Publications & Credits
Awards:
Nursing Standard’s ‘Student Nurse of the Year’, 2004. Awarded for excellence in nursing care following the development of a psychosocial training programme for township primary school teachers in South Africa.
Shortlisted for the Nursing Times’ HRH The Prince of Wales Award for Integrated Approaches to Care, 2017.
Publications:
Lester N (2015) When a soldier dies, Critical Military Studies 1 (3) pp.249-253
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23337486.2015.1083188
Lester N (2018) Introducing a Trauma-Informed Practice Framework to Provide Support in Conflict-Affected Countries: The Case of the Syrian White Helmets, The RUSI Journal, 163 (6) 28-41
Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) (2018) An inspection of the Royal Military Police’s investigations into overseas death
https://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmicfrs/wp-content/uploads/RMP-investigation- into-deaths-overseas.pdf
Márquez-Grant N, Passalacqua N, Pilloud M, Lester N, Decker S and Ford J (2019) ‘Chapter 16: Ethical Concerns in Forensic Anthropology’. In Squires K, Errickson D and Márquez-Grant N (Eds) Ethical Approaches to Human Remains Switzerland, Springer pp. 347-367
Lester N (2019) Reflecting on the Experiences of Bereaved Military Families in the Coroner’s Court, The RUSI Journal 164 (4) 22-34
Lester N and Anthoine J (2019) Traumatic incidents in hostile environments, Crisis Response Journal 14 (3) 80-83
Lester N (2019) Making ‘sense’ of working with terror victims, Crisis Response Journal 14 (2) pp.44-46
The stories behind the images:
Photograph of Ranger David Gordon Dalzell, from Bangor, Northern Ireland. Taken by Derek Eland as part of his project ‘Diary Rooms: Being human on the front-line in Afghanistan’. David had taken a photograph of the child and was showing it to him. The little boy had never seen a photograph of himself before. Both David and the child’s friend are captured in Derek’s photograph, explaining that it is an image of him. The photograph was taken shortly before David’s death. He was killed on 4th February, 2011 whilst serving in Afghanistan with 1st Battalion, The Royal Irish Regiment. Permission to include the photograph and the story behind it has been given by his parents, Gordon and Susan Dalzell who told me that whilst ‘to the World he was a soldier…’, to them ‘…he was the World’.
Photograph reproduced with kind permission from Derek Eland.
Photograph taken by Amar, a Syrian photographer and member of the White Helmets. Amar’s distinctive style of photography is to capture objects of war positioned against brightly coloured flowers. Like many of the members of the White Helmets, instead of seeing devastation and destruction as a result of Syria’s ongoing conflict, Amar chose to see hope and a brighter future. His optimism has been influential in developing Nicola’s own approaches to working with psychological trauma.
White Helmet Volunteers planting flowers to brighten the Syrian streets as part of their community engagement work.
Photograph reproduced with kind permission from the White Helmets.
Members of the White Helmets delivering an educational workshop to children and young people in their local community.
Photograph reproduced with kind permission from the White Helmets.
Nicola’s signature homemade ‘trauma informed’ cupcakes are used during training workshops and consultancy sessions to highlight the importance of focusing on staff wellbeing and enhancing morale within the workplace as part of developing a trauma informed approach to practice.
As part of the Soldiers in Mind service, ‘combat teddy bears’ were specially made for bereaved military families, using material from the military uniform of their loved one. Each of the bears are hand-stitched and display the name, rank, service number and operational tour on which their loved one lost their life as well as a personalised embroidered message on the bear’s paws, chosen by the family.
Kind permission was given by Sally, mother of Private Eleanor Dlugosz who died in Iraq in 2007, aged 19, whilst serving with the Royal Army Medical Corps, to photograph the combat teddy bears created in her memory.
The indigenous people from the Highlands in Guatemala created Worry Dolls many generations ago as a remedy for worrying. According to legend, children tell their worries to the Worry Dolls, placing them under their pillow when they go to bed at night. By morning the dolls have gifted them with the wisdom and knowledge to eliminate their worries. In the aftermath of the Manchester bombing, Worry Dolls were used extensively when working therapeutically with children to provide them with a way of expressing their fears and anxieties and to seek reassurance and support.
Photograph of Naomi Baum’s ‘My Resilience Workbook’, selected as children across the country draw pictures of rainbows and display them in their windows to symbolise solidarity and hope.
Image credit
As part of the Soldiers in Mind service, ‘combat teddy bears’ were specially made for bereaved military families, using material from the military uniform of their loved one. Each of the bears are hand-stitched and display the name, rank, service number and operational tour on which their loved one lost their life as well as a personalised embroidered message on the bear’s paws, chosen by the family.
Kind permission was given by Sally, mother of Private Eleanor Dlugosz who died in Iraq in 2007, aged 19, whilst serving with the Royal Army Medical Corps, to photograph the combat teddy bears created in her memory.
Get in touch
Nicola welcomes the opportunity to discuss psychological trauma consultancy, training, supervision and clinical support to organisations and individuals, both in the UK and internationally.