Shining a light on creativity, inclusion and wellbeing
Working with difference and diversity is an essential part of my professional practice, as a coach and organisational consultant. Culture matters. I am fascinated by the intangibility of culture and what we take for granted. I love this quote by William Edward Burghardt Du Bois:
‘Work, culture, and liberty—all these we need, not singly, but together.’
…and what Gordon Wheeler writes on culture:
‘Our challenge today is not only political and institutional – it is evolutionary and imaginative as well.’
I invite you to be innovative, creative and bold in the way you can imagine and enhance your work and build a positive environment for yourself and within your sphere of influence.
My specialisms are creativity coaching, creative writing and organisational development for wellbeing and Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI).
I work particularly well with artists (musicians, lyricists, writers, visual artists…) and researchers (researchers are often artists in their own right).
‘The artist, the musical composer, the architect, the scientist all feel a fundamental need to discover and create something new that is whole and total, harmonious and beautiful.’ (David Bohm, ‘On creativity’)
My coaching, facilitation and consultancy practices are embedded in Relational Organisational Gestalt, as informed by Gestalt psychotherapy and systems thinking. Gestalt psychotherapy is part of the humanistic-experiential psychotherapy (HEP) family. Each person’s lived-experience is of central importance. An ever-growing body of research data supports the effectiveness of HEPs.
I am accredited by the European Association for Gestalt Therapy (EAGT).
Background
I have worked, and gained experience, in large systems such as the music industry, the National Health Service (NHS) and academia. I worked in the NHS as information and technology project manager, and in academia for fifteen years in the area of doctoral research. I have extensive experience in designing and delivering innovative wellbeing and inclusion workshops. I am a former Associate Lecturer in Popular Music and Photography.
I trained with the Gross National Happiness (GNH) Centre in the Kingdom of Bhutan. I am the co-author of a paper entitled ‘Doctoral students’ access to non-academic support for mental health’ (Waight and Giordano, 2018), published in the Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management.
Qualifications
MSc in Creative Writing for Therapeutic Purposes, Distinction, Metanoia Institute/Middlesex University, UK (2022)
Postgraduate Certificate in Relational Organisational Gestalt, Relational Change, UK (2019)
Postgraduate Diploma in Health Informatics, Distinction, University of Winchester, UK (2003)
Languages
I am bi-lingual and very comfortably work in both English and French languages.