• Associate Lecturer/Counsellor – Charis Cancer Care (P/T): October 2022 – present
• Associate Lecturer/Mentor & Counsellor – NEXUS (P/T): September 2022 – March 2023
• Associate Trauma Educator – Wave (P/T): June 2021 – Present
• Rapid Response Nurse – Marie Curie Out of Hours- Northern Trust (P/T): October 2019 – December 2022
• Counsellor – MS Society NI (P/T): January 2020 – present
• Specialist Counsellor- Mid Ulster Health: January 2023- present
• Registered General Nurse (1989) – Current
• Registered Community Public Health Nurse (Health Visiting) (2002) – Current

EXPERIENCE:
General Nursing
I qualified as a Registered General Nurse in 1989, and my early years of nursing were in general medical & surgical wards. This started my passion for communication and working with people to make a difference in their lives.
I spent approximately 18 years as a Health Visitor and a Family Nurse. I particularly enjoyed working with teenagers with many adverse childhood experiences and helping them make positive changes in their lives. I had the privilege of supporting many families to work through their challenges and to parent the best way they could.

Marie Curie
In 2019, I decided to leave the Health & Social Care setting, and I joined Marie Cure Rapid Response Nurse and became a qualified Nurse Prescriber. This reinforced my love of supporting families through difficult times, and I was privileged to be one of the front-line workers during COVID, providing vital palliative care.

Wave Trauma
In 2021, I commenced a role with Wave Trauma as one of their trainers, which developed my teaching further whilst working with a team of educators who are involved in helping people become trauma-informed.  Since 2021, I have developed, written and delivered modules at degree level as well as bespoke courses for clients and students, e.g. trauma and end-of-life care, trauma and advanced communication, trauma and boundaries and chronic pain and trauma.

Teaching
Teaching has always been a core component of how I work. For over 10 years, I have taught in a range of environments, including FE Colleges, H&SC Trusts and Wave Trauma Centre.  This has given me extensive experience in teaching a wide range of clients and professionals.  I have delivered my training in formats that suit my clients’ requirements, this can be classroom, workshops or remote/hybrid.  One of my specialist areas of training is Motivational Interviewing, one of the most successful evidence-based approaches to changing behaviours.

Counselling & Therapy
I am passionate about continuous professional development, and I completed a Diploma in Counselling (P/T), which enabled me to become a BACP member. I then completed a Diploma in Somatic Traumatic Informed Therapy to enhance my practice further.

I have over 30 years of experience working therapeutically with clients one-on-one and in groups. I am privileged to have a wide variety of experience working with babies, parents, and every age group during happy times, as well as working with clients during difficult times such as abuse, relationship difficulties, loss of job, miscarriage, diagnosis of chronic illness, cancer, bereavement, trauma which has led to many feelings such as depression, anxiety, suicidal feelings, low self-esteem, coping strategies such as self-harm, addiction.
In addition to my private clients within Mid Ulster Health, I counsel at Charis Cancer Care.

Voluntary Work
I volunteered as a counsellor for over 3 years for the NI MS Society and during the pandemic, providing bereavement comfort calls to family members within the Northern Health & Social Care Trust.

EDUCATION
Continuous personal development has been instrumental in developing the skills needed to practice as a counsellor.

I trained as a registered general nurse in 1989, always having an interest in mental health I completed a short course in relation to care of the dying which enhanced my ability to care for and communicate with patients and families at end of life. I then completed my Degree in Health Studies in 1999, enabling me to complete a module in counselling. In 2002, I completed a Post Graduate Certificate in Advanced Nursing- Health visiting and have had a wide opportunity to develop academically through training such as completing a psychological skills training module in Queens University Belfast in 2010, Solihull training, and all other mandatory training.

In 2012, I trained as a specialist family nurse to work with first-time mums under the age of nineteen, delivering a parenting program to help them parent the best that they could be. This involved intensive training, such as infant baby massage, motivational interviewing, compassionate, focused therapy, Gro Brain, and Dyadic Assessment of Naturalistic Caregiver-Child Experiences, to enable me to assess caregiver-child interactions in ways that identified areas of growth for the client’s caregiving experience.

Within my specialist role as a palliative care nurse, I completed a Postgraduate in Medical Nurse Prescribing in 2021.

Due to an interest in mental health throughout my career, I completed a Diploma in Counselling Practice in 2021 and, in March 2023, a Diploma in Somatic Trauma Therapy to enable me to work with adults, children, families and groups safely and to make the greatest impact in supporting them. I have additional specialist training in working with childhood trauma and inter-partner violence, safeguarding children, adults and vulnerable adults.