Biography
I am a lecturer in Counselling & Psychotherapy at Abertay University with a particular interest in research on pluralistic therapy, culture, social theory, and spirituality. I deliver teaching on the MSc Counselling and the undergraduate Psychology and Counselling programme.
I am currently Module Lead for Counselling Theories & Interventions (CNS301), Living with a Mental Health Diagnosis (CNS305), Mindfulness (CNS402), teach MSc Workshops on the history and philosophy of counselling, spirituality, culture, racism and oppression (CNS504), pluralistic therapy, and introduction to counselling research (CNS506), and run professional practice, personal development and skills practice groups.
My background and degrees (MSc, PhD) are in counselling, social and medical anthropology, education sciences, and psychology. Prior to joining Abertay, I taught and carried out research at Edinburgh Napier University, Edinburgh University, and Heidelberg University.
I am a practicing pluralistic therapist and am registered with BACP.
I have carried out a wide range of research projects, such as a study on children’s mental health in India, a participatory citizen science research project on depression, ethnographic work with Ayurveda patients to understand their conceptualisations of health and healing, and research on Rabindranath Tagore, including a book on the humanistic approach of Rabindranath Tagore and his understanding of how people can be supported towards self-actualisation (which received a publication award by the Excellence Initiative at Heidelberg University), and various chapters on articles on his work, including a chapter on Tagore & Psychotherapy. I have contributed to work on pluralistic research, creative and qualitative inquiry, social justice and decolonisation, and have written chapters and articles on Pluralistic Therapy (Handbook of Counselling and Psychotherapy, with J. McLeod & M. Cooper, 2023; Handbook of Postmodern Therapies, with J. McLeod, in preparation; and am currently co-authoring a book on pluralistic therapy (Routledge, with Finnerty, Kearns & Smith)).
I frequently give talks at conferences and conduct outreach activities by giving public talks, taking part in festivals, conducting sessions at schools, etc.
I am Co-Editor of the journal Pluralistic Practice and was previously Editor of Gitanjali and Beyond.
My ongoing research projects include explorations of working pluralistically with spiritual crises and with socio-political topics in therapy (e.g., a project on “The Dark Side of Meditation” and on Therapists working with Spiritually Transformative Experiences).
I am happy to supervise PhD theses, please get in touch with me to discuss this if you are interested.
