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Dawn Johnson ACBS Board Member - UK And Ireland Chapter

Tell us a bit about yourself

Mark Oliver

By accident of birth I was born in Ely in Cambridgeshire as my parents were based there when my dad was in the RAF. Despite this inconvenient truth I maintain that I am actually Northumbrian; I grew up in the 1970s and 80s in a small mining town called Ashington and then moved all of seven miles away and now live in a pretty market town called Morpeth.

Mark Oliver

I have always worked for the NHS – I began in one of the old Victorian asylums as a part time catering assistant when I was 17, then trained as a psychiatric nurse. I qualified just as the hospital closure programme was starting and worked in a number of community care facilities in rehabilitation, acute admissions and psychiatric intensive care. In my early 30s I undertook an undergrad degree in psychology and then worked for two years as an assistant psychologist working in NHS Research and Development and earning an MPhil in Medical Education Development.

In 2007 I began training on the Newcastle University Clinical Psychology Doctorate course. On qualifying I went to work in Intellectual Disabilities services for Steve Noone who, seeing that I was a behaviourally-oriented psychologist with an interest in mindfulness, introduced me to ACT. I have worked in ID ever since; completing an MSc in Applied Behaviour Analysis through Bangor University and working to apply ABA, Positive Behavioural Support, and ACT with my clients.

I am married to my wife Emma and have two sons one of whom is starting University (I have given him a copy of Nic’s Unbreakable Student!) and the other is just starting Sixth Form. The most important family member is our Cocker Spaniel Molly who is the neediest, most attention-seeking dog I have ever known, and quite possibly in the entire history of dogs.

I have always worked for the NHS – I began in one of the old Victorian asylums as a part time catering assistant when I was 17, then trained as a psychiatric nurse. I qualified just as the hospital closure programme was starting and worked in a number of community care facilities in rehabilitation, acute admissions and psychiatric intensive care. In my early 30s I undertook an undergrad degree in psychology and then worked for two years as an assistant psychologist working in NHS Research and Development and earning an MPhil in Medical Education Development.

What do you do?

1

I am a clinical psychologist working in the NHS. I work with adults with intellectual disabilities who either present with difficulties with their mental health or who show their unhappiness and get their needs met through behaviour which challenges services. I spend a lot of my time training and supervising colleagues.

2

One of the things I like about working with people with intellectual disabilities is that we have to be creative in our approach and truly meet the client where they’re at. That almost always involves adapting interventions 

3

 I have published and presented on adapting ACT for people with ID and brain injuries and collaborated with friends and colleagues to develop an adapted and accessible ACT process measure; the Psychological Flexibility Questionnaire-Accessible (PFQ-Ax). It seems to do the same job as mainstream measures but is much more understandable for people with lower cognitive abilities.

4

I am also involved in a collaborative project with the Design department of Northumbria University; we are exploring whether design principles can enhance the influence of values-clarification materials- essentially can we make values more memorable and therefore more available to guide people’s actions?

5

My role on the ACBS UK&ROI board, is Member At Large, which is a bit like a Minister Without Portfolio – so I don’t have set responsibilities like the President or Treasurer or Secretary, instead I offer my time and energies for projects that the board are working on. As I type this it is our one-day education and networking event Hot Topics In ACT and CBS, and once that is done I know that next year will be focused on our next UK&ROI Conference.

Why are you a member of ACBS?

In my early days of learning about ACT Steve Noone told me that ACBS would be my “home”, and I held that in mind for a couple of years before I joined. At the time we had a young family and money was tight – joining a professional society seemed like an unjustifiable luxury. So when I did join, the values-based subscription fee was an attractive way of trying it at low-cost.

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