Throughout July and August FD Consultants want to highlight the diverse expertise and professionalism amongst its associates. This week, the founder of FD Consultants, Fiona Dunkley, shares some of her background and expertise.
FIONA DUNKLEY MBACP (Snr. Accred) UKRCP ESTSS EMDR is passionate about caring for the carers of our world and therefore founded FD Consultants which is a global psychological health consultancy. Fiona is a senior accredited BACP psychotherapist, trauma specialist, trainer, supervisor and mediator. Fiona has presented on television and radio as a trauma expert, has published several articles and has been asked to speak at various international conferences. Fiona is a published author, ‘Psychosocial Support for Humanitarian Aid Workers: A Roadmap of Trauma and Critical Incident Care’, published by Routledge (Dunkley, 2018).
Fiona shares her experience of how FD Consultants originated.
I began to see a thread of similar characteristics in the types of people that signed up for caring roles. These characteristics included being passionate, caring, and resilient, but also sacrificial and overlooking of their own self-care, over-working, and holding unhealthy boundaries. Although the tapestry created by weaving together these threads created a dynamic, vibrant, compassionate picture of humanity and hope, the underside showed a much darker, chaotic and disturbing picture with many loose ends ready to unravel from one crisis to the next. This underside resulted in staff experiencing burnout, anxiety, stress, and suffering from vicarious trauma and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
I started my counselling career in the National Health Service (NHS) working in a Forensic Sexual Assault unit, often supporting individuals subjected to human trafficking. At times, I worked night shifts, and once I received a call out, I had to arrive at the hospital within one hour. I witnessed dedicated medical staff suffering from burnout and worked alongside Police Officers experiencing Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). It was also evident that people in these caring roles had not received sufficient training in the psychological impact of trauma. I witnessed this lack of training impacting not only the quality of treatment offered to survivors, but also the detrimental effect on the member of staff’s own mental health and wellbeing.
This reminded me of the time, in my early twenties, when I was knocked unconscious whilst I had gone to the aid of someone else being attacked. I gained consciousness in the ambulance and as I was asked my name by the paramedics, I realised I had no idea who I was. How strange not to be able to answer that question. As I arrived in the hospital the suspected diagnosis was concussion and a fractured skull. As I was rushed through the Emergency and Accident unit, in hindsight, I can identify that the medical staff taking care of me at the time could also have benefited from further training in the impact of psychological trauma. The medical model mainly being focused on recovery from the physical impact of trauma. The nurse preparing me for x-ray became annoyed with me as I couldn’t stop shaking, stating, “you need to keep still for the x-ray to work”. Other members of staff came to hunt me out and whispered behind their hands, “she is the one who went to help someone else being attacked”. No one explained I would be projectile vomiting throughout the night, have lights shone in my eyes every hour, and not be able to move my jaw up and down. On discharge from the hospital, I received no signposting to psychological services or explanation of the symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
As a psychotherapist specialising in trauma, I now know how crucial it is for someone’s recovery that they are supported during those first few days after a traumatic event. At FD Consultants we advise and train staff in how to offer psychological first aid to colleagues directly after a critical incident. We offer guidance to managers to reduce the risk of re-traumatising their staff and how to support someone back into the workplace. We offer training to leadership teams in crisis management and implementing best practice evidence-based trauma management and wellbeing programmes into an organisation.
After working four years in the NHS, I joined Transport for London (TfL) as the lead counsellor of an inhouse trauma and counselling service. I had arrived soon after the 7/7 London bombings. The counselling team had been successful in supporting staff back to work, but who had taken care of the counselling team? Over the next year, the majority of the counselling team left; suffering symptoms of compassion fatigue, burnout or vicarious trauma. Several years later, I joined InterHealth Worldwide supporting numerous International NGOs. Having worked in the public and private sector, I was shocked to find that when I joined the charity sector, the lowest value was placed on staffs’ wellbeing. Organisations can involuntarily take advantage of the good nature of staff, who often describe their jobs as more than a job, a calling, or a way of life, by dictating unmanageable workloads or exposure to deployments without appropriate risk assessments.
I setup InterHealth Worldwide’s trauma service supporting organisations through a crisis response. I noticed the ripple effect of trauma, from those directly impacted in the field, to those indirectly impacted in the office such as staff taking the call. I created support procedures and policies to provide safety and containment for all staff impacted, whether directly or indirectly. I collated data from each incident we supported and found that the risk of traumatic exposure to aid workers was increasing, including sexual violence and kidnapping and hostage taking. Only a couple of days ago, I posted an article entitled “Jidadists in northeast Nigeria execute five abducted humanitarian workers”. I have supported individuals who were impacted by the 7/7 bombings, Earthquake in Nepal, Ebola response, Syrian civil war, Search and Rescue refugee crisis, Westminster terrorist attack, London Bridge terrorist attack, Brussel bombings, anti-government protests in Istanbul, Juba attacks on aid workers, the Grenfell Tower fire, and Covid-19, to name a few. At FD Consultants we also offer support to organisations going through restructuring, bullying and harassment cases, death of staff, and conflicts within teams.
Having worked in large organisations witnessing staffs’ mental health deteriorating due to the nature of their work, I wanted to create a high-quality specialist trauma service to support individuals to recover quickly. I became more and more frustrated with the quality of care offered and the lack of understanding in what is good quality trauma care. FD Consultants help guide organisations in how to support their staffs’ mental health, reducing risk of further damage, resulting in longer-term health issues and long-term sick leave. From my personal experience of suffering with PTSD, to working with thousands of individuals impacted by trauma, I am passionate about making sure people get access to high quality evidence-based trauma care. I strongly believe everyone can recover from stress, anxiety, burnout, vicarious trauma and PTSD with the appropriate help and support.
Please do contact us at [email protected] if you require our psychological support services.
For organisations looking for employee psychological support, FD Consultants are the trauma specialists and well-being service who will best deliver a reliable, quick, and bespoke support system in the workplace. FD Consultant’s team of accredited specialists will offer ongoing support to help manage stress, prevent burnout and provide specialist trauma care where required, enabling your staff with the tools to cope, and recover more quickly.
