Over the past 30 years I’ve studied human psychology from behind the lens, as professional photographer, a marketing creative and an educator. The love of learning has led to higher education through a Master of Counselling. Discovering a passion for academic research through post graduate studies, I continue with an ongoing Master of Philosophy researching neurodivergent students and their experience at school.
As a highly creative and empathic person, I thrive in helping others. A love of science and human behaviour informed all career choices through teaching, group facilitation, sales and marketing. My varied career has provided a strong scaffolds for working in the mental health and neurodivergent advocacy field. Research on neurodivergence and school attendance problems, through a Master of Counselling and now a Master of Philosophy, I’m working on a mixed methods photovoice pilot program, anticipating an empowerment of students to advocate for inclusive change in the school environment.
As a qualified counsellor and level 2 member of the Australian Counselling Association, I work with children, adolescents and families. With a special interest in the engagement in education for neurodivergent community, Autism Spectrum Disorder, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and learning differences, can work with NDIS participants who have combination plan, self-managed and plan management support.
Evidence Based Supports include:
✔ Acceptance Commitment Therapy (ACT)
✔ Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT)
✔ Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT)
✔ Mindful Based Stress Reduction (MBSR)
✔ Mindful Self Compassion (MSC)
✔ Focusing Oriented Psychotherapy
✔ Somatic Experiencing
✔ Emotion Focused Therapy
✔ Motivational Interviewing
✔ Solution Focused Therapy
History
Lived experience of ADHD offers a unique experience to investigate mindful photovoice as a method to re-engage students who are challenged by the school environment. Working with children early in my career as a primary school teacher, I know all too well the demands of the classroom for some students can be sensorily overwhelming.
Likely the reason I didn’t stay in the career for a very long time. Having a chair thrown at me by an 11 year old may have been one of the reasons I left teaching, but not the only one. Coming out of teachers college early in the 1990’s was a time when we had quite a different scenario about teachers. We had too many and not enough jobs. Fast forward to moving to Sydney, I left the teaching profession after only a few years, but the desire to teach was always in me. Getting a job with a tech company selling Apple computers to schools, I taught teachers how to set up networks and use their computers. As a lifelong learner of all things, the desire to know how things work has always been part of my experience.
A love for technology and all things photography started when I was young, the visual medium has always been an area that engages me, film or digital. Becoming a professional photographer in 2006, photographing real estate, headshots and products, I enjoyed the process of working with clients o get the best shots to market their products, large or small.
As I developed my photography business, merryimages.com.au, I found joy in working with individuals to get the best headshots for them to put out into the world, and put their authentic image of themselves and their business. Working with public speakers and small business owners, I found a similar story; people did not love looking at photos of themselves.
Recognising the common humanity of this experience was obvious, and yet eye opening. This was the beginning of wanting to work one on one with people to help them feel better about their experiences in the world.
Mindful Self Compassion
Studying Mindful Self compassion with a friend just before the pandemic turned out to be a game changer for me. Having had a lot of therapy throughout my adult life, I had read so many helpful books on Cognitive Behaviour Therapy and worked through challenging times with a familial history of depression and anxiety, but Mindful Self Compassion seemed to be the thing that I found very helpful to soothe the inner turmoil. At the same time when going through very difficult times, I picked up my camera and went outside. Allowing myself to walk and pay attention to what I was drawn to visually.
Mindful Photography
I taught classes of adolescents and adults about the value of learning photography in manual mode. Although it started as a photography class, it always had a flavour of mindfulness to it. The Royal Botanic Gardens offered a great space to have a variety of beautiful colours, shapes, textures, smells, sounds and movement to look at and inspire any photographer. Setting up mindful photography as an idea, I think most thought it was a bit out there. They were right, it is about it being out there rather than in here! Parents of autistic adolescents gave positive feedback about the classes as a mixture of socialisation, getting outside, understanding the use of the technology and how every setting impacts the shot and connecting with others through the safety of the lens.
Contorting myself into weird angles to get the best angle of a dragonfly or a bee in a bush, I found the purpose of these walks were to get out of my head and into the external world at first. It sounds very obvious to go for a walk, it will make you feel better, but when you are in a dark place, this can be an overwhelming task, so maybe wandering around your backyard was a good first step. A helpful counsellor once said to me, what is in front of you for the next 10 minutes and that was one of the best pieces of advice anyone has ever given me, confirming mindfulness as a pathway to moving in the direction I wanted to go.
I continued to use the camera as a tool for mindfulness personally throughout the pandemic when classes were not able to run. It was a great way to connect the outside with the inside and find ways to process the difficult emotions of the changing world. Noticing that the bees were still pollinating the lavender, the spiders were still spinning webs, the world felt a bit less changed. Photographing sharp and pointy seeds helped to alleviate some of the anger that I felt and the growth of flowers through the cracks in concrete reminded me that growth can happen in the strangest of places.
Post Graduate Study
Starting a post graduate masters is challenging at any age, but I challenged myself through Covid lockdowns to do the work required to become a qualified counsellor. Academia online was different to what I thought and getting used to the zoom screens turned out to be a convenient way to study without too many distractions. Focused on an area of lifelong interest, I found study to be the perfect antidote to the times.
Through a research thesis in the Masters of Counselling qualification, exploring the steady growth school attendance problems over the past 10 years and a strong uptick after covid, I’ve recognised the gap in what is required to engage some students who may have a history of trauma or neurodivergence. The outdated disciplinary model of truancy and heavy handed detentions only exacerbate the issue and although some schools have been slowly transitioning to have some sensory friendly areas, many classrooms today have an overwhelming impact for those who experience sensory processing difficulties. The realisation for some students that learning from home environments was possible and for some students preferable, going back to an “unsafe” environment continues to be challenging.
School Attendance Problems and ongoing research
As 1 in 3 students over the past 12 months have reported persistent school attendance problems, the term School Can’t has been popularised to demonstrate the difficulties for some students. With a senate enquiry in 2023 investigating the problem, it is clear that disciplinary methods are having very little impact on some students capacity to cope with the stress and anxiety that the school environment. Researching the intersection between neurodivergence and school attendance problems, the data suggests the unmet sensory needs and the differences in the way some students experience their learning environment sets off alarm bells leading to a fight of flight response and reduced window of tolerance, not an ideal learning state.
As I continue to research novel ideas for bridging the gap between those who experience sensory processing difficulties, social anxiety and relationship challenges, I’m developing a research proposal to investigate photovoice method, participatory photography, hermeneutic photography and photo elicitation, incorporating mindfulness-based practice with photography for those who School Can’t in the hopes to re-engage students, promote awareness of differences in experience and develop new ways to provide optimal learning environments.
It turns out I really like research and academic writing and am considering a PHD!
To read more: DOI: https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.15034.36806