Dr Maggie Long is a Lecturer in counselling with the School of Communication and Media since 2011. She is currently Course Director for the BSc Therapeutic Communication and Counselling Studies. She completed her PhD in 2013, which focused on self-harm and help seeking.Dr Long's research interests include mental health, with a specific focus on self-harm and suicide.  She employs an interdisciplinary approach to understanding and researching mental health that draws on sociology and psychology.  She is particularly interested in sociological concepts such as help seeking, labelling, stigma and deviance in relation to mental health. Dr Long is currently supervising five PhD students, carrying out research in the fields of mental health and counselling. Her research findings have been published in key international journals including Qualitative Health Research, Journal of Mental Health and Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing.She has a keen interest in promoting the link between research and practice in the field of counselling in Northern Ireland and has designed Continued Professional Development training for counsellors and other mental health professionals based on her research findings. She has links with community organisations throughout Northern Ireland, developing initiatives such as the Connected "Counselling and Mental Health: Improving quality and governance” project, in collaboration with North-West Regional College and Nexus NI in 2015.Dr Long has disseminated her research findings in a range of forums for the public, professionals in the statutory and community sectors and policy-makers, including the Public Health Agency Self-harm Symposium and Knowledge Exchange Seminar Series.