About Anna-Michele
Anna-Michele is a New Zealander, despite the Aussie twang, and has spent most of her adult life living in Australia and England. She has finally managed to begin living between her home country, Aotearoa, and the North East of England - catching the best of the seasons where she can and being officially recognised as a professional bag lady!
Having worked in and around Schools, Childcare Settings and Family Services for most of her 30-year career, Anna-Michele has extensive experience in teaching, educational advisory services, child protection and arts therapies for groups and individuals.
Read on if you want to know more on her professional background, or cut to the chase! and view courses available ...
Download Anna-Michele's Biography and CV's
Trained initially in Early Years Education in NZ, Anna-Michele has taught across all phases, primarily as an Emotional Behaviour Difficulties Support Teacher with individuals and small groups within the UK. However, her heart still lies with those crucially formative first seven years.
Despite various flaws perceived by Anna-Michele within the Education System, she continues to marvel at the tenacity, creativity and phenomenal organisational skills of schools and their star-like staff who persevere in doing what they really believe in for pupils, whilst making it look as if they are doing very much as they are told!
Further qualifications in Youth Work, Neurolinguistic Programming, and various Therapeutic Techniques followed including the Institute of Arts in Therapy and Education (IATE) in London 1993, in Integrative Arts Psychotherapy. With a private therapy practice for children, young people and their parents/carers for many years, she was accredited registration as a Therapeutic Child Counsellor in 1996. (U.K.A.T.C.)
- Find out more about The Institute of Arts in Therapy and Education (IATE)
Anna-Michele thrives on teaching on various courses at IATE, including setting up the Certificate for Emotional Literacy with the foresight of renowned Dr. Margot Sunderland. This course has since gone on to become a Foundation Year for the Masters in Emotional Literacy for Children at the Centre for Child Mental Health where Anna-Michele is still a regular presenter.
Anna-Michele has also enjoyed being an accredited Quality Circle Time Consultant with Jenny Mosley, since 1996. This has given her a wealth of experience visiting hundreds of Schools and Children's Settings up and down the country and abroad - hence the bag lady tag! QCT promotes a whole school approach to improved behaviour, enhanced self esteem and morale through a positive ethos and environment.
Anna-Michele has gained great satisfaction in delivering inset, keynote presentations, working in school days, and small circles of support for pupils, Train the Trainer 5-day Accredited Courses and Direct Consultancy for Schools Development and Improvement Plans.
In 2005, in a post as Anti-Bullying Officer for a Local Authority in the North East, Anna-Michele successfully established a new service supporting Schools and Children’s Services. Within three years, she had devised and written an accreditation scheme; implemented and researched a pilot Massage in Schools Programme (MISP) across seven schools; hosted an annual calendar of training opportunities and raised the profile and calibre of anti-bullying work across the authority.
- Find out more about the Anti-Bullying Collective (ABC)
Having experienced the significant impact of MISP, Anna-Michele returned to freelance work and became an International MISP Trainer. Now in the Voluntary Committee role as Education Co-ordinator on the Massage in Schools Association (MISA), she seeks to have MISP further endorsed as a means to deliver the SEAL and Targeted Mental Health in Schools Agenda.
- Find out more about our MISP courses...
- Visit the massageinschools.com website
- Visit the Massage in Schools Association for England, Wales and Northern Ireland
Deeply passionate about the transformative power of nurturing touch in children’s lives, and fascinated by the neuroscience behind it, Anna-Michele recently attended baby massage classes in New Zealand and trained as an International Association of Infant Massage Instructor - absolutely gorgeous stuff - and that’s a professional opinion!
It’s not all work and no play - Anna-Michele managed to write a book on request from LDA, the Educational publishers, ‘How to Nurture and Enhance Children’s Emotional Development’. Additionally, Anna-Michele can now do a full review of the most comfy and accommodating B&Bs across Northumberland, especially Edith's!
What Next?
A self confessed perpetual student, Anna-Michele is about to embark on her long awaited Masters, researching children’s perceptions of everyday feelings - what they think we need to know and do to get it right!
