Roxanne Kerr

MSc Counselling (2019)

What do you get up to on a day to day basis?

I am a trauma therapist and currently own my own private counselling practice called Helix Trauma Therapies and run a company called Helix Trauma Training and Consultancy. 

My day is very varied which is what I love about being self-employed. When I am not seeing clients on a 121 basis, I am working on my company and delivering training for workplaces to help improve and manage the wellbeing staff who are experiencing stress or mental health difficulties stemming from a psychological trauma. At the moment, I am working on some research and putting together E-learning on managing stress. 

As well as running my own businesses, I am also the founder of a charity called Trauma Healing Together and spend my spare time working on developing this.

Tell us a wee bit about your journey to this position since leaving Abertay.

I graduated November 2019 and set up my private practice the same month. Deciding I wanted to focus more on my private practice as well as developing my other ideas, I gave up my job as a mental health manager for a charity in February. At this point, I did not expect Covid-19 to happen so for the last 6 months, I have just been working hard to grow my business and charity.

What successes and challenges have you come up against in your professional career so far?

My biggest success I feel as been setting up my charity which aims to help trauma survivors via therapy, training and research. It was a great feeling when OSCR approved it and my hard work paid off.

My biggest challenge has unsurprisingly been Covid-19 and during lockdown, I was unable to work as I decided to put my private practice on hold instead of moving online. 

What are your future professional aspirations?

I would love to grow my business and charity. My ambition for the charity is to spread awareness of trauma and support trauma survivors to build resilience and heal.

Why did you choose to come to Abertay?

I wanted to do a counselling degree which was flexible and was not focused on just one modality. I was attracted to the counselling course at Abertay for this reason. I also liked how I could do the course part time as it fitted in well with the rest of my life.

How did your degree help prepare you for what you now do?

I could not do what I am doing now without it. Not only did it give me the qualification I needed but it gave me so much confidence.

I particularly liked the fact that the degree had a good balance of practical and academic elements and this certainly helped me shape my private practice.

What’s your lasting impression of Abertay?

I gained lots of good friends and really enjoyed my time at Abertay. It was a great place to study.

Do you have any words of advice for anyone thinking about getting into your profession?

Counselling can be very challenging, but it is an incredibly rewarding career and there is no better feeling than seeing a client flourish and grow into the person they have always wanted to be. It is hard work and does require a lot of dedication but it's worth it. 

What about your younger self?

That life does not always take you in the direction you expected but don’t worry too much about it and don’t give up, you will eventually get to where you need to be.

And lastly, to the MSc Counselling graduating class of 2020?

For those that embark on a career in private practice, you will wake up some days and wonder if it is worth it. It takes time to grow and it wont be an easy journey but it will be worth it in the end.