by Cherie Battista

Cherie Battista is a Cognitive Behavioural Psychotherapist, and graduated with her PhD in July 2019. She graduated in 1986 with a BA in Physical Education and Drama, and completed her MEd in Educational Psychology at the University of Manchester, whilst teaching full time. In 1994, she changed career and qualified as a professional Counsellor. Since qualifying, she has completed the Postgraduate Diploma in Psychoanalytic Observational Studies and Postgraduate Diploma in Cognitive Behavioural Psychotherapy. She has worked as a professional Counsellor in Education, Occupational Health, and the NHS for sixteen years. For the last five years she has worked as a Cognitive Behavioural Psychotherapist.

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Her interest and passion for writing began in childhood, and she created short stories and poetry based on autobiography. In 2011 she commenced an MA in Creative Writing: Innovation and Experiment at the University of Salford, and achieved a life long ambition when she graduated in 2013, with a Distinction in her final Creative Project. Her first book Secrecy and Synchronicity was rewritten whilst studying her MA. Her PhD research was a practice based investigation into the experiences of Home Children and the First World War. The aim of the thesis was to create a biography of her ancestor based on archive and field research, family history and fiction, which developed into her second book. In February 2015, she was asked to read a short extract from Secrecy and Synchronicity, during the University of Salford’s “LGBT History Month: An Evening With Jackie Kay”–appointed as the University’s new Chancellor and Writer in Residence.