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• Meg Moss on AI: Relational Safeguards and Protecting Human Connection

  Please be aware, the topic of suicide is briefly mentioned in this conversation. Meg Moss is Head of Public Affairs and Advocacy with the NCPS.  An increasingly important part of Megs work involves researching and exploring the use of AI in mental health provision - to better understand its potential impact on the work of the counselling profession, the future provision of services, and how it might shape the human emotional experience more broadly. In a wide-ranging conversation, we cover everything from the commodification of data to the risks of turning AI to combat loneliness and isolation. We discuss the importance of relational connection and empathy, as well as disagreements and friction, all as vital ingredients to personal growth and understanding. But perhaps most importantly are the UK’s first relational safeguards for AI mental health tools that Meg has developed, warning us that, without clear boundaries, chatbots and apps risk causing serious harm, particularly to children and young people. Without such safeguards and careful considerations in place, Meg worries that AI devalues relationship, connection and humanity.   For more information about the Six Principles for Relational Safeguards in AI Mental Health Tools NCPS | Press release: First blueprint to make AI mental health tools…   Here is the NCPS response to the recent Ipsos study exploring how people in Great Britain are using, and feeling about, AI in their daily lives  NCPS | NCPS Responds: New Ipsos research shows why so many Britons…   For a longer read, here is Meg’s update about AI in therapy NCPS | AI in Therapy - September 2025 Update   Please remember to like and subscribe, so you can always be part of the conversation.   This episode was recorded on Teams   Produced by Leto Blackwell   Created by the National Counselling and Psychotherapy Society   Website: www.ncps.com   Subtitles are auto generated

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• Pamela Kirkpatrick: Flipping Burgers for Community

  Pamela Kirkpatrick is a practitioner, trainer and co-founder of NCPS Recognised Counselling Service, uHub. But Pam, along with her colleague Cara, also invest considerable time and energy into their community; a community that continues to bear the bruises from its history.   Communities in Transition, was designed by the NI Executive in 2015 to support projects that would empower individuals and groups to affect positive change for themselves and their communities To this end, Pam and Cara have given up their own time to connect with an understandably cautious community. So, they developed creative ways to become accepted and from small, tentative steps, meaningful trust was built. Only then were they were able to support people that previously might never have contemplated change, never mind counselling.   This story is testament not only to our capacity and potential for change, but also to the gentle patience of the practitioner. It’s a reminder that the work we do, is as much art and creativity, relational and empathy, as it is study and theory.   For more information about Pam and the uHub team uHub – Counselling Service and Therapy Centre. Bangor, North Down.   To learn about Communities in Transition Communities in Transition – Background | The Executive Office   Please remember to like and subscribe, so you can always be part of the conversation.   This episode was recorded on Teams   Produced by Leto Blackwell   Created by the National Counselling and Psychotherapy Society   Website: www.ncps.com   Subtitles are auto generated

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• Lynda Graham: Treat us as Individuals, Not a Big Group

  Lynda Graham is the NCPS Regional Representative for Northern Ireland and a prominent and experienced voice across the counselling profession, particularly on the subject of adoption.  Originally a social worker, her work with children and families, took her along what felt like a natural path, to counselling.   Lynda is a passionate advocate for counsellors and the profession as a whole, especially keen to advocate for those living and working in Northern Ireland. And while there is an important need to recognise the specific challenges encountered there, Lynda is clear, that just as we see the individual in our daily practice, we also need to see Northern Ireland as any other place, with its own regional diversity and differences. We need to be mindful, it is a tapestry woven together with many different threads and should not be defined by one story alone.   For more information about the NCPS Regional Representatives NCPS | Regional Representatives   Please remember to like and subscribe, so you can always be part of the conversation.   This episode was recorded on Teams   Produced by Leto Blackwell   Created by the National Counselling and Psychotherapy Society   Website: www.ncps.com   Subtitles are auto generated

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• Cherelle Mead: Identity Has Always Been Complex

  Cherelle Mead, is many things, both professionally and personally.  A counsellor, supervisor, charity trustee, and now the NCPS Regional Representative for Wales, Cherelle is also a proud and devoted Mum, neurodivergent, gender fluid, and biracial. Coming from social disadvantage and a chaotic upbringing, she searched for safety and security which she found in community, rather than family.  It’s no surprise then, in her heart she holds a passion for equality and advocacy for marginalised identities, as well as the counselling profession as a whole.   For more information about the NCPS Regional Representatives NCPS | Regional Representatives   Please remember to like and subscribe, so you can always be part of the conversation.   This episode was recorded on Teams   Produced by Leto Blackwell   Created by the National Counselling and Psychotherapy Society   Website: www.ncps.com   Subtitles are auto generated

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• Gemma Khairi: Helplines Partnership

  Content: Please be aware there is a brief mention of suicide in this episode.   Gemma Khairi is Director of Operations for Helplines Partnership, the membership body for organisations that provide information, support or advice via phone, email, text or online. Gemma and her colleagues work to maintain standards, offer training, advice and support across the helplines sector.   Having a kind and generous father, Gemma witnessed the art of compassion from an early age, as her Dad worked to support people in the community, as well as caring for his children as a single parent – including Gemma's disabled brother.   Maybe as natural extension of those formative years, Gemma went on to study human rights and social justice, which took her into various roles working alongside some of the most vulnerable people in society; young care leavers, young offenders, sex workers and people living with HIV.   There are stark differences between relationships created in a therapeutic setting, and the one-off, sometimes distressing, sometimes anonymous, crisis calls that helpline staff may deal with, and Gemma helps us understand what that can be like.   We discuss the pitfalls of burnout, compassion fatigue and vicarious trauma, as well as those things we can do personally and professionally, to mitigate the inevitable hazards of this work.   It is estimated there will be well in excess of over 60 million calls to helplines annually, and thanks to Gemma, the team at Helplines Partnership, and all those they support –  we can feel confident in referring loved ones and clients for help.   For more information about Helplines Partnership Home - Helplines Partnership Please remember to like and subscribe, so you can always be part of the conversation. This episode was recorded on Teams Produced by Leto Blackwell Created by the National Counselling and Psychotherapy Society Website: www.ncps.com Subtitles are auto generated

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