John is the Programme Director for Colleges and Universities at the Charlie Waller Trust. He is a BACP Vice President, BACP Fellow and Senior Accredited Counsellor. He worked as Head of Counselling, Health and Wellbeing at Cardiff University for 20 years. He has a particular interest in working creatively with organisations to enhance the provision of mental health for students. He was funded by the World Health Organisation to help a university set up a counselling service in Sri Lanka.
As former Deputy Chair of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP), John also Chaired the BACP’s Equality and Diversity Committee, and its Criminal Justice Forum. He represented BACP both nationally and internationally at conferences. He has 20 years working in schools and further education settings, as well as in primary care. In addition, he has worked on innovative projects with prisoners.
Upon his retirement form Cardiff University, John was honoured with the Vice Chancellor’s Award for Outstanding Contribution to the University. Under his management the service at Cardiff University developed an innovative short-term counselling model receiving the BACP Innovation Award in 2007. He has co-authored a chapter describing this model in the book Short Term Counselling in Higher Education edited by David Mair.