Deirdre Brown is married to Hamish Sutherland, and mother to Ellie (6 years), Freya (5 years), and Charlie (3 years). Deirdre has a long-standing connection with Edmund Rice Camps, and was part of the founding group of campers who travelled to Australia to learn about ERCs and export them back to New Zealand. She also attended the first ER camp in Auckland. After finishing her training in clinical psychology, and her PhD she spent some time in the UK (Lancaster) as a researcher, before returning to New Zealand and working as a clinical psychologist in paediatrics at Dunedin Hospital. These days she is a Senior Lecturer in clinical and forensic psychology at Victoria University of Wellington, with a focus on child development. Her research includes examining how adults can effectively communicate with young people to support them in talking about past experiences, especially in investigations of maltreatment.
Hamish Sutherland is married to Deirdre Brown, and father to 3 young children. Hamish has been involved with Edmund Rice Camps since 1995, which is where he met Deirdre. He has been involved in all aspects of ER Camps and it is his positive experiences on ER camps, which guided him into teaching. Hamish has been a teacher for the last 15 years both in New Zealand and the UK. He is currently working at St Bernard’s College, Wellington. He has the perfect job. Mentoring senior student leaders; developing and implementing social justice initiatives; mentoring refugee students ; working with staff developing special Catholic character; mountain biking…and also teaching. He is also currently working alongside Cardinal John Dew, in the Archdiocese Stewardship Action Group, focussing on developing positive connections within our parish/ school / diocese communities.
Keynote Presentation:
“Joining the dots: taking psychological research out of the lab and into our work with young people”
In this presentation Deirdre and Hamish will take a look at what we know from research and practice about things that influence positive development in young people (and the flipside of this). They will highlight some evidence-based techniques for increasing young people’s well-being.