Bill Cunningham

Bill Cunningham is a psychologist who has been delivering mental health awareness training to the public, across the UK and Ireland, since 2007.

He was one of the first Mental Health First Aid instructors in England and has delivered courses to diverse groups in community, corporate and public settings ever since. This included working with officers and prisoners in prisons and extensive work training mental health advocates for Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service.

From 2009 to 2017 Bill was a National Trainer for the MHFA England CIC and trained 30 cohorts of new MHFA instructors, including 30 prison officers, to deliver the course in community and workplace settings.

As a Director of the Golden Tree Wellbeing CIC, he developed training courses using techniques derived from Cognitive Behavioural Theory, Mindfulness and Positive Psychology to help provide people with proactive tools to promote positive wellbeing. He has also designed courses delivered to NHS staff in Cumbria and to the armed forces community at Catterick Garrison.

From 2017 to 2019 he worked for the Saint John of God Hospital, Dublin. The hospital holds the licence to deliver MHFA in Ireland and his role as National Trainer involved delivering the training in the community and in corporate setting all over Ireland. He also developed the training materials and designed the MHFA Ireland instructor training programme, delivering three cohorts. In this role, he delivered a programme of courses for police officers (An Garda Siochana) several of whom went on to train as instructors. He remains an Associate Trainer for MHFA Ireland.

He is a member of the British Psychological Society, the Psychological Society of Ireland and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.