Therapists Archives - Page 2 of 2

6th July 20234th February 2025

Lizzie Devlin

TESSA Therapist

Location
Belfast/Greater Belfast County Antrim and Down.

I am registered/accredited with:
Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC)
British Association for Art Therapist (BAAT), Member and approved by/registered with BAAT for Private Practice.

Code of ethics observed
HCPC, BAAT.

Qualifications
MSc Art Psychotherapy with Merit (University of East London /Belfast Health and Social Care Trust) 2007-2010
Post Graduate Diploma in Arts Admin (UCD) 1992-1993
BA Honours in Fine Art (Painting, print-making/Art History (Leeds University) 1984-1988
BSL Stage 1, TEFL,Cert Com Dev 1988-1998
Ongoing CPD : Including Art Therapy and Treatment of Attachment Trauma, Level 2 Children Accelerated Trauma treatment and Intercultural Competency.

Special interest/experience
Art Therapy

Additional information
I am a HCPC (Health and Care Professions Council) registered Art Psychotherapist experienced in working with children, young people and adults on a one to one and group basis.(MSc Art Psychotherapy, Centre for Psychotherapy Belfast and University of East London, 2011 ). I have a background in Community Arts and my approach in Art Psychotherapy is Psychodynamic and Integrated.

Using art, play and creative expression is a natural language for children enabling them to communicate difficult and painful feelings. Art Therapy can be particularly beneficial for children who have experienced early/developmental trauma and attachment difficulties. Art Therapy communicates when words simply cannot.

My experience of working with children includes: Looked After children, Adoption, Autism, Asperger Syndrome, ADHD and children impacted by Meningitis.

Specialist areas of clinical practice include early developmental trauma, Troubles related psychological and trans-generational trauma and PTSD.

I work with children and their Care-givers/Parents individually and jointly and with groups in many different settings both in schools and in the community.

Specialist training in trauma and attachment includes:

ACES (Adverse Childhood Experiences) Train the Trainer Course (ACES Level 1 and 2) with the Safeguarding Board for Northern Ireland.

Dyadic Art Therapy training with the British Association of Art Therapists , a joint art therapy approach involving children and their Caregivers/Parents which offers creative and playful activities, which can facilitate communication, discussion and benefit the relationship.

Children’s Accelerated Trauma Technique, Level 2, a child-centred technique for treating traumatic experiences and PTSD developed in partnership with children and based on children’s rights principles.

CPCAB Level 6 Creative Supervision Across the Ages.

I see: Children, adults and groups

6th July 20234th February 2025

Sharon Coulter

TESSA Therapist

Location
Ballymena and 25 mile radius

I am accredited and regulated by the following bodies and adhere to their code of ethics:
Northern Ireland Social Care Council (NISCC);
Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) an independent UK-wide health regulator;
I am a member of the EMDR All-Ireland Association.
I am a member of the British Association of Dramatherapists (BADth);

Qualifications
2020 – 2023 Training in Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) and the Flash Technique (FT) (an adjunct of EMDR)
2019 Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Level 1
2007 MA Arts Psychotherapy (Specialising in Dramatherapy)
2001 MA Social Work
1995 BA (Hons) Humanities

Special interest
I am particularly interested in somatic psychotherapy (Somatic therapy operates on the premise that what happens to you in your life is stored not only in your mind but also in your body). My clinical experience, my training in EMDR, sensorimotor psychotherapy and creative methodologies embody my holistic approach when helping to improve the well-being of adults, children, young people and their parents/carers.
Both EMDR, Creative Arts and Dramatherapy are listed as interventions by Beacon House – Therapeutic Services & Trauma Team. They created the “Bottom Up” Approach to address neurodevelopmental trauma and it is underpinned by the Neuro Sequential Model of Therapeutics (NMT), developed by Dr Bruce Perry.
The “Bottom Up” Approach is designed to recover and repair each part of a child’s brain in a specific, phased and effective order.

Experience:
I am a therapeutic social worker, arts psychotherapist, arts facilitator and community artist. I have clinical experience in the assessment of forensic risk, mental health, parenting and child protection. I have particular expertise in the area of neuro-diversity; I provide therapeutic intervention to children on an individual and group basis and provide advice and support to parents.

As a therapeutic social worker, I have gained wide-ranging knowledge and skills from working in various statutory agencies and most recently as a child and adolescent mental health practitioner. I understand the treatment of medical and mental health diagnoses with medicine and have the experience of using behavioural and creative methodologies in conjunction with and without medicine to improve the well-being of children and adolescents. This knowledge and experience combined with my arts psychotherapy training, EMDR and FT training gives me a unique approach in my private practice.
I have worked in many diverse settings including the Education Authority NI, Youth Justice NI, NHS and a range of community non- statutory organisations.

In the Education Authority I have worked within the Happy Healthy Minds Project for Primary Schools since 2021, providing creative expressive workshops for groups of children and play based therapy for individual children.

Within the NHS I have gained extensive knowledge and skills from working as a senior practitioner in a multi-disciplinary Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) environment.

As an arts facilitator I work with groups of older people for Arts Care which is a regional arts, health and well-being organisation and charity based in NI. I provide arts facilitation for children and adults with learning disability as well as small groups of young people suffering from anxiety, with and without diagnoses of ADHD and ASD. I believe arts-based group processes, promote positivity and resilience.
I work under Creative Therapy NI.

6th July 20234th February 2025

Neil Foster

TESSA Therapist

Location
Belfast

I am registered/accredited with:
HCPC, Registered member
NISCC, Registered member

Code of ethics observed
BACP Ethical Framework
NISCC Standards of Conduct & Practice

Qualifications
BA (hons) [Royal Conservatoire of Scotland]
MMT [City University, Nordoff Robbins, London]

Additional information
Neil Foster is an HCPC registered Music Therapist currently working with children, young people and adults in the County Down and Belfast area.

Having trained as a classical musician, Neil worked as a session musician, community musician and music educator for a number of years before training as a Music Therapist, gradating with a Masters in Music therapy (MMT) from the Nordoff-Robbins centre (London) in 2006.

Since then he has worked across a range of social care and educational settings as well as in private practice, publishing research on new music therapy approaches within the fields of trauma and life threatening illness, and pioneering new music therapy services for organisations such as Mencap, the National Autistic Society, Combat Stress and the Royal Marsden NHS Trust.

Neil moved back to Northern Ireland from London in 2015 and has since worked locally for Lifeline, Contact NI and Victim Support NI, offering crisis support through creative arts and music therapy for young people and their families, particularly those affected by domestic violence, early abuse and neglect. Through this work, Neil gained several years experience of supporting looked after and adopted children through complex family litigation, working closely with social services and the family court system.

Neil has supported adopted children and families with complex needs in a range of settings since qualifying in 2006. His main areas of specialism are trauma and additional learning needs, and he employs a creative, play based and child centred approach.

Contact information: please contact TESSA.

6th July 20234th February 2025

Dr Kerry Sweeney

TESSA Therapist

Service Provided
Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy (DDP)

Qualifications
BSc (Hons), DClinPsy, CPsychol

Biography
Kerry has worked for twenty years in the NHS as a Clinical Psychologist with Children, Adolescents & Families, nearly thirteen of which have been as a Consultant Clinical Psychologist/Lead for Therapeutic Services for Looked After & Adopted Children who have experienced developmental trauma and neglect. As well as assessment, consultations throughout the network and training, Kerry directly provided therapeutic support to enable children to begin to recover from their earlier life experiences using a range direct therapeutic approaches to children and their caregivers such as, Theraplay, Systemic/Narrative approaches, EMDR, other Trauma based models. However Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy has been the most influential model in her career and she became a Certified DDP Practitioner in 2015. DDP has been so central throughout her practice influencing the system, therapeutic parenting and DDP therapy with children and young people.

What is DDP?

DDP was developed by Dan Hughes a Clinical Psychologist in America back in the 1990’s as he could see how anxious children who had experienced developmental trauma were of connecting with new caregivers, who just wanted to love them. DDP has evolved driven by the desire to connect, understand and help and has been adopted and developed further by a number of Psychologists and Therapists in the UK. It has evolved into three areas.

DDP Practice- with professionals and caregivers throughout social care and care giving networks
DDP Parenting (see below)
DDP Psychotherapy (see below)

DDP Therapeutic Parenting

Therapeutic parenting can be provided to parents to explore the impact of developmental trauma that leads to the children needing a different parenting approach involving PACE (Playfulness, Acceptance, Curiosity & Empathy). During the therapeutic parenting support, we will explore the meaning behind some of the key concepts such as developmental trauma & brain development, understanding attachment & survival strategies including blocked trust/fear of relationships.

We will consider the different elements of PACE and how they work together to create a parenting attitude. We will think about parenting principles to enable parenting children with insecure attachments. DDP Therapeutic Parenting is provided before inviting the child to DDP sessions and at points throughout the therapy with the child too.

DDP Psychotherapy

DDP Psychotherapy provides a direct therapeutic environment where relational experiences, which were lacking before can be safely experienced. These safe relational experiences are critical for a child’s neuropsychological and relational development.

Through the therapeutic relationships in DDP the child can be enabled to identify, regulate and express emotional states, seek comfort and engage in relational repair. All DDP Psychotherapy is provided with the caregiver present to enable relational safety to develop.

Please Book for DDP Support through:

Contact kingsbridgeprivatehospital.com

Text BOOK to 66777 (*10% off Adoption UK/Tessa members)

Please contact TESSA

6th July 20234th March 2025

Siobhan Wilson-McGlinchey

TESSA Therapist

Location
Limavady, Co Derry

Service provided
Creative Psychotherapy

I am registered/accredited with:
Fully accredited MBACP (British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy)
MIAPTP (Irish Association for Play Therapy and Psychotherapy)

Additional information
Siobhan is a qualified Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist, Humanistic Integrative Counsellor, Play Therapist, and clinical supervisor she is known in her work as The Creative Psychotherapist. She has over sixteen years’ experience working with a diverse range of clients, including children as young as three, adults, families, young people, community & corporate organisations and mental health professionals. She specialises in Early Developmental Trauma, working with parents, professionals and children through the healing powers of creativity and play.

Siobhan is especially passionate about working with adopted children and their parents. She has been part of the TESSA (Family Routes) team for quite a few years now.

Within her practice as a Creative Psychotherapist and Facilitator, Siobhan believes that each client is unique and individual and that not one model fits all.

On the basis of Siobhan’s own life journey, and many years of experience working with her clients and developing many training programs, she has developed an integrative model which she believes to be of great support in the healing and processing of stored stress and trauma held within our body and mind.

Siobhan’s modality is the integration of creativity, embodiment, talking therapy, play and neuroscience education. Siobhan believes this approach to be an essential part of the therapeutic process.

Alongside one-to-one sessions, Siobhan has developed and facilitated many programmes, including The Healing Powers of Play, Mindfulness & Your Nervous System, Body, Mind & Bump Connection, Surfing the Waves, Nourish to Flourish, and Reflective Practice Groups, to name a few.

Qualifications
MA Creative Psychotherapy (Humanistic and Integrative modality)
Diploma in Creative Supervision
Postgraduate Diploma in Play Therapy
Diploma HE in Counselling
AMBACP, MIAPTP

What I can Help you with:
Birth and Developmental trauma, Attachment, Trauma, Addiction, Bereavement & Loss, Adoption, Fostering, Anxiety, Depression, Post-traumatic stress, personal development, Child related issues, Eating disorders, OCD, Spirituality and Stress

Types of therapy
Creative Psychotherapy, Humanistic Integrative counselling, Person centred, Play therapy,

Clients and organisations I work with:
Adults, Families, Young people, Children
Groups, Community Organisations, Education Authority, Western Health and Social Care, Doctors surgeries etc..

How I deliver therapy
Long-term face-to-face work, online counselling, Short-term face-to-face work, groupwork.

Contact information: please contact TESSA.

6th July 20234th February 2025

Sinead Corey

TESSA Therapist

Service provided
Accredited Play Therapist

Biography
Sinead Corey is an Accredited Play Therapist and a Teacher in a Nurture Room setting. She has over twenty -three years’ experience in a primary school, where her roles include:

Nurture Teacher
Lego® Based Therapist
Head of Nurture
Head of Foundation Stage
Teacher Mentor and she is a member of the Multi-Disciplinary Pastoral Team.
Mental Health First Aider.
Delivering ‘Theraplay® Informed Practice’ to groups of young children.

Throughout her career, she has specialised in supporting children with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties. Sinead works within a Nurture Room environment, where, in 2016 she was instrumental in gaining ‘The Majority Boxall Quality Mark Award’ for Nurture provision within her setting.

Sinead has experience in supporting children with Attachment Type Difficulties, Selective Mutism, and children diagnosed with ASD and ADHD. She has supported children experiencing isolation and bullying and has supported children to build resilience and develop social skills with their peers. Sinead has extensive knowledge of working with individuals and with small groups of children/young people and their parents.

As an Accredited Play Therapist, Sinead has worked therapeutically with children experiencing emotional difficulties in a range of areas, such as, anger management, anxiety, school refusal, low self-esteem, peer group difficulties, family separation, domestic violence and bereavement and also with children experiencing Secondary PTSD. Sinead is experienced with working with children who are fostered or adopted and is trained in Trauma Informed Practice.

Sinead has a particular interest in supporting children presenting with symptoms of anxiety and she aims to provide a safe, secure environment, where children can process their emotions within a caring therapeutic relationship. Sinead appreciates the importance of liaising closely with parents/guardians to nurture their child’s wellbeing. Sinead uses Psychoeducation to empower parents/guardians by involving them in the Therapy process in order to build skills to further support their children/young people.

Sinead belongs to the PTUK membership body and adheres to their strict codes of practice including regular Clinical Supervision sessions, continuing professional development and clinical governance. Sinead is a member of PTUK Accredited register which is regulated by Professional Standards Agency (PSA) and monitors the standards and safety in Play Therapy.

Sinead holds an Enhanced Access NI Certificate and regularly attends Child Protection and Safe-Guarding training.

Contact information: please contact TESSA.

6th July 20234th February 2025

Louise Faulkner

TESSA Therapist

Location
Northern Ireland – Ireland

I am registered/accredited with:
DDP Connects UK
Northern Ireland Social Care Council (NISCC)
British Association Social Workers (BASW)

Code of ethics observed
NISCC and BASW

Qualifications
2022 Dyadic Developmental Certified Practitioner/PACE Trainer/Supervisor
2022 Theraplay LEVEL2 with Trauma Component
2022 Foundation Certification in Theraplay
2017 Non Violence Resistance Training
2015 DDP Masterclass
2015 Dr K. Golding, Foundations for Attachments Trainer Programme
2017 Group Theraplay
2014 Theraplay Level 1 and MIM’s Assessment Model
2014 PQ Specialist Social Work Award 1-3 obtained and ongoing
2010 / 2011 DDP Levels 1 & 2
Incredible Years BASIC, ADVANCED and DINA Programmes
2007 Foundation in Family Therapy and Systemic Practice
2006 Young Minds Certificate in Child and Adolescent Mental Health
2003 Queen’s University Belfast
MSW DIP/SW Social Work
1995 Middlesex University BA Hons in Art Practice in the Community and Psychology
1992 Burnley College Foundation Studies in Art and Design

Special interest/experience
My particular area of interest is in providing therapeutic support to children, young people and their adoptive families to enhance therapeutic parenting knowledge and responses, create safety and security within relationships and enable families and professionals to have challenging conversations with young people.

Additional information
I have been supporting families in NI for nearly 20 years and since 2012 I have been in the role of Senior Practitioner in a multi-disciplinary Therapeutic Team for Looked After and Adopted Children providing training, consultancy and direct therapeutic support to Looked After Children, children post adoption and their care giver network. I am also registered with BASW as an Independent Social Work Practitioner and Therapist.

Throughout my professional journey, as well as my own personal experiences of adoption, I have been fascinated by relationships, how we interact, how we influence each other, patterns of communication, our expectations, hopes and wishes as well as our commitments in relationships and attachments. Given their complexity, relationships can require support to think about how best to understand ourselves and others in helpful and safe ways and to develop a level of attachment security.

My theoretical approach
My practice is therefore significantly influenced by the principles, knowledge and skills of Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy (DDP), Family Therapy, Therapeutic Parenting Models and Theraplay as these interventions assess and promote resilience, attachment, self-regulation and mindful presence in times of difficulty and distress.

I see: Parents and Children

Any other work information? Work Area – Belfast

6th July 20234th February 2025

Julia McLaughlin

TESSA Therapist

Qualifications
BSC (Hons) Ost. Med. ND DPO

Additional information
Julia McLaughlin graduated with an honours degree in Osteopathic Medicine and a Diploma in Naturopathy from The British College of Osteopathic Medicine in 1999.

After gaining experience working in multidisciplinary clinics in Oxford, Bristol and Northern Ireland she set up her own clinic in Comber Co Down in 2003. She is currently the only Osteopath in Northern Ireland to have completed a Post-Graduate Diploma in Paediatric Osteopathy at the Osteopathic Centre for Children in London. The Diploma provided unparalleled Paediatric training and comprehensive clinical experience working in such locations as the Neonatal Unit at Barnet Hospital.

A huge part of this course centres round treating patients cranially and Julia uses both structural and cranial techniques tailoring treatment specifically for each patient. She has developed a wide range of skills over her years in practice that have enables her to successfully treat a wide range of conditions in people of all ages.

Julia has completed the Children’s Teacher Meditation Course with Connected kids and has an interest in Retained Primitive Reflexes and how they affect our body and emotions.

She has completed Level 1 and 2 of Douglas Heel’s Be Activated Course looking at how compensation patterns in our body affect our biomechanics and emotions.

Julia is a member of the Sutherland Cranial College (SCCO) and is continuing her professional development through post graduate courses with the SCCO and the Biodynamic Osteopathy phase 9 courses.

20th February 202320th February 2025

Karen Murdock

Be Balanced, Be You – Equine Facilitated Learning (EFL)

Using a combination of talk based interactions and support, psychoeducation and strategies, and bottom to top regulation, this practice offers therapeutic riding sessions to individuals from 4 years of age. Working with a wide range of issues including mental health, learning difficulties and disabilities, and personal growth.

Specialises in working with ADHD, ADD, ASD, neurodiversity, anxiety, confidence & self esteem needs, social, emotional, behavioural difficulties and mental health (SEBD/SEMH), executive function challenges, transitional struggles, a learning disability, sensory issues, Downs syndrome.

Teaching children and adults with a range of specialist needs and having particular focus on those who have become disengaged with or disinterested in, traditional ‘talk based’ support.

Specialist in therapeutic riding with specific interest in vestibular, proprioceptive, interoception and tactile stimulation, including kinesthesis, bilateral movements posture, spatial awareness, core stability, psychomotor coordination, balance, body symmetry, neuromotor coordination and orientation, concentration and enhanced social interaction.