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EDUCATION AND ACADEMIC BACKGROUND
PROFESSIONAL QUALIFICATIONS
WORK EXPERIENCE
Click here for PUBLICATIONS INTERESTS My early experience in the mental health field included work with adult survivors of child sexual abuse, both individually and in groups. I have always found creative ways of working in this area, such as sculpting, fantasy, writing and the use of imagery. As a Dramatherapist I am interested in the use of story-making in assessment and therapy. In conjunction with colleagues I have developed a way of using the 6-Part Story to help in the assessment of personality disorder. I started PhD research in this area in October 2000. The early stages of this will be to attempt to validate the inter-rater reliability of the tool and to evaluate a way of assessing the 6-Part Story based on Kelly's repertory grid technique. I have been offering training, both on a freelance basis and within the NHS, for several years. Subjects covered include work with adult survivors of child sexual abuse, personality disorder, the 6-Part Story Method, child development and therapeutic storymaking. FELLOWSHIP In February 1999 I won a Travelling Fellowship from the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust. 100 Fellowships are awarded each year in from about 1,600 applicants from all walks of life. I used my Fellowship to travel to Israel to study the way the 6-Part Story is being used there, as well as looking more widely at mental health provision, dramatherapy, bibliotherapy and stress prevention programmes. I visited both Israeli and Palestinian communities and services. A report of the Fellowship is here. PERSONAL BACKGROUND I am male (despite my first name) and had a varied career before starting to train as an Occupational Therapist in 1986 at the age of 28. I had gone to Southampton University ten years earlier, and failed a degree in Philosophy and Politics rather spectacularly. The cause was a too-heavy involvement in student drama and student politics. The latter led to me becoming sabbatical Union President in 1980-81, the former to a job at Salisbury Playhouse in 1981. I worked in the theatre for five years in publicity and front of house jobs, mostly at Swansea Grand Theatre. During this time I joined the Territorial Army and was commissioned into the Royal Regiment of Wales in 1983. In 1985-6 I spent a year in the Regular Army with the 1st Battalion, the Gloucestershire Regiment. Much of this was spent in West Berlin, where the highlights included guarding the aged Rudolf Hess in a crumbling Spandau Prison. I am married with two daughters and three cats. CONTACT
Specialist Therapies Service
Phone +44 (0) 1482 617503
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1986-89 College of Ripon and York St John. Diploma of the College of
Occupational Therapists.