Click here to view our course dates and book our online Trauma Training with Epione
About Us
Who we are and what we do
Our training is approved by the British Psychological Society and accredited by the national CPD standards service
Epione Training & Consultancy was formed in 2019 by Alex O’Donnell BA, MSc, PGDip, and Dr Dawn Harris. The organisation is led by a group of highly experienced trauma informed visionaries with proven clinical expertise and transformational methods of organisational change.
We specialise in providing trauma training throughout the United Kingdom. All core training aligns to the NES national trauma training framework, is grounded in clear learning objectives with robust independent evaluations demonstrating successful outcomes. We also specialise in trauma informed leadership and organisational transformation through our bespoke consultancy service.
Leadership
Team
Derek Johnston
Director
Derek Johnston is the Director of Epione Training and Consultancy.
Learn More Derek Johnston is the Director of Epione Training and Consultancy.
Alex O'Donnell BA, MSc & PGDip
Co-Founder and Associate Director
Alex O’Donnell is the co-founder and Associate Director of Epione Training and Consultancy.
Learn More Alex O’Donnell is the co-founder and Associate Director of Epione Training and Consultancy.
Rachael Moss MSc
Lead Trainer
Rachael has a degree in Psychology and an MSc in Forensic Psychology.
Learn More Rachael has a degree in Psychology and an MSc in Forensic Psychology.
Dr Dawn Harris
Clinical Consultant
Dawn co-founded Epione and Connectre with Alex O'Donnell
Learn More Dawn co-founded Epione and Connectre with Alex O'Donnell
Epione Research
& Innovation Team
Dr. Felicity Douglas
Felicity spent 20 years working in the field of forensic science before stepping away to focus on her writing
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Sean Morrow MSc
Sean Morrow MSc is an educator and community & youth worker specialising in learning for social change
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Dr Lesley Walker
Lesley is a Chartered Counselling Psychologist with a BPS Accredited Doctorate in Psychology and over 12 years’ clinical experience.
Learn More Epione Training
Delivery Team
Dr Emily Pathe
Dr Emily Pathe is a Chartered and Registered Counselling Psychologist.
Learn More Dr Dawn Harris
Dr Dawn Harris is the co-author of Connectere Interventions with Alex O'Donnell
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Dr Jessica Collins
Dr Jessica Collins is a Clinical Psychologist and BABCP-accredited Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapist
Learn More Rachael Moss MSc
Rachael has a degree in Psychology and an MSc in Forensic Psychology
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Pauline Hurr MSc
Pauline Hurr MSc is a Clinical Associate in Applied Psychology
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Maeve O’Boyle MA MSc
Maeve is a psychological therapist (PhD Student) with specialism in young people
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Dr Alison McLaughlin
Counselling psychologist is a role that was perfectly aligned for Alison
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Caroline Erentz
Caroline’s experience inspired her to pursue a career in the justice sector.
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Rowena McIntosh
Rowena has practiced as a social worker for over a decade, primarily with women involved with the justice system.
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Ena Cesar - BSc (Hons.) Psychology, EWP CYP
Ena is a psychology graduate on a mission
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Aidan Martin B.A, MSc & Writer
Intends to use writing, creating, and speaking to make a positive...
Learn More How we achieve success
We do this by placing relationships at the heart of everything we do
Our model is to train and support organisational transformation through a person-centered biopsychosocial model that emphasises the importance of the interconnection between biology, psychology, and socio-environmental factors. This approach ensures the long-term success of our training and consultancy work.
We also achieve success through our team and their unique level of expertise and experience in the field of trauma; including colleagues from clinical, research, academic, practitioner and lived experience backgrounds who are trained in a wide range of teaching, coaching and therapeutic modalities.
The voice that matters
Epione prides itself in placing voices of lived experience at the heart of everything we achieve and work towards.
In addition to our positive recruitment policy celebrating lived expertise, we believe the successful “See Me – Hear Me” blog post illustrates this commitment perfectly: it allows people who’ve experienced trauma the opportunity to tell their stories, and it gives Epione and a wider audience the opportunity to recognise and understand the real-life impact of trauma.
Truly inspiring stories which prove that people can and do cope with trauma and in some cases, truly recover through compassionate relational connection.
Click here to read some of things our former trainees say about us.
Always improving
Although Epione is fully approved by the BPS (British Psychological Society) and CJS (Community Justice Scotland), we’re not content to rest on our laurels.
Epione regularly undertakes independent evaluation to make sure we remain at the very forefront of exceptional trauma training, while at the same time always looking for new ways to improve.
Epione Trauma Training Timeline
Click here to learn more about our rich history
Alex O’Donnell and Dr Harris collaborate in supporting a national training transformation to implement a new trauma informed and responsive therapeutic intervention programme. The programme adopts a compassion focused approach and understanding of the neurobiology of trauma to social workers, prison staff and psychologists; vis-a-vis people exhibiting harmful behaviours.
Building on the success of the national implementation spanning 3 years, further collaboration sees Alex and Dawn co-design and deliver a new national trauma training package, with support in the initial pilot and evaluation from Community Justice Scotland.
Demand for trauma training beyond justice settings means there’s only thing for it: Epione Training & Consultancy is formed by Alex and Dawn!
We plan and host our “What Works” Conference, featuring Dr Bruce D. Perry as keynote speaker. We made a commitment to building a trauma informed and responsive Scotland, that reduces the impact of causing system generated harm.
Another year goes by as we deliver trauma training across Scotland although we begin to shift focus towards organisational transformation. We host our online Keynote Special featuring Dr Alisha Moreland-Capuia to discuss transforming systems to be informed, culturally responsive, and neuroscientifically focussed.
In response to the global pandemic, we shift to online training with a particular emphasis on supporting workers who continued to deliver front line services.
We have now trained thousands of people across Scotland and commission and external evaluation to establish if learning outcomes are being met and follow us study with regards changes in practice. See in our Evaluations section.
Epione is invited to Harvard University in the USA to provide a series of workshops and deliver educational inputs to students about our transformational work across Scotland.
Epione responds to requests, and emerging themes from external evaluations, and creates a new Research Team to assist with the development of a new trauma responsive intervention.
Epione has trained a thousands of people across a huge spread of agencies including Police, Health, Addiction, Social Work and many National Third Sector organisations. We expands to develop a national training delivery team to continue our work.
Video Library
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