Stephanie Hill

Stephanie is an Emotional Wellbeing practitioner and Learning & Development specialist with twenty years’ experience. She works internationally with United Nations Agencies and International Non-Governmental Organisations, as well as Charities, NHS organisations and Local Government in the UK.

She describes her career as a tale of two parallel branches which frequently (and purposively) intertwine, Emotional Wellbeing Expert and Learning & Development Specialist - both of which launching in 2001, the year she became a Psychology graduate and also started her career as an Adult Learning Trainer.

Emotional Wellbeing: This side of Steph’s career has also been a personal journey, In 2004 she was working in South East Asia when the Boxing Day Tsunami hit; tragically killing her partner and leaving her family and her with life-threatening injuries.

On returning to the UK to heal from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder she was offered the choice of anti-depressants and a waiting-time of “at least” 18-months for counselling support. Frustrated by the powerlessness she felt in not having the support she needed, Steph decided to play a proactive role in her own healing journey through studying different therapeutic approaches including: Mindfulness, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Neurolinguistic Programming and Hypnotherapy. She was eventually able to overcome the debilitating symptoms of PTSD and emotionally thrive.

This experience gave her a commitment and drive to support others with a self-efficacy approach to emotional wellbeing and resilience, something she was able to start doing through her Learning & Development career that was happening simultaneously to this journey.

As well as working 1:1 with clients as a therapist Steph, utilises her passion for Learning & Development (see below) to create programmes that engage, empower and enable participants around emotional wellbeing and resilience. Her career has primarily focused on the care-giving sector, working with organisations that focus on Humanitarian Response, International Development, Domestic Abuse, Homelessness and Health and Social Care (see below) and creating programmes to support staff and service users/ clients.

Learning & Development: Simultaneously to her emotional wellbeing journey Steph began a career in L&D as an international English Language Trainer for Adults back in 2001, giving her a solid foundation in creating participatory and fun training courses for a diverse audience. Following the Tsunami, Steph did an MSc in Disaster Management and International Development (Distinction) and started a career in L&D in Humanitarian Response and International Development, working internationally with United Nations Agencies and International Non-Governmental Organisations; and later went on to work with Health and Social Care organisations in the UK. As an L&D specialist, she works with organisations to design and develop programmes covering: Needs Analysis, Design and Development (including measurement frameworks), Delivery, Evaluation and Outcomes Reporting.

In 2015, Steph established two consultancies:

Happy Headwork (formerly Dynamic Toolkit Project):Focused on increasing emotional wellbeing in organisations for staff and service users/ clients. (All info available on this site).

Encompass Learning & Development: Where she continues to work with organisations across the not-for-profit sector. Examples of recent projects include:

• Curriculum Specialist for the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime and UN Women on a project to Develop the Capacity of Law Enforcement Officers to Practice a Gender-Responsive Approach to Investigating Trafficking in Persons Crimes.
• Curriculum Specialist for the United Nations Office of Drugs on a project to develop the capacity of Maritime Law Enforcement Officers for Responding to the Smuggling of Migrants by Sea.
• Lead Evaluator for a Women’s Homelessness Project (developed Theory of Change and Outcomes Measurement Framework).
• Part of the Development Team for HPass – the Humanitarian Learning Quality Standards.