Biography
I am a registered mental health nurse and lecturer in mental health nursing, with responsibilites including teaching and assessment, supporting students, course development and conducting research. My clinical experience involves working with people experiencing a variety of mental health problems, delivering care in acute inpatient mental health as well as psychotherapy settings.
I have masters degrees in both philosophy and nursing, postgraduate certificates in learning, teaching and assessment and research methods, and completed my PhD, exploring the experiences of crisis and crisis intervention for people diagnosed with 'borderline personality disorder'. I have also trained as a mentalization based treatment practitioner, an evidence based psychotherapy, and still work with people privately.
I have actively engaged with the mental health nursing profession, delivering the annual keynote for Mental Health Nurse Academics UK in 2022, and in the same year publicly raising concerns around the Nursing and Midwifery Council's neglect of mental health nurse education through Royal College of Nursing Congress. I also started a national movement called 'Mental Health Deserves Better' which uses the hashtag #MHDeservesBetter, and advocates for improvements to mental health nurse education at a national level.
In the field of personality disorders, I have been involved with local and national groups, most notably serving on the executive groups of the Scottish Personality Disorder Network 2019-2025, and the British and Irish Group for the Study of Personality Disorders since 2023. I also developed the action/consequences model, a thinking tool for ethical decision making around risk, and am part of a network of professionals using this across several health boards in the UK.
