She trained initially as a teacher and worked in secondary schools in the UK and in West Africa. Her work as a pastoral care teacher led her to train as a counseling psychologist and later to train as a psychoanalytic psychotherapist at the London Centre for Psychotherapy. On returning to Scotland in 2006, she joined SIHR (the Scottish Institute of Human Relations) and worked in the Adult Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Service. She has a private practice in Fife.