I am an integrative relational psychotherapist, supervisor, educator and writer. I was born in Sudan and now live and work in the UK.
Before training as a psychotherapist, my background was in Medicine and Public Health. I spent over sixteen years working in the charity and NGO sector, with a focus on women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights. Much of this work centred on anti-FGM advocacy, trauma-informed care, and supporting responses to gendered and systemic harm.
These experiences continue to shape the way I practise.
My therapeutic, supervisory and teaching work is grounded in relational, trauma-informed and an anti-oppressive praxis. I am interested in how people’s lives are shaped by family, culture, community, migration, colonial histories, structural injustice, belonging and the relationships that hold or harm us.
My practice is informed by Black feminist thought, care-making and a commitment to social justice. This means I do not understand distress as something that exists only inside the individual. Our bodies, relationships and emotional lives carry the impact of the worlds we have moved through. Therapy can offer a space where these stories are given room to unfold with care, dignity and attention.
As a supervisor, I offer a reflective space for practitioners to think about their clinical work, their relationships with clients, and the ethical, emotional and social contexts that shape practice. I value supervision as a space for thoughtfulness, accountability, curiosity and care.
Alongside my therapeutic and educational work, I am also engaged in creative and curatorial work connected to the legacy of my late father, the filmmaker, poet and painter Hussein Shariffe. Since 2019, I have been working in collaboration and community with others on the preservation and transnational archiving of his work.
This work has deepened my relationship with memory, exile, loss, history and the question of what is carried across generations. It sits alongside my therapeutic practice in meaningful ways. Both are concerned with what is remembered, what is silenced, what survives, and what becomes possible when stories are held with care.
I live and work through multiple, layered positionalities. These inform how I think about identity, power, belonging and the complexity of being human. I bring this awareness into my work, while recognising that each person’s experience is their own.
At the heart of my practice is a belief in the liberatory potential of the therapeutic relationship.
Therapy can be a place to speak, feel, remember, question and reconnect. A place where the impact of personal, relational and systemic harm can be witnessed. A place where complexity does not need to be simplified in order to be welcomed.
Qualifications and Professional Memberships
If you are curious about my qualifications, I hold a Master’s Degree in Integrative Psychotherapy awarded by Middlesex University and Metanoia Institute, and a Clinical Diploma in Integrative Psychodynamic Counselling.
I also hold a certificate in supervision through an intersectional lens.
I am an accredited member of the UK Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP) and a registered member of the British Association for Counsellors and Psychotherapists (BACP). I abide by both their ethical frameworks and guidelines for counselling and psychotherapy.
You will find me listed in the UKCP directory and the Black, African and Asian Therapy Network (BAATN).