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Biography I joined the University of Salford in 2007 as a part-time lecturer in Counselling and Psychotherapy. I am an accredited cognitive behavioural psychotherapist, compassion focused therapist and Europe-approved eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing practitioner. I work with a range of organisations and charities primarily working with people who have experienced either primary or secondary trauma.

My PhD and research explores the impact compassionate mind training and compassion focused therapy has in educational and clinical settings. I am passionate about helping people in the healthcare profession cultivate compassion for their own suffering.

I provides a variety of workshops regarding mental health, compassion, trauma and wellbeing for organisations, charities and the NHS.

I am co-author of the bestselling books The Kindness Workbook: Compassionate and Creative Ways to Boost Your Wellbeing (Beaumont & Welford, 2020), The Compassionate Mind Workbook: A step-by-step guide to developing your compassionate self, which has helped tens of thousands of people to learn how to develop greater compassion for themselves and others (Irons & Beaumont, 2017). I am also co-author of The Self-Compassion App, which is the first commercially available app that focuses on the theory, practice and philosophy of Compassion Focused Therapy and Compassionate Mind Training.
Research Interests Training, Self-Compassion, Post Traumatic Stress, Cultivating Compassion in Healthcare

My professional background is in psychotherapy, psychology, and mental health care. My research interests include:

• Helping individuals to respond to suffering with self-compassion.
• The cultivation of compassionate care.
• Examining the impact compassionate mind training and compassion focused therapy has on individuals suffering with trauma-related symptoms, high levels of self-criticism and shame.
• Working with individuals who are suffering with symptoms of primary or secondary trauma.
Teaching and Learning I teach on the School’s undergraduate and taught postgraduate programmes and supervises undergraduate, postgraduate and PhD students.

I am the module Leader for our Compassion Focused Therapy module. This module runs on our MSc in Advanced Counselling and Psychotherapy programme, our MSc in CBT programme and can be taken as a standalone CPD course.