Linda Maher, BEd, MTh, CPE
Mental Health First Aid Training Instructor
Linda Maher is a graduate of Memorial University of Newfoundland with a Masters in Theology and Pastoral Counselling and a Bachelor of Education (Adult) Degree. She also holds a designation as a Clinical Pastoral Educator through the Canadian Association of Spiritual Care in the area of Grief and Bereavement Counselling with certification as a Clinical Chaplain in a healthcare setting. With a passion for mental health education, Linda is a Crisis Intervention Stress Management (CISM) Facilitator which entails providing crisis debriefings for First Responders, as well as a Myers Briggs Type Inventory (MBTI) Instructor with Psychometrics. She became certified as a Mental Health First Aid Basic Training instructor in July 2015.
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Linda’s experience as an Offshore Chaplain in the Newfoundland Oil and Gas industry was a unique and rewarding one. Having completed the daunting Basic Survival Training required to go offshore, she would travel by helicopter or vessel to offshore oil installations 500 kilometres from St. John’s, providing support to workers isolated from their families
during their three week work rotations. During her ten years in this role Linda assisted with a number of tragedies, from suicides to a fatal helicopter accident in 2009.
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Linda was also privileged to be employed as a Clinical Chaplain with Mental Health and Addictions at the Waterford Psychiatric Hospital in St. John’s. During her tenure there as a member of the interdisciplinary care team, she was honoured to be invited into people’s lives and to journey with them during their most vulnerable times. She met many wonderful people and learned many things, both professionally and from life stories, about mental health. The essence of these experiences come through in her passionate delivery of Mental Health First Aid training.
Another area of Linda’s work that is near and dear to her heart was her role as an Outreach Community Chaplain. This position included designing and facilitating life skills education programs for at-risk youth, some of whom had dropped out of high school and others who were incarcerated in the provincial youth correctional centre.
Linda and her husband Rick now live in Rothesay, New Brunswick. Linda is a strong advocate for self care and takes great pleasure in her daily yoga routine. She has two wonderful granddaughters living close by and absolutely adores spending time with them. A priority for her is to hop on a plane once or twice a year and head to Calgary to spend quality time with her son, daughter-in-law, grandson and granddaughter. And of course, she always enjoys going back home to Newfoundland and receiving a warm welcome and good hospitality from family and friends there!
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Click HERE to download Linda's bio!