About Fiona

I qualified as an occupational therapist in 1998 and since then I have worked in a range of settings, although the majority of my career has been spent in Higher Education, both as an Occupational Therapy lecturer and as a Mental Health Adviser. Until recently, I have worked part-time for a couple of different UK Universities, as a Lecturer and Associate Tutor in Occupational Therapy, alongside offering supervision. I am now focusing solely on my supervision work.

I have a heart-felt passion for supporting learning, personal growth and professional development. It fills me with great happiness to see others flourish and become the best therapist that they can be. I believe that this can be accomplished when we listen deeply to ourselves, follow the whisperings of our inner wisdom and do the things which give us joy. Joy is my middle name, after all!

Following my own joy has not always been easy, however – and for a long time I stopped doing the things which made me happy, especially in my work. What has brought me back to a place of joyful connection with life has been my deep spiritual relationship with nature and the chance to create a work role that fulfils me.

As well as being a therapist, I am a long-term cancer survivor and have been on the receiving end of some exceptional medical care throughout my lifetime. While modern medicine has saved my life more than once, the biggest influence on my emotional healing has been my ability to redefine what matters to me through a deeply spiritual connection to the land, plants and animals. I now walk a path in my personal and professional life that aims to integrate 21st Century evidence-based practice and ancient nature-centred healing wisdom. I believe it is entirely possible - essential in fact – for us to begin to reconnect with our own true nature and to hold the science and the art of healing in equal balance.

Hawkins and McMahon (2020, p14) highlight this perfectly in their book Supervision in the Helping Professions, when they state,

"What we need now is a major transformation in human consciousness, ways of thinking, behaving and relating, both to each other and the more-than-human world. Supervision in the helping professions needs to play its part."

This is my contribution.