Ms Turnbull (50), of North East Valley, said statistically, a blind person was more likely to be unemployed than in work.
To ensure she was on the right side of the statistics, she trained to acquire the skills to stay employed.
Born in Dunedin, she began losing her vision when she was 18-months-old due to retinoblastoma — tumours on the retina.
"I was completely blind by the time I was three."
Her blindness was a "shock" for her parents
As blind pupils could not attend mainstream schools in the 1970s, she attended specialist schools for blind pupils in Auckland — Homai School and then Manurewa Intermediate.
Living away from home as a child was "hard".
"I used to get pretty homesick."
She returned to live with family in Dunedin and attended Queen’s High School.
"Living back at home again was really important."
Now blind pupils could attend mainstream schools.
After high school, she studied social work at the University of Otago.
She started her first job at the Southern DHB Child, Adolescent and Family Mental Health Service in 1997.
While working for the service for a decade, she completed psychotherapy training.
Her next job was at Student Health at the University of Otago, providing counselling for a decade up to 2017.
In mid-2018, she began working part-time as a guidance counsellor at Columba College.
She also runs her own private psychotherapy practice in North East Valley.
The therapy she provides helps clients deal with issues such as grief, anxiety, depression and work issues, such as lack of support and value from management.
Clients had no concerns she was blind.
"People don’t really care if you’re blind — they are there to talk about what is going on for them. As long as you’re listening and doing your job, it isn’t an issue."
She liked being self-employed but she was "cautious going into it".
"When you’ve been on a salary for a long time it feels like a big risk."
She really liked the "autonomy and flexibility" of owning her own business.
Blind Low Vision NZ — the organisation formerly called the Blind Foundation — offered support, including providing technology she needed to do her job.
During lockdown, she used Zoom to provide therapy — technology she hoped she would not need to use again.
"I much prefer working face-to-face with people."
