Speaking
Talks & workshops
I speak at festivals, conferences, schools, and staff days — usually on listening, on community practice, or on where the writing comes from.
Formats
What I can do for your event
Sessions are adapted to the room. Tell me who is coming and what you want them to leave with.
- Keynote or conference talk
- Half- or full-day workshop
- Festival appearance or reading
- Staff training and away days
- Panel and podcast
- Guest teaching, MSW programmes
Topics
Talks I give often
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What listening actually costs
On the difference between hearing someone and listening to them, and why the second one is a skill that burns out the people who are best at it.
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Writing from the counselling room
How clinical work feeds fiction without betraying it — on confidentiality, composite characters, and the ethics of using what you have been told.
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Emotional literacy for schools
A practical workshop for teachers and parents on recognising distress early, and what to say in the ten minutes after a student discloses something.
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Small teams, sensitive data
What a non-profit needs to get right about the records it keeps — consent, retention, and the spreadsheet that should not exist.
Not quite what you need? Most of these can be rebuilt around a theme — say what the occasion is and I will propose something.
Press kit
Everything an organiser needs
Biography, photographs, and a one-page summary — sent as soon as you ask, in the length you need.
- Short and long biography 50, 100, and 250 words
- High-resolution photographs Portrait and landscape, print quality
- Talk descriptions Ready to paste into a programme
- Technical requirements What the room needs, and what it does not
Invitations
Planning something?
Send the date, the audience, and roughly what you have in mind. I will tell you honestly whether I am the right speaker for it.