About me
Anxiety, relationship issues, depression, family issues, addictions, abuse, bereavement etc can have a huge negative impact on your overall health and well being, relationships, and daily life.
Have you been feeling angry, frustrated, worthless, sad, fearful, alone or stuck?
Although you may not think it, but these feelings are normal. However, living with constant negative feelings can hold you back from developing healthy relationships and reaching your full potential.
I can provide a confidential, comfortable, safe environment for us to explore your issues together. I can carry out an assessment within two weeks of first contact and can be flexible with my working hours.
Training, qualifications & experience
I have been a Director of Compass Counselling since 2016. As well as counselling I co-facilitate training programmes in stress management, mentoring, emotional intelligence, bullying etc in community and school settings. I am an Accredited member of the BACP. I am an integrative therapist working with adolescents and adults across Northern Ireland. I am qualified to level 5 in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. I have over 10 years experience of working as a counsellor and have worked in a variety of settings (school and community), and have extensive experience in working with a wide range of presenting issues.
I feel extremely proud and privileged to have been presented and honoured at 10 Downing Street by the Prime Minister as the national, overall recipient of 'Britain's Children's Champion Award'.
I am a keynote speaker at various professional events across the UK and Ireland, on the issue of sexual abuse, I have a professional and personal interest in this area.
Qualifications:
- Advanced Diploma in counselling
- Level 5 Diploma in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy
- Intermediate Level in counselling
- Certificate in counselling skills
- Advanced Motivational Interviewing
- ASIST (applied suicide intervention skills)
- Clinical assessment - risk management suicide prevention
- Gestalt training
- Building effective relationships
- Child protection- Designated Officer Training
- Dealing with challenging behaviour
- Level 1,2,3 drugs and substances
- Masterclass in Cannabis
- Specific drug testing
- Supporting children to cope with parental substance abuse (Rory)
- Steps to cope (support for young people living with addiction or mental health problems in the family)
- Supporting adults and young people living with alcoholism and problematic substance misuse
- Childhood trauma
- Trauma and trauma recovery with adolescents
- Grief trauma and the helping relationship
- Mental health outcomes recovery star trained
- Working with personality disorder
- Recovery awareness
- WRAP (Wellness Recovery Action Plan) Trained
- Dealing with conflict in the workplace
- Level 2 health and safety in the workplace
Keynote speaker at:
- BACP
- CYP
- Scottish Catholic Safeguarding Board (UK and Europe)
- SEELB,
- SBNI
- Nexus NI
- Barnardos
- Queens University
Member organisations
Registered / Accredited
Being registered/accredited with a professional body means an individual must have achieved a substantial level of training and experience approved by their member organisation.

British Association for Counselling & Psychotherapy
BACP is one of the UK’s largest professional bodies for counselling and psychotherapy. Therapists registered with the Association fall into a number of different membership categories such as Individual Member, Registered Member MBACP and Registered Member MBACP (Accred), each standing for different levels of training and experience. MBACP (Accred) and MBACP (Snr Accred) members have achieved a substantial level of training and experience approved by the Association.
Registered members can be found on the BACP Register, which was the first register to achieve Accredited Voluntary Register status issued by the Professional Standards Authority. Individual Members will have completed an appropriate counselling and/or psychotherapy course and started to practise, but will not appear on the BACP Register until they've progressed to Registered Member MBACP status.
All members are bound by a Code of Ethics & Practice and a Complaints Procedure. Accredited by the Professional Standards Authority.
Accredited register membership

Accredited Register Scheme
The Accredited Register Scheme was set up in 2013 by the Department of Health (DoH) as a way to recognise organisations that hold voluntary registers which meet certain standards. These standards are set by the Professional Standards Authority (PSA).
This therapist has indicated that they belong to an Accredited Register.

Areas of counselling I deal with
Therapies offered
Fees
Counselling sessions last for 50 - 60 minutes and cost:
- Individual Counselling (adult) £35-45 per session
- Student Counselling session (CPD) £30 per session
To arrange an Initial Assessment, please contact me directly using one of your preferred methods below.
My private practice is based in Belfast, Northern Ireland.