Meet the New Teacher – Fiona Milligan – Social and Emotional Counsellor; Year 13 Support Tutor
Introducing our new Social and Emotional Support Counsellor Fiona Milligan.
Fiona is from Manchester, UK and was educated in Sheffield where she obtained her BSc, and then Nottingham for her Master’s in Social Work. She moved to London to work in youth justice.
When I was studying for my Masters, I had the opportunity to train in Hong Kong and that is where the idea of working overseas started. I worked in London for seven years, but I knew if I didn’t go overseas, I won’t ever do it. I worked in South Korea for two years as the Head of the Individual Needs department.
I loved being in Asia and in Korea – the nature on Jeju was incredible, but I missed the city, it was a really rural area. I had heard about Bangkok Patana School and knew of the reputation, I really wanted to return to school counselling. I have friends in Bangkok and know it pretty well. I wanted to work in a school that was more diverse and so I am here and very excited to be here. I visited the campus in January and thought the facilities were incredible. Now that I’ve been here a little while I am still in awe, I still keep smiling to myself.
I have just trained as a yoga teacher in India, I love travelling, I am always exploring new places. I love the beach and hiking. I spend a lot of time reading. My passion is research in psychology. I ran the London marathon in 2017. I am really excited to get involved in everything going on here.
I love working with teachers, it is rare you find people who are so passionate, interested and interesting. Every day they are inspiring students and what is more inspiring than that?
One of my passions is to remove the stigma of talking about feelings and how you are feeling and your state of mind. My mission is to make sure that when people are feeling emotionally not great then they come to a counsellor in the same way they would see a doctor when they feel physically unhealthy. I want it to be as normal as that. I don’t want there to be a stigma around counselling and mental health anymore – that children and adults feel they have a place of safety.
If they don’t feel 100 percent in themselves then they aren’t going to learn in the most successful way. I want everyone to feel safe emotionally in the classroom, able to take risks and enjoy education.”
Learn about all our new teachers here: https://www.patana.ac.th/new-teachers-2019-20/
