Donal is a psychologist, educator, and researcher as well as a person with lived experience of using mental health services (as a service user and a carer). He has over 15 years’ experience in the mental health field and has led many initiatives that have enhanced mental health recovery and health promotion in Ireland. Examples include supported socialisation, mental illness self-management, and nature-based interventions.
In his work with ARCHES Recovery College, Donal uses participatory and co-design principles to develop and deliver our theoretically grounded and evidence informed Recovery Education programme. He views mental health as a human right and is passionate about driving mental health service reform so that service user, family member, carer, and supporter perspectives are prioritised. Donal advocates for a value based mental health system centred on justice, equality, respect, compassion, and empowerment.
Donal received his PhD in Meaning in Life in mental health recovery from Trinity College Dublin and sits on the Editorial Board of the Irish Journal of Psychological Medicine. His research on recovery is widely published in peer reviewed journals. You can read some of it here: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Donal-Okeeffe
Areas of expertise: Psychology, the Recovery Approach, public and patient involvement in research, Meaning in Life, curriculum design.
Peter is an educator and researcher with qualifications in mental health and wellbeing coaching, mechanical engineering, and mathematics. In ARCHES Recovery College, he supervises our team of Recovery Education Facilitators and leads the coproduction and cofacilitation of our programmes. Peter has a passion for using adult education principles as he feels this approach to working with people best draws out their knowledge, strengths, and talents.
Peter is focused on, and enthusiastic about, all Recovery Education including understanding recovery through the CHIME framework, promoting advocacy and empowerment, developing a personal recovery narrative, and supporting people to navigate the mental health services.
Additionally, Peter has been practicing Mindfulness for five years now. He values breath awareness, body scans, and gratitude and kindness practices. Peter believes mindfulness can support people in recovery by introducing calmness, bringing awareness, and enhancing appreciation for life.
Areas of expertise: coproduction, resilience, care planning, anxiety, depression, stress management, mental health and wellbeing coaching, facilitation skills, Healthy Food Made Easy, Wellness Recovery Action Planning.
Cathy spent many years working in the Community Arts sector with a variety of organisations such as Signal Art Centre, CYC, Dun Laoghaire Youth Arts Office, Dry Rain Youth Theatre, and the Knitting and Stitching Show. She spent 15 years running projects and workshops for children, youth, and women’s
groups while exhibiting her own artwork also.
A major episode with her mental health shut down normal life for many years including any interest in creative work. Through her own recovery journey with the support of mental health services, Cathy found her love of colour again and went on to share those skills and processes with others on their recovery
journey.
Cathy went on to do a variety of training and joined the ARCHES Team as a Recovery Education Facilitator in 2020. Cathy led the coproduction team who developed the incredibly popular set of Recovery Education courses: Recovery In Colour. It supports people in the process of recovery by using creativitity. People to use ‘art journaling’ (creating a personal visual journal, painting, drawing, colour and collage), to explore the meaning of recovery, self-care and to help articulate future plans and ambitions.
Areas of expertise: creativity and mental health recovery, Trauma Informed Care, traveller mental health, graphic design.
Laura is a Recovery Education Facilitator based in ARCHES Recovery College, Clonskeagh. As a Social Care Worker, she has extensive experience of working with marginalised groups experiencing mental health difficulties, and has worked in homeless services, direct provision accommodation centres, and in addiction treatment services.
Laura has co-produced and facilitated various recovery and harm reduction groups, including the drug free program in Mountjoy Prison, and has facilitated Naloxone administration training for both staff and service users.
Her life experiences have led her to be passionate about social inclusion, justice, and recovery. She is currently studying Hypnotherapy and Psychotherapeutic Counselling in London and if you were to ask her what she’ll be when she finishes college… she would say ‘about 70’!
Areas of expertise: harm reduction, addiction, trauma informed care, human rights, holistic approaches to wellbeing.
Wendy is a Recovery Education Facilitator with Arches Recovery College based in the Recovery Village in Newcastle. She has lived experience of using mental health services. After recovering from a major crisis in 2020, Wendy found herself with little hope but a deep desire to find a way through. She became a Certified Life Coach and Mentor but knew there was more she could do. Searching for answers, she found Mental Health Recovery Education, which changed her life forever.
Wendy was part of the Co-production team that developed the Recovery Education course ‘Connect, Create, Participate’ in the Dublin North East Recovery College in Dublin City University. She was trained to facilitate this course and deliver it in the community and at ‘The International Tools Fair – Minds in Motion’ which brought together diverse organisations and project leaders to collaborate and share knowledge from Europe and beyond. ‘Connect, Create, Participate’ is now being delivered in over five countries.
Wendy’s entire experience with Mental Health Recovery Education has shaped who she is today. Her favourite word is ‘hope’ and she knows her life’s purpose is to give back and support others in their recovery journey by empowering people using strengths based and inclusive approaches to help them discover themselves and live a purposeful and meaningful life, before, during and after a mental health crisis.
Areas of expertise: Peer Support in Mental Health, Fitness and Nutrition, Strengths Based Approaches, Human Rights, and Empowerment.
Jane Ann is a Recovery Education Facilitator in ARCHES Recovery Collage, based in the new Recovery Village in Newcastle Co. Wicklow. She is a person with lived experience of using mental health services, as a service user, while also been a family supporter. Jane Ann is a mother of four children. She experienced her own mental health challenges after the birth of her 4th baby.
Jane Ann attended ARCHES Recovery Collage on her own recovery journey and gained so much knowledge and support. The empathy she received was second to none from the facilitators with lived experience. She never believed recovery was possible, but soon learnt that mental health challenges are not a choice, but recovery is, this changed everything for her and brought a sense of hope back to light.
She furthered her education, as she was determined to share with people that recovery is possible, as she had experienced it firsthand. She trained in Wellness Recovery Action Planning, QQI level 6 group facilitation, and gained the confidence to go back to Dublin City University to graduate as a Peer Support Worker. Jane Ann loves mindfulness and is a Reiki Master. This brings so much calmness and peace into her life. She is excited for what’s to come in the new Recovery village in Co. Wicklow and is looking forward to helping and supporting people on their recovery journeys.
Areas of expertise: Wellness Recovery Action Planning, mindfulness, trauma informed care, resilience, peer support.
In ARCHES, Denis is responsible for co-delivering courses, helping to coordinate our coproduction programme, supervising the ARCHES team, and directing Recovery Education programme delivery. He has an educational background working as a lecturer for various colleges and universities in Ireland and has taught on different courses including supporting people with mental illness, social care, and disability. Denis has lived experience of mental health challenges and has a special interest in the models of mental health and how people live with, manage, challenge, and overcome mental health stigma. He is currently leading a coproduction group to develop a Recovery Education course for people with mental health difficulties and their families, aimed at helping them understand and respond to stigma in their lives.
Areas of expertise: psychiatric stigma, disability rights, learning design, human rights.
Isabelle is a Recovery Education Facilitator with ARCHES and a Hearing Voices Facilitator with HAIL (Housing Association for Integrated Living). She also has an interest and qualifications in film-making. Isabelle comes from France and has been living in Ireland for the last 26 years.
A few years ago, she experienced a mental health crisis. Ever since then, she has dedicated her life to Recovery. Thanks to WRAP and ARCHES Recovery College courses, community and ethos, she knows that recovery is possible. Recovery in Colour is her favourite course as it helped her find her voice again.
She originally volunteered with ARCHES, co-facilitating the Creative Café with Lisa Richardson. She is delighted to have recently joined the ARCHES team. She finds hope in education and is passionate about self-advocacy and challenging stigma.
Areas of expertise: creativity and mental health recovery, advocacy, empowerment, psychiatric stigma, Hearing Voices groups, Wellness Recovery Action Planning.
Lisa is a Recovery Education Facilitator with ARCHES Recovery College. She has a passion for craft of any kind. She achieved distinctions in both QQI Level 5 Art, Craft, and Design and QQI Level 6 Creative Textiles in the College of Further Education Dundrum. She loves sewing, knitting, embroidery and has recently been learning crochet. Along with crafting she adores animals and has a cat and a puppy.
Lisa was introduced to ARCHES Recovery College while she was a service user in Churchtown. At ARCHES, she learnt recovery in mental health is possible. Lisa took part in many of the courses online and in person. She describes the support she received at ARCHES as ‘incredible’. Lisa qualified in both QQI Level 6 Group Facilitation and Wellness Recovery Action Planning Facilitation.
After working hard on her own recovery, Lisa volunteered with ARCHES in the Creative Café. An opportunity came where there was a facilitator post vacant and she went for interview and got the post. Lisa feels this is her time to give back to ARCHES and help others back on the road to recovery too.
Areas of expertise: creativity and mental health recovery, textiles, personal narrative, Wellness Recovery Action Planning.
