I am the Founder of the consultancy Unique Connections, which exists to improve the lives of children and adults with intellectual disabilities who self-injure. The consultancy works with additional needs schools and care organisations to find bespoke relational, trauma-informed and emotionally literate ways forward with people presenting with entrenched self-injury and related concerns.

I have 16 years of professional experience supporting young people with severe learning disabilities, sensory loss and autism. I recently completed an ESRC-funded PhD at the University of Bristol, entitled Non-spoken stories: an ethnographic account of the emotional lives of three teenagers with severe learning disabilities who sometimes self-injured.

The purpose of my Fellowship is to discover the best trauma-informed approaches to supporting complex young people with severe intellectual disabilities, particularly those who self-injure or present with other complex behaviour. I hope that discovering best practice in this area can be translated into innovative, bespoke support for the education and care sector supporting young people with intellectual disabilities.