Meet the team

Co-chair, PPN England Board
Chair, PPN South East

Adrian is National Clinical Lead for the Psychological Professions at NHS England. In this role provides professional leadership and advice across the national NHS teams aimed at maximising the impact of the psychological professions for the public, and delivering the ambitions of the NHS Long Term Plan. Adrian is a Consultant Clinical Psychologist. He is passionate about making the NHS more psychological, including increasing access to evidence-based psychological interventions and therapies. Adrian also Co-chairs the Psychological Professions Network in the South East. Adrian is a clinical specialist in psychological therapy for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Adrian has written and co-edited books on anxiety, CBT, and clinical psychology.

Co-chair, PPN England Board
Chair, PPN North West

Gita is a clinical psychologist and has specialised in working with older people and adults in Glasgow, Salford and currently Lancashire. She is a founding member of the North West Psychological Professions Network and its current chair. Gita's current role is as Associate Director for Psychological Professions at Lancashire & South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust. This post combines a governance and leadership role with management. Gita's current clinical work is within the Lancashire Traumatic Stress Service.

Her current clinical and research interests are in post-traumatic stress and staff health and wellbeing. She is currently a co-investigator on a RfPB funded research project on Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) and Psychosis. She is also a member of the New Savoy Conference/BPS/DCP Wellbeing Steering Group working on the annual wellbeing survey.

Gita contributes to national and professional bodies including committee work and roles at NICE as interim chair of Quality Standards Advisory Committee 1, the National Psychological Professions Workforce Group and the BPS Division of Clinical Psychology. Gita is currently supporting HEE with psychological professions input into developing PPNs and supporting psychological professions input into the NHS Long Term Plan.

Programme Manager, PPN North West

Clare is the programme manager for the Psychological Professions Network based within Health Education England working across the North West. Clare has a clinical and academic background in community mental health and psychological therapies. Having initially qualified as a mental health nurse, Clare undertook further post graduate training as a Cognitive Behaviour Therapist at the Oxford Centre for Cognitive Therapy and she developed her clinical practice in multi-professional psychological therapy services. Subsequently she led the University of Manchester post-graduate education programme for Psychological Wellbeing Practitioners under the Department of Health's Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) programme and became the regional IAPT programme field lead as part of the North West regional implementation team.

Clare has held regional and national responsibilities for managing and developing the teaching and learning interface with clinical practice in the NHS. She has contributed to training, research and publications on primary care mental health with a particular interest in the use of psychological approaches in physical healthcare settings and the development of mental wellbeing and resilience in the health and care workforce.

Co-Chair, PPN South West

Dr Phil Self is the Head of Psychology and Psychological Professions for Devon Partnership Trust. Phil is a Consultant Clinical Psychologist who has worked in the NHS for over 20 years, initially in and around London before working in Cambridge and then moving to the South West in 2005. Phil has held clinical leadership positions in a range of different services including Inpatient and Community Mental Health teams, Early Intervention in Psychosis and IAPT services, and other specialist psychological services in a range of health and forensic settings. Phil was the first Programme Lead for the Post-Graduate training programme for CBT for psychosis at Exeter University and also has teaching and academic connections with psychological therapy and psychology training programmes at Plymouth University and UCL. Between 2017 and 2019 Phil also contributed to an NHS England South West Mental Health Workforce Steering Group.

Phil is passionate about the shared, complementary and unique skills and knowledge that psychological professions can offer to the NHS and about developing a collective voice to positively influence workforce planning and development across the South West region.

Co-Chair, Psychological Professions Network South West

Director of Clinical Training (Post-Graduate Taught) CEDAR, University of Exeter

Catherine is the Co-Chair of PPN-SW and is a Clinical Psychologist and accredited CBT therapist. She is an Associate Professor at the University of Exeter and has worked in Clinical Practice Education since 2007. She is the Director of Clinical Training (Post Graduate Taught Programmes) for CEDAR (Clinical Education Development and Research) Applied Psychological Centre of Excellence at the University of Exeter, leading the delivery of Psychological Professions training programmes, post qualifying practice training and related research and impact activity.

Her clinical specialism is within Children and Young People's mental health and she works regionally and nationally in relation to Children and Young People's workforce strategy, training and implementation and supporting service transformation. Catherine is passionate about developing and growing all of the different Psychological Professions as well as new roles to maximise their impact and effectiveness and doing so in partnership with Experts by Experience. She is committed to widening access in to Psychological Professions and supporting sustainable career development pathways.

Clinical Lead and Programme Manager, Psychological Professions Network South West

Senior Lecturer and Racial Equity and Inclusion Team Lead, University of Exeter

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Dr Suzanne Azer trained as a Psychologist and has specialised in working with psychological trauma and advancing equity , diversity and inclusion in clinical and organisational practice. She has worked in NHS, private and third sector services as a clinician, clinical supervisor and trainer and in Higher Education as an educator and programme manager.

In the NHS , Suzanne worked clinically in secondary mental health services for 15 years with adults individually and in groups. She has a special interest in supervision, staff wellbeing, service development and training and held a post as Professional Lead for Training for the Psychology and Psychological Therapy service. She currently works as a Senior Lecturer leading on Clinical Skills teaching on the Exeter University Doctorate in Clinical Psychology programme and coordinating the psychological therapies teaching.

Suzanne is passionate about working to improve equity, inclusion and social justice and for co-production to be at the heart of all our work. She has led on raising the profile of the impact of marginalisation and racial trauma in particular in her NHS role, including developing staff training in cultural competency and racial trauma. She currently leads a team funded by Health Education England tasked with improving racial equity and widening access within the Doctoral Programme in Clinical Psychology at Exeter University.

Suzanne was delighted to join the South West PPN in March 2021 as Clinical Lead and Programme Manager. She is particularly excited to work with colleagues from diverse backgrounds and trainings to support the development of a number of Communities of Practice and special interest groups cross the region. Please do get in touch if you have interest in contributing to these exciting projects!