Niamh McDonald

About me

I am a queer, neurodiverse, non-binary person. I have worked in the mental health industry for five years, in research, residential mental health (SILs), and community mental health roles. I am passionate about the inclusion of lived experience workers throughout the mental health industry and believe in building up the vital role that we play in making the system better for everyone. I love to use my experiences as a fat, queer, neurodiverse person to help other people accept themselves and work better with minority groups. Outside of work, I am married and have two dogs and a cat. I love dungeons and dragons, board games, and podcasts.

My experience

I have worked in a variety of peer led roles in both the community mental health and NDIS space for the last five years. I have worked supporting high risk young people living in supported living, adults living in supported living services with a variety of mental health diagnoses including schizophrenia, eating disorders, BPD and neurodiversity. I have specialised in the provision of LGBTQIA+ inclusive mental health care and supporting individuals experiencing thoughts and/or behaviours of suicide.

My current role/work

I currently work as a peer counsellor in a LGBTQIA+ peer lead suicide prevention service. In this role, I provide counselling using my lived experience as well as more traditional counselling techniques. Additionally, I provide peer supervision to peer practitioners on my team.

My training

I have a Bachelor of Arts (Psychology and Forensic Science) and Masters of Counselling.

My approach to supervision

My approach to supervision is to support an individual to develop their knowledge and skills in applying a lived experience framework to mental health care. I believe supervision builds success from the creation of a space where it can feel safe to hold up a light to ourselves and our practice. I feel that each person should be held as an expert on their own experience. I believe in using an integrated framework to supervision, drawing from multiple perspectives to create a balance that best supports the learnings of each individual. I have decided to offer supervision because I believe in the importance of peer supervision for individuals in lived experience roles and recognise that peer workers are often unable to access adequate peer supervision within their organisations. Additionally, I believe in the value of external supervision to provide a place to freely discuss topics without the bureaucracy that exists within workplaces.