Victoria read Divinity at the University of St Andrews, graduating in 1996, before moving to the University of Birmingham where she took an MA in Religion and Culture in 1997. It was at this time that she began working in mental health, qualifying as a Registered Mental Health Nurse in 2003. During her nurse training, she took a further post-graduate degree at the University of Warwick in the Philosophy and Ethics of Mental Health. Here, her work focussed on using the work of Paul Ricoeur to understand the delusions associated with psychosis as narratives, which attempt to make sense of experience. Her dissertation centred on religious experience and psychosis.
Victoria’s time in clinical practice was spent as a staff nurse at Reaside Clinic, a regional secure unit for men, and as a community mental health nurse. She moved into Nurse Education in 2008.