Divina Delaney

Divina is a CDA-licensed Social Worker (Mental Health) specialising in therapeutic work with children, adolescents and young adults. Her therapeutic approach is integrative, primarily incorporating Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR), Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) skills and play-based approaches.

With over a decade of experience, Divina has worked with young people and families across specialist mental health, educational and community settings in the UK, Ireland and the UAE. Her practice focuses on child and adolescent mental health and the transition into young adulthood, with experience supporting anxiety, emotional regulation difficulties, low mood, trauma, grief and bereavement, neurodivergence, relationship difficulties and school-related concerns.

Divina works from a systemic perspective, looking beyond the presenting difficulty to understand the wider experiences, relationships and environments that may be influencing a person’s wellbeing. Her approach is collaborative, neuroaffirming, and tailored to the person in front of her. She encourages children and young people to bring their own interests into sessions and recognises that talking is not always the easiest way to communicate. Sessions may involve conversation, creativity, play, games or activities, depending on what helps the person feel most comfortable and engaged. Each person’s voice, perspective, individual differences and strengths are central to the work.

Divina is passionate about helping the people she works with make connections, overcome barriers and feel more able to be their authentic selves. She considers it a privilege to be trusted with a part of someone’s story and finds it especially rewarding to see people make meaningful shifts, work towards their goals and carry those changes into everyday life.

Divina’s career has been centred around supporting children, young people and families. She began her professional journey in social care before qualifying as a social worker and moving into increasingly specialised roles across mental health, education, bereavement and community services. Her previous experience includes working within an NHS Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) crisis team in the UK, where she carried out mental health and risk assessments and provided therapeutic interventions to young people and families experiencing significant emotional distress.

Divina’s interest in working with children and families has also been shaped by her own background. She spent her childhood in the United States before moving to Ireland as a teenager and later lived and worked in the UK before settling in the UAE. She also grew up in a family involved in fostering and adoption, which contributed to her interest in attachment, identity and family dynamics.

Divina is currently undertaking a Postgraduate Certificate in Child, Adolescent and Family Mental Wellbeing at Tavistock and Portman, further developing her work with children and families through developmental, relational and systemic perspectives.