About

I am a qualified community mediator with long experience of working within the area of neighbourhood disputes. I have worked as a Senior Lecturer in Law at Sheffield Hallam University teaching Dispute Resolution at Masters level and module lead for Consumer Law. I am a qualified Dance Movement Psychotherapist (DMP) with the Association of Dance Movement Psychotherapists (ADMP) and I specialise in Trauma Recovery working with domestically abused individuals. I am a Dayan (Wild Goose) Qigong and Chun Yuen (Shaolin Martial Arts) Instructor with the Tse Qigong Centre and I work with adults with ME, Chronic Fatigue and Fibromyalgia. I am a shadow puppet maker and have worked with Edward Jarvis, and World BBC on commission as well as schools and festivals in the North of England since 2009. I am also a creative community artist and crafter as well as a musician (when I get time).

Teaching responsibilities

Within the College of Art and Humanities, I work within the clinical supervision module with trainee dance movement psychotherapists.

Professional interests

My background since 2001 has been with Qigong through the Tse Qigong Centre and my learning of the energetic shifts that can occur within the body for the individual and working with how energy can shift and change as we increase our Qi and support the body's ability to increase health. With this shift comes clearer thinking, concentration, and our intra-connection to that which supports us in better ways. I studied law at the University of Wales College of Cardiff with an interest in how to protect both myself and others with a keen interest in helping those that were in challenging situations. I volunteered as a Citizens Advocate, on Nightline and from there worked in law firms in Sheffield also offering pro-bono work with people in outreach environments across Sheffield. After a short time around 2000, I moved into training as a community mediator which again I did voluntarily for 8 years as well as paid work subsequently. This helped me to see the more challenging situations that individuals experience and working in pairs we dealt with small neighbourhood disputes to large story blocks of disputes involving both multicultural and age differences. I noticed how in all of this work the individuals face challenges both mentally and in how they get control of their lives.

I helped set up a CIC called Understanding Art CIC which used the creative arts to work in mental health units in Doncaster, Rotherham and Scunthorpe. This then led me to realise that I needed to study psychotherapy because I knew that the law, mediation and the arts were not enough to achieve what I wanted to in helping those realise their full potential in their lives and move forward. After qualifying as a DMP psychotherapist in 2018 I moved into working with homeless people who were in stabilisation. These people suffered as one would imagine with borderline personality disorders, bipolar, depression, anxiety at severe levels, eating disorders and addiction amongst other disorders. From here I worked with domestic abuse which allowed me to get into the deeper parts of the self with them.

My professional practice involves the use of integrative psychotherapy and the treatment plan develops based upon what the client brings. So firstly I am person-centred and from there integrate creative therapies to help the client feel empowered to become the best version of themselves. It is tough work and complicated and at times I have endured vicarious trauma with the concepts of merging when the level of challenges the client brings was inexperienced by myself. I have through experience and great clinical supervision learnt to maintain my observer position while deeply holding the client's need to be seen when usually their sense of identity is in utter chaos. It is such a privilege to be able to meet them in the space of therapy and to offer to walk alongside them as they move forward in their work taking back their lives as they wish them to be. I wish to be on the frontline of change, change in how humanity can be and be capable of and I wish to continue this work as best I can supporting research and bringing that to the clients I work with and passing that on to others that work with them with the principle interest in making the change to the world we wish to have, see and be in.

Research interests

I am specifically interested in trauma recovery having worked with severe levels of trauma in those that have experienced domestic abuse since 2019. I would like to carry out research in the somatic shift between the psyche and soma in trauma recovery using both movement and voice activation. I am interested in the anthropological use of this and how this could be utilised in both the modalities of Chinese medicine and ayurvedic medicine in the anatomical shifts for the autonomic nervous system in regulating an individual/client who has experienced levels of trauma that are more severally affecting their every day lives. I am training in Life Span Integration and I would like to see how the use of somatic-based work and voice could marry with this modality.

Membership of professional bodies

• ADMP - Association of Dance Movement Psychotherapists
• UKCP - United Kingdom Council of Psychotherapists

Qualifications

• LLB Hons from University of Wales College of Cardiff
• PGCE HE from Sheffield Hallam University
• MA in Dance Movement Psychotherapy from University of Derby

Recent conferences

• Life Span Integration

International experience

I wish to explore the use of voice activation with organisations in Lisbon to see how this can be utilised in the work of trauma recovery and research.

Additional interests and activities

My Qigong, Chun Yuen, Wing Chun Quan and Hard Qigong are invaluable exercises that sustain my mental and physical health as well as ecstatic dance, open floor and other forms of dance in increasing flow. I also have attended many many mediation classes and retreats as well as silent retreats. An important part of self-reflection.

In the media

I have had work published with Edward Jarvis https://duckmedia.wordpress.com with Shadow puppets showing the outline of how lace came to the Europeans starting in China as silk titled The Lacemakers: The Forgotten Story of English Lace. I also worked with World BBC making shadow puppets for The Forgotten Children.