Unlinke many Irish people, I’m lucky to say that I grew up talking about sex. My family dinner table was a place where my 3 sisters & I were encouraged to share our opinions & express ourselves. At age 14, after I became aware that I was the victim of voyeurism, my interest in sexuality piqued.

I remember exactly how I felt in that moment of realisation. I felt physically sick, I felt scared, I felt ashamed of myself & resentful of my changing body as I searched for answers. But most of all, I felt angry. I followed this anger & it blossomed into what I now recognise as healthy entitlement. This was my body, that I had barely had the opportunity to explore & learn about & through, & suddenly I felt threatened by the prospect. My anger held me the whole way, through victim blaming & being dubbed a liar, teaching me that my sexuality was mine & only mine & that there was power in it.

My positive experiences of sexuality helped me to heal the imprints left by the difficult ones & I came to value pleasure so deeply that it dominated by academic life. When studying English Literature my research focused on female-authored erotica, intersectional feminism & pleasure activism. It was at this point that I began freelance writing for sexual wellness brands. I moved to Edinburgh in 2020 to start my masters in International Development where I studied the anthropology of sex & reproduction & global mental health, culminating my studies with my thesis research arguing that feminist, pleasure based sex education should be recognised as a tool to prevent & eradicate violence against women & girls. My work was consistently called provocative & my male supervisor could not look me in the eyes nor keep a straight face as we discussed the history of the clitoris & ethical porn.

Again, I followed my anger. I decided to train as a relationships & sex educator & began running sex positive events in Edinburgh & creating accessible online resources. Once I graduated, I started working in the criminal justice sector supporting women in prison & with their reintegration into the community upon release. From here I progressed to the gender based violence sector where I to supported women selling sex in Edinburgh through advoacy work.

During the early months within this role I couldn’t shake the realisation that these support services weren’t actually working. It felt like a sticking plaster that would continuously fall off. I was working with what I now call ‘over-therapised’ women; they’d been in support services for decades, worked with multiple psychiatrists & psychologists & 99% of them had a complex PTSD diagnosis. After accessing so much expert support, why were they still suffering to this extent? At this stage I knew I wanted to pursue therapeutic training, but felt frustrated by the clear gaps left in care by a purely psychological approach to working with women & sexuality. After months of research I began learning about somatic therapy & how it works to address the experience of the body, where trauma is stored.

After becoming a certified somatic sexologist I set up my private practice in Edinburgh in 2023. I strive to bring a unique approach to somatic sexology, grounded in my direct experience of working with complex needs- substance misuse, compulsive sexual behaviour, trauma, domestic abuse & sex work - while pushing the boundaries of mainstream therapeutic care to offer people a direct, hands-on & truly holistic avenue of support. After countless years of theorising & searching for answers & insights, it feels liberating to shift the focus to practical action. I love this work & what it has brought to me & what I have the priviledge to share & explore with my wonderful clients. Pleasure has been & continues to be my greatest teacher.

I am grateful to my teachers so far who have offered inspiration, wisdom & support in my development as a practitioner: Katrina Clark, John Fraser, Tami Lynn Kent, Caffyn Jesse, Dr. Aline LaPierre & Dr Martha Tara Lee.

Alongside my practice I work with various well-established brands in the sexual wellness industry & my work has been featured in publications such as Cosmopolitan, Sheerluxe & The Independent.