My story

I began delivering training sessions in qualitative research in 2017 alongside my academic post. Over the years, this training became my passion.

Every session I run is designed to be interactive, supportive, and informative; making qualitative research methods practical and usable in academic and non-academic settings.

Now, with Qualitative Training, I spend every day doing what I love most: supporting academics, professionals, and organisations to build their research skills, knowledge and confidence, progress their research, and develop their careers through:

• Delivering training, courses and webinars in qualitative research and methods for a range of clients including university departments, doctoral training centres, government, NHS and public sector and research organisations.
• Designing and delivering on demand courses, live masterclasses, and 4-week virtual bootcamps for Qualitative Training, including the popular and first of its kind: Reflexive Thematic Analysis Bootcamp.
• I’ve trained 1000s of PhD students, professional researchers, academics and practitioners over the years.
• Coaching and Mentoring: as a Qualified and Accredited Coach (including in neurodiversity), I support students and professional researchers at all stages of their qualitative research journey, in publishing their work, and preparing funding applications.
• Consultancy: I have worked with a range of clients and collaborators on both qualitative research and evaluations, including, in particular, a number of police organisations and in public health.

My work on qualitative research has been published in a number of journals and in books including Reflexivity in Criminological Research, Reflexivity, and Crafting Autoethnography. And I’ve years’ of experience on the Editorial Boards of top journals including Qualitative Research and Sociology, and I was previously Chair of the Editorial Board of Sociological Research Online.

Launching Qualitative Training and completing my Professional Diploma in Coaching gave me the final push I needed to join the dots between the training, coaching, mentoring and consultancy sides of my business. I can engage in consultancy and coach clients in various contexts and styles. I often use a blend of coaching and mentoring in 1-1 sessions where the focus is on career progression, qualitative projects, writing, and/or doctoral study.

I am also passionate about coaching clients who feel ‘stuck’ in particular life situations and/or are unsure how to move on. For example, many of my clients are looking to gain further insight into how to move through (or transition out of) their professional careers or, for example, whether to leave academia. I had the same experience of feeling lost and disheartened by the pressures of academia and its working practices and structures. I worked my way up to Associate Professor level before burning out and questioning whether I wanted to follow this path any longer. My unique experience of working in/across a variety of research contexts and academic contexts, and of working in different universities in the Scottish and English higher education systems, also mean I am familiar with many of the different challenges and work environments which clients might be working in. I want to help you to make positive steps and changes, to assess and understand where you are, get ‘unstuck’, and look ahead to new beginnings.

My coaching is informed by a variety of styles but I am heavily influenced by Narrative Coaching and Somatic Coaching. I am also trained in Trauma Informed Practice and have completed Advanced training in Neurodiversity in Coaching. Essentially, I coach and mentor in line with what works for the individual and the goals they wish to explore and achieve. I partner with you, so you can identify, shape and achieve your vision of success