Programme Leads
Alison O’Connor
Alison O’Connor is a therapist, trainer, and supervisor with over 25 years’ experience supporting wellbeing and emotional resilience across health, education, and community settings.
Her career has focused on helping people navigate trauma, loss, and change, and on supporting those who care for others to sustain their own wellbeing. She has trained and supervised practitioners across sectors, specialising in compassion-focused practice and reflective supervision.
Alison understands both the rewards and the pressures of work that places human connection at its centre. Her own experience of burnout led to a re-evaluation of priorities and a renewed commitment to self-compassion and balance. Today, she works with practitioners, teams, and leaders to reflect on their work, reconnect with meaning, and stay well within demanding professions.
Alison is also the Co-Founder and Supervisor of Re-Live, a life story arts and health charity based in Wales. She brings to Midlife Reimagined a deep understanding of the emotional landscape of midlife — combining therapeutic insight, practical reflection tools, and a rare capacity to hold space with clarity, warmth, and care.
Karin Diamond
Karin Diamond is the Co-Founder and Artistic Director of Re-Live, an award-winning life story arts and health charity based in Wales. She has over 25 years’ experience working at the intersection of creativity, wellbeing, and social change, leading projects that enable people to share life experiences, explore identity, and connect across generations and communities.
An Atlantic Fellow for Equity in Brain Health (2019–20) at the Global Brain Health Institute, University of California, San Francisco, she has collaborated internationally with clinicians, researchers and community groups in Japan, South Africa, Brazil, and the USA, focusing on dementia, ageing, and veterans’ mental health.
Karin brings to Midlife Reimagined extensive experience in facilitating life story programmes that support people to make sense of their lives at moments of change. Her approach combines creativity and compassion, helping people reconnect with purpose and possibility at midlife.
Working Together
Karin and Alison co-founded Re-Live in 2006 and have since worked with thousands of people across health and social care, the arts, education and community settings. Their approach — combining storytelling with therapeutic and experiential practice — is captured in their book Creating Life Story Theatre (Bloomsbury Methuen Drama, 2025). Midlife Reimagined is life story-focused, and informed by the principles and ethics of this work.
Both are Churchill Fellows (2010 and 2016) and international trainers in reflective practice, wellbeing, and creative leadership. Their work has been recognised for its impact in mental health, ageing, and social care, including with people living with complex mental health experiences, trauma, and loss.
Close friends for over 35 years, Karin and Alison bring compassion and curiosity to Midlife Reimagined, grounded in a shared commitment to growth and wellbeing.