Birmingham, England, United Kingdom
I am a qualified Counsellor and graduate psychologist. I began my career as a volunteer with the NHS and Creative Support as a peer mentor, drawing on my own lived experience to support others on their mental health journey. Discovering a passion for this field, I have since acquired a postgraduate d in psychology degree with BCU and qualified as a therapeutic counsellor with Key Counselling Academy. As a new graduate, I worked with Birmingham Mind for 5 years while I continued my training. Here I had the opportunity to work face to face with a wide range of individuals and provide support those affected by moderate to severe mental illness. I learned to manage crisis incidents, safeguarding concerns, and challenging behaviour, as well as fostering warm, professional relationships with vulnerable adults. Having qualified as a counsellor, I am thrilled to be affiliated with Sakura Therapeutic Counselling, where I can continue to draw on my lived experience to provide support to neurodivergent clients. As an autistic/ADHD person myself, and trained mental health professional, I understand the nuances of the neurodivergent experience that can often be missed or misunderstood by professionals, and I aim to provide compassionate, tailored therapy where people can be heard and supported in the way that best suits them.
Delighted to be working with Sakura, helping to provide neuro-affirming, compassionate therapy for neurodivergent clients, drawing from lived experience to provide specialised support in an understanding setting.
The Recovery and Employment service is a combined integrated innovative service delivered through a partnership lead by Better Pathways along with Creative Support and Birmingham Mind. The service provides an Individual Placement Support Service (IPS) which is an intensive, personalised supported employment service targeted at people in contact with secondary mental health services who want to enter employment more quickly and to help sustain their employment for longer and Four Recovery Colleges all aligned to the integrated community mental health services each offering 1:1 recovery support planning, recovery focused activities and support to develop peer-led support networks and groups. The service is city wide with hubs based in Erdington, Handsworth, Yardley and Northfield.
The Recovery College enables people with mental health challenges to have the same opportunities in life as everyone else. We endeavour to support people on their personal journey towards a meaningful and satisfying life, where hope, opportunity and choice are the key elements. The college aims to help people to become experts in their own self-care, and enable family, friends, carers and staff to better understand mental health. Courses are co-produced with users, carers and professionals working in partnership. As a volunteer, I have been playing a part in helping to provide a welcoming, friendly community for students, helping to prepare and present courses using the wealth of my own experience of mental health and of care work.