‘Let’s Talk Black Women’ was launched and later in the year, there will be a mixed group. Great feedback has been received from the participants of the group and running the groups have definitely highlighted the need for spaces such as this for Black men to be able to share their feelings and emotions in a safe and confidential environment, where they can be heard and supported by fellow Black Men, with the support of therapists. The service has been extended to podcasting and radio with a view to expanding the conversation with a wider audience, by working in partnership with local community radio stations to promote awareness and highlight the effects and impact of mental ill-health in our communities.
The decision to become a counsellor came after Emily experienced Domestic Violence within her own family home as a young child and then through her own personal relationship. At first she didn’t realise she was in an abusive relationship; she was actually comfortable with the behaviour of her partner and he had her in a skewed reality of what was ‘normal’. She had no better experience to compare it to considering she herself had come from one abusive situation to another. Emily experienced a number of incidents in her relationship which slowly continued to break down her self-worth, her confidence and her identity. It wasn’t until she experienced an emotional and mental breakdown before she finally found the strength to keep reporting to the police until she was finally heard and then referred to counselling. The counselling she received was instrumental in my recovery and growth as an independent person.
Coming out the other side, Emily observed that there were others who were experiencing many variants of trauma in the community, and knew then that she wanted to give back. This inspired her to start her journey as a counsellor. Working in schools, hospitals and for charities, Emily believes that ‘no individual should be deprived of the opportunity of counselling’.
‘Everyone deserves the chance to be heard’.