Gill Pearce was a veterinary nurse for nearly 40 years before she retrained as a therapeutic counsellor. She now works with her dog Megan (pictured below), helping to reduce offending behaviour in young people.

SIX years ago Gill made a career change from veterinary nursing to train to become a therapeutic counsellor and work with young people. Gill initially trained as a bereavement counsellor with Cruse, an organisation that offers support to bereaved people. This led to further counselling courses, until she achieved the advanced diploma in therapeutic counselling and is now an accredited counsellor.

Gill began working with the White Gold initiative, a police project in Cornwall that aims to reduce offending behaviour in young people. Most of the young people Gill works with are prolific offenders, often disadvantaged, frequently unhappy and/or abused, and very challenging, but usually amazing and interesting.

Gill Pearce presented at the SCAS 2011 conference in London.

Read the full article from 2011 at BMJ Careers – Working with animals to help people.