ABOUT ME
My name is Ivan, and with over twenty years of experience in mental health, it remains a genuine privilege to walk alongside people as they seek peace, understanding, and renewal. My interests — both as a person and as a practitioner — are rooted in creativity, philosophy, and agape, a deep, unconditional form of care. These influences often find their way into the therapeutic space, helping to nurture and strengthen the person you are becoming.
Having grown up in the United States in one of its harsher environments, I understand the importance of recognising the humanness in all our actions. I’ve learned that healing rarely arrives all at once; it unfolds through patience, compassion, and gentle persistence.
I have extensive experience supporting individuals through some of life’s most complex and tender themes, including emotional and physical self-harm, existential anxiety, questions around sexual identity, relational stagnation, ADHD, ASD, and much more. This work has deepened my appreciation for the many different ways we each experience the world. My aim is to offer thoughtful, high-quality care that moves beyond corporate mental health platforms and impersonal digital models — creating instead a genuinely human and responsive space that adapts to your unique needs and life story.
As an integrative therapist, I draw from a range of approaches and, when helpful, weave in elements of creativity, culture, and reflective practice. Therapy with me is a compassionate collaboration: a warm, grounded space where meaning, self-acceptance, and healing can unfold naturally and at your own pace. It is a space where therapy becomes more than a formula or standardised process — it becomes a relational experience that gently guides rather than directs, modelling the possibility of a future shaped by the strongest and most authentic parts of you.
Education
- Masters in Psychotherapy and Counselling, Roehampton University, UK
- Foundation Course in Integrative Counselling, Minster Centre, UK
- Masters in Fine Art, Claremont Graduate University, USA
- Bachelor's Degree in Fine Art, California State University, USA
Work Experience and Training
I have spent most of my life working in roles centred around helping others — from the corporate world as a translator and marketing professional, to my work as an educator, artist, and behavioural interventionist supporting people from many different walks of life.
Within the therapeutic and mental health field, my experience is similarly diverse. I have worked with runaway LGBTQ+ teenagers in Hollywood, neurodivergent clients and their families, and served as an educational therapeutic coordinator, leading workshops and inviting respected therapists to provide specialist training within an organisation. I have also supervised more than twenty trainees, helping them build confidence, strengthen their skills, and develop a grounded sense of professional identity.
I now work in one of the largest charities in the country, supporting clients considered high-risk and navigating complex histories involving sexual, emotional, and social trauma.
In my private practice, I have worked with clients from a wide range of sexual identities, backgrounds, and life circumstances. I am deeply committed to ongoing learning and to offering therapy that is thoughtful, ethical, and genuinely supportive.
Recent Training:
- Understanding Trauma and Communication
- Facing the Shadow of Harm in Therapy
- Violence in Same-sex Relationships
- The Elephant in the Room: Shame in the Therapeutic Space
- Creativity in Therapy & Research Counselling
- Re-Visioning Person-centred Therapy: Theory and Practice
- Understanding Repetition in Clinical Work
- Trauma-Informed Practice for Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse
- Agape in Therapy
- The Impact of Childhood Sexual Abuse
- Central Ideas in Existential Psychotherapy
- Working with Adolescents with Eating Disorders
- Colourism in Therapy, Umma Thampu
- Supervision Training Counselling
- Cross-Cultural Therapy
- Gender and Sex in Therapy
- Pluralistic Therapy
- Everyday Creativity in Existential Therapy
- Understanding Masculinities
Menberships and Accreditations
Enhanced DBS certificate