Anna Petrie
Training and Education Officer, Counselling Officer
Anna started working for Race Equality First this year within the new Healthy Minds Project. Before joining Race Equality First Anna completed her BACP accredited training in Integrative Counselling & Psychotherapy and Counselling Children & Young People within the University of South Wales, before working as a school based counsellor within the Barnardo’s counselling service.
Anna offers free and confidential support around wellbeing and mental health issues to the people and communities within Cardiff, to break down stigmas that exist around mental health, to tackle social isolation, and to empower people within the community through offering knowledge and tools than can support their development to improved health and wellbeing.
Within the counselling service every beneficiary is offered a safe, kind and confidential space where they will not be judged, in which we aim to improve understanding of the problems the person is facing, improve understanding of thoughts, feelings, behaviours and the self, and build upon ways of coping to support the client toward improved health, happiness and overall wellbeing.
Anna also supports local peer support groups, in which women who have had similar experiences or have a similar background are able to meet, talk, share and create new friendships, in a religiously sensitive and non-formal setting, with opportunities to join different wellbeing activities such as yoga, dancing, walking or creative activities, whilst talking and learning more about wellbeing and coping with different issues.
Skills that Anna brings to Race Equality First:
Throughout her training and counselling roles Anna has provided a professional 1-1 service and worked with a range of different ages, backgrounds, varying levels of needs, and complex issues such as sexual abuse, bereavement, anxiety, bullying, depression, PTSD, transgender issues, and complex mental health conditions such as bipolar and borderline personality. Through her time working within different roles with such diverse clients, she had developed her practice to be adaptive, using interventions and approaches from a range of theories to work proactively and dynamically to support the unique needs of each client, and facilitate their process toward improved wellbeing.
Anna is passionate about contributing to create a world where opportunity is equal regardless of protected characteristics such as race, gender, religion and sexual orientation. This post at Race Equality First has allowed her to continue her work to support vulnerable people towards improving their social and emotional well-being, and contribute within the teams and projects that bring about real-world change.
info@raceequalityfirst.org.uk |
