FROM STAGE AND SCREEN TO SPECIALIST SUPPORT WIRRAL LIFE TALKS TO ANN MARIE DAVIES
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FROM STAGE AND SCREEN TO SPECIALIST SUPPORT WIRRAL LIFE TALKS TO ANN MARIE DAVIES
After fifteen years away, AMD returns to the Wirral with a wealth of experience spanning television, education, psychotherapy, and corporate wellbeing. With more than three decades in performance-led industries including a four-year role as Katrina Evans in Channel 4’ s soap opera Brookside, her career has evolved from the spotlight of stage and screen to the forefront of psychological safety, suicide intervention training, and mental health support.
Now an award-recognised Mental Health Role Model and workplace wellbeing consultant, AMD supports all organisations across corporate, education and performance sectors, helping them embed trauma informed, culturally aware, and neurodiversity-sensitive approaches into their culture. As she joins Wirral Life as a columnist, she brings both lived experience and clinical expertise- and a genuine passion for being back home on the Wirral.
What have you been up to, and how does it feel to be back? Where do I begin? Yes- I’ m back, and I absolutely love it! The past eight years, I’ ve been building and leading my own workplace wellbeing company, delivering training and therapeutic support across a range of high-performance sectors. Coming home feels grounding. The Wirral has always been part of who I am, and returning with new experience, perspective and purpose which feels incredibly special.
You have spent more than three decades in television, theatre, film and media. How has that lived experience shaped the way you support clients working in high-pressure, performance-driven environments? My early career immersed me in the realities of public-facing, high performance work. I spent four consecutive years playing Katrina Evans in Brookside, alongside roles for the BBC and ITV, and time as a radio presenter. Those experiences gave me first-hand insight into scrutiny, expectation, and the emotional demands of performing under pressure.
Today, that lived experience allows me to connect authentically with clients in creative, sporting, and educational environments. I understand the adrenaline, the visibility and the toll that sustained performance can take- and I bring that empathy into every therapeutic and consultancy relationship.
Your work now spans suicide intervention, psychological safety and trauma-informed practice. What first drew you toward this specialist area of mental health? Mental health has always been personal to me. My late uncle lived with schizophrenia, and that experience deeply shaped
my understanding and compassion from a young age. I’ ve also worked in education as a teacher, where I saw the pressures, young people face and felt a strong desire to make a meaningful difference. My transition into psychotherapeutic counselling came from wanting to support people beyond the surface level, particularly those navigating stress, burnout, and performance pressure. Over time, I developed specialist expertise in suicide intervention and trauma informed wellbeing. That path reflects my commitment to safeguarding, ethical practice and improving psychological outcomes for individuals working under intense emotional strain.
You deliver wellbeing programmes across corporate, education, charitable and performance sectors. What changes are you seeing in how organisations approach psychological safety today? There has been a significant shift. Increasingly, organisations recognise that wellbeing is not a“ nice to have”- it’ s fundamental to performance, retention, and culture. There is a growing appetite for evidence-based training, from structured psychological safety frameworks to group wellbeing sessions. Leaders are beginning to understand that when people feel safe to speak up, seek support and contribute without fear of stigma, performance improves organically. Psychological safety is no longer peripheral— it’ s strategic and essential!.
You’ re trained as a Mental Health First Aid England and Suicide First Aid Instructor. How do you balance the intensity of this work with your own wellbeing? Balance is rooted in the same principles I teach boundaries, supervision, and reflective practice. This work can be emotionally demanding, so I prioritise ongoing professional development, clinical supervision, and intentional self-care. My earlier career in high-pressure environments also taught me the importance of grounding and maintaining a healthy separation between work and personal life. And nothing restores perspective quite like walking our dogs, Pedro and Red, along the beautiful Wirral coastline with my partner Les, plus quality family time with my daughter Jasmine.
Many of your clients experience anxiety, burnout, and performance pressure. What themes are emerging across creative and high-performance industries? Across entertainment, education, corporate and public sectors, recurring themes include chronic stress, perfectionism, emotional fatigue, and identity pressures. Many individuals struggle with burnout and the expectation to perform consistently at a high level— alongside the everyday pressures of life itself.
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