Di Conroy

Di has broad knowledge of wellbeing, mental health, psychotherapy and social models and issues, and has taught at graduate and postgraduate levels. On qualifying with a BA (hons) Social Work in 2008, she worked in a child protection team for 2 years undertaking parenting capacity, risk assessments and care proceedings on behalf of the Local Authority, before moving to work to an adults Community Mental Health Team (CMHT). Her last NHS role was an Advanced Practitioner in Social Work and Approved Mental Health Professional (AMHP) where she was responsible for managing complex client cases, supervising practice and overseeing safeguarding adult investigations, taking cases via legal channels and to the Court of Protection.

In the CMHT, Di's field of expertise was personality disorder, and she undertook specialist training on this with The Brenchley Unit in Maidstone; this activated a long-term passion for understanding attachment, trauma and PTSD. After completing a Postgraduate Diploma in Approved Mental Health Practice in 2013, she worked as an AMHP completing crisis assessments under The Mental Health Act 1983 (amended 2007), facilitating hospital admissions and risk management in the community.

Having become interested in resilience and strength’s-based perspectives, Di trained with BRIEF in London to qualify with a Diploma in Solution Focused Brief Therapy Practice in 2015, which is put to good use when she left the NHS to travel and worked for the United Nations for a year in 2016, supporting humanitarians in its mission in Afghanistan. While in Afghanistan, she completed her MSc in Mental Health, undertaking research into the use of mindfulness and mediation in the treatment of PTSD in veterans and humanitarians. After returning to the UK in 2017, she took up her first academic post at University of Derby and completed her Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education, becoming a fellow of the Academy in 2020.

Most recently, Di has completed training in the new fields of neuroscience and bodywork approaches to trauma. She is currently practicing as a counsellor and sees clients in private practice, and is a public speaker on attachment for Seed Talks. More can be view on her official website.

Di has previously taught content on a wide range of topics including: models of mental disorder, risk assessment and management, adult social care and mental health law, adult and child safeguarding, meta-awareness and the unconscious, defence mechanisms, fairy tales and stories, creativity and using writing, poetry and journalling therapeutically, compassion focused approaches, counselling skills and anti-discriminatory and anti-oppressive practice. She currently leads undergraduate modules on mental health and reflective practice and teaches attachment theory, trauma and trauma informed practice on postgraduate programmes.

Di leads the Continuing Professional Development module on Trauma Informed Care, and recently collaborated with Leeds and York Partnership Foundation NHS Trust to design, deliver and evaluate training for support workers in trauma informed care and practice.

• Level 4 Introduction to Mental Health
• Level 6 Mental Health & Practice
• L7 Introduction to attachment theory
• L7 Solution Focused Brief Therapy
• L7 Motivational Interviewing
• L7 Understanding Trauma
• L6/L7 Introduction to Trauma Informed Care
• CPD Programme Trauma Informed Practice