Please be aware, the topic of suicide is briefly mentioned in this conversation.

For more information about the Six Principles for Relational Safeguards in AI Mental Health Tools NCPS | Press release: First blueprint to make AI mental health tools…

Here is the NCPS response to the recent Ipsos study exploring how people in Great Britain are using, and feeling about, AI in their daily lives

 NCPS | NCPS Responds: New Ipsos research shows why so many Britons…

For a longer read, here is Meg’s update about AI in therapy NCPS | AI in Therapy - September 2025 Update

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This episode was recorded on Teams

Produced by Leto Blackwell

Created by the National Counselling and Psychotherapy Society

Website: www.ncps.com

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Pamela Kirkpatrick is a practitioner, trainer and co-founder of NCPS Recognised Counselling Service, uHub.

But Pam, along with her colleague Cara, also invest considerable time and energy into their community; a community that continues to bear the bruises from its history.

Communities in Transition, was designed by the NI Executive in 2015 to support projects that would empower individuals and groups to affect positive change for themselves and their communities

To this end, Pam and Cara have given up their own time to connect with an understandably cautious community. So, they developed creative ways to become accepted and from small, tentative steps, meaningful trust was built.

Only then were they were able to support people that previously might never have contemplated change, never mind counselling.

This story is testament not only to our capacity and potential for change, but also to the gentle patience of the practitioner.

It’s a reminder that the work we do, is as much art and creativity, relational and empathy, as it is study and theory.

For more information about Pam and the uHub team uHub – Counselling Service and Therapy Centre. Bangor, North Down.

To learn about Communities in Transition Communities in Transition – Background | The Executive Office

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This episode was recorded on Teams

Produced by Leto Blackwell

Created by the National Counselling and Psychotherapy Society

Website: www.ncps.com

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Lynda Graham is the NCPS Regional Representative for Northern Ireland and a prominent and experienced voice across the counselling profession, particularly on the subject of adoption. 

Originally a social worker, her work with children and families, took her along what felt like a natural path, to counselling.

Lynda is a passionate advocate for counsellors and the profession as a whole, especially keen to advocate for those living and working in Northern Ireland.

And while there is an important need to recognise the specific challenges encountered there, Lynda is clear, that just as we see the individual in our daily practice, we also need to see Northern Ireland as any other place, with its own regional diversity and differences.

We need to be mindful, it is a tapestry woven together with many different threads and should not be defined by one story alone.

For more information about the NCPS Regional Representatives NCPS | Regional Representatives

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This episode was recorded on Teams

Produced by Leto Blackwell

Created by the National Counselling and Psychotherapy Society

Website: www.ncps.com

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Cherelle Mead, is many things, both professionally and personally. 

For more information about the NCPS Regional Representatives NCPS | Regional Representatives

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This episode was recorded on Teams

Produced by Leto Blackwell

Created by the National Counselling and Psychotherapy Society

Website: www.ncps.com

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Content: Please be aware there is a brief mention of suicide in this episode.

Gemma Khairi is Director of Operations for Helplines Partnership, the membership body for organisations that provide information, support or advice via phone, email, text or online.

Gemma and her colleagues work to maintain standards, offer training, advice and support across the helplines sector.

Having a kind and generous father, Gemma witnessed the art of compassion from an early age, as her Dad worked to support people in the community, as well as caring for his children as a single parent – including Gemma's disabled brother.

Maybe as natural extension of those formative years, Gemma went on to study human rights and social justice, which took her into various roles working alongside some of the most vulnerable people in society; young care leavers, young offenders, sex workers and people living with HIV.

There are stark differences between relationships created in a therapeutic setting, and the one-off, sometimes distressing, sometimes anonymous, crisis calls that helpline staff may deal with, and Gemma helps us understand what that can be like.

We discuss the pitfalls of burnout, compassion fatigue and vicarious trauma, as well as those things we can do personally and professionally, to mitigate the inevitable hazards of this work.

It is estimated there will be well in excess of over 60 million calls to helplines annually, and thanks to Gemma, the team at Helplines Partnership, and all those they support –  we can feel confident in referring loved ones and clients for help.

For more information about Helplines Partnership Home - Helplines Partnership

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This episode was recorded on Teams

Produced by Leto Blackwell

Created by the National Counselling and Psychotherapy Society

Website: www.ncps.com

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Content: Please be aware that this episode contains graphic content around sexual violence, sex, misogyny and pornography, that some people may find upsetting.

For more information about the work of  Jocelyn's team at WMRSASC Home - WMRSASC

To learn more about 'Hackett's continuum' Understanding sexualised behaviour in children | NSPCC Learning

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This episode was recorded on Teams

Produced by Leto Blackwell

Created by the National Counselling and Psychotherapy Society

Website: www.ncps.com

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Please be aware that suicide and bereavement by suicide is the main focus of this episode.

Since then Caroline has help others understand about the reality of life after a suicide by writing and speaking about her experience and she gives a voice to others impacted by this particular type of grief.

In her own sensitive, yet frank and unflinching way,  Caroline describes how anger helped her cope, and protected her from sadness , and how finding the right therapist at the right time helped her through the complex emotions that a grief by suicide evokes. She describes the unique responsibility of being a double parent, living minute by minute, day by day, navigating her own grief, while supporting Evie and Ada with theirs.

Now, Caroline feels she is at last able to carry hope. Along with memories of Steve, hope has become part of the story that she and the  girls, are now writing together. Because this conversation is not just Caroline's story, but Steve’s Evie's and Ada's also.

You can learn more about Caroline's experience, work and her book, 'Daddy Blackbird', here: Daddy Blackbird - Surviving and thriving after loss by suicide

For more information about child bereavement charity Winston's Wish: Winston's Wish - Bereavement Support for Children

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This episode was recorded on Teams

Produced by Leto Blackwell

Created by the National Counselling and Psychotherapy Society

Website: www.ncps.com

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Lana Foster, Managing Director of Bright World Guardianships, joins us in conversation. 

The children that Bright World Guardianships support, find themselves alone in another country, language, culture; there is unfamiliarity all around them. Alongside the usual challenges of growing up, their lives can at times be complex and stressful. 

Through a network of host families, care managers, local coordinators and transport services, every step of a child's time at boarding school or university, is supported by the adults at Bright World, all of whom are screened and trained....even the taxi drivers.

You can find out more about the work of Bright World Guardianships here: UK Boarding School and University Guardianship service | Bright World

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This episode was recorded on Teams

Produced by Leto Blackwell

Created by the National Counselling and Psychotherapy Society

Website: www.ncps.com

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Content warning: suicide and domestic abuse are briefly mentioned in this conversation.

In this episode we are revisiting Northern Ireland, as Eilish Craig clinical lead of West Wellbeing joins us for a chat. We talk about the unique challenges faced by people living in post-conflict Northern Ireland, and shine a light on a service that knows it’s community and holds it at the heart of all it does.

In response, that community appreciates, values and gives back to the service .

From being a safe space for anyone experiencing domestic abuse, to outreach work with the homeless, collaborating with foodbanks and addressing poverty, the trusting relationships being built by West Wellbeing, with it’s community, are special, and the positive impacts, far reaching.

You can find out more about the work of West Wellbeing here: Home - West Wellbeing

And for information about supporting, 'Out of the Darkness - A Walk of Hope': Out of the Darkness - A Walk of Hope - West Wellbeing

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This episode was recorded on Teams

Produced by Leto Blackwell

Created by the National Counselling and Psychotherapy Society

Website: www.ncps.com

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From the cradle to the grave, music therapy can support people in a way talking therapy is not always able.

Stuart Watson is a music therapist and the clinical lead, of Make a Melody Ltd. based in Northern Ireland and in this episode, he helps us understand who music therapy can help, and how it works. Music is its own language, through which we can communicate, understand each other, and build relationships upon. Stuart explains how it can create bonds between parent and infant, how it can connect in a unique way with non-verbal people, how it offers comfort to people with dementia or at the end of their lives – all  through using the power of music and the framework of psychodynamic principles underpinning the work.  

You can find out more about the work of Make a Melody here: https://www.makeamelody.co.uk/

Please remember to like and subscribe, so you can always be part of the conversation.

This episode was recorded on Teams

Produced by Leto Blackwell

Created by the National Counselling and Psychotherapy Society

Website: www.ncps.com

Subtitles are auto generated