Trust Me, I’m A Magpie

The daughter of a radical vicar from troubled Belfast, my earliest education was listening for the many storied truths in my father’s sermons. Following a first class honours philosophy degree, I trained as a cognitive behavioural psychotherapist, including specialist training in trauma. I worked for many years within NHS mental health and in UK private practice, before moving out of the consulting room.

I began apprenticing as an oral storyteller just before the pandemic. I have trained with Ben Haggarty of The Crick Crack Club, and Martin Shaw at The School of Myth; and I receive ongoing mentoring from interdisciplinary storyteller Jo Blake. The way I work with stories is also informed by dance and embodiment, including contact improvisation training from Hagit Yakira and Rick Nodine. I now offer a variety of story journeys.

My first poem, about the hands of my grandmother who had just died, won second prize in a local poetry competition when I was nine. I’ve since studied at The Poetry School with teachers including Tamar Yoseloff and Jacqueline Saphra. My publications including poetry for Popshot magazine, the Royal Academy, and the anthology Poems for the NHS; creative non-fiction for Oh magazine; and I author the column Stories of Salt and Starlight for Faire magazine. I am currently writing my first non-fiction book.

Following a series of reconversion encounters while locked down in the Outer Hebrides during the pandemic, I have returned to the Celtic Christianity of my childhood. A lifelong contemplative, my practice incorporates previous Buddhist mindfulness and self compassion training and experience; and various embodiment and nature-based approaches, within a Christian mystical frame.