Meet the Team

Consultant Clinical & Forensic Psychologist, Deputy Director Psychological Professions

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Hello, my name is Sharon, and I am really proud to be the current Chair of the PPN for the NE & Yorkshire. I was born, raised and trained in London but the north of England has been home for the last 16 years. In that time I have worked in Leeds and am now the Deputy Director for the Psychological Professions for Leeds & York Partnerships Foundation NHS Trust . I am a Clinical Psychologist and have worked predominantly with service users who have been marginalised and have histories of adversity, trauma and abuse.

I have a strong commitment to making psychological therapies and psychologically informed care accessible to people in our communities. And I am also committed to ensuring that the profession is as diverse as the communities which we serve, and that the working environment respects that diversity and enables both staff and service users to thrive.

I have a long history of working in partnership with service users, carers, third sector and other statutory services and value collaboration and bringing different and differing voices into the conversation.

I am really excited by the work already happening within the region and the potential to further innovate and raise the profile of the psychological professions. We are as they say, ‘Better together’.

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Hello, My name is Becky and I work within the Regional Business Management Team at Health Education England. I joined the Psychological Professions Network in January 2022 to provide administrative support to the chair.

I have historically worked in administrative and training roles within IT and across various sectors, but my passion has always been Mental Health and Wellbeing. I am a qualified Mental Health First Aider, Scrum Master and an advocate for therapy. My belief is that everybody should have the access they need to better mental health so am honoured to be supporting a group that keeps diversity and inclusion at the heart of their work.

Director for Psychological Professionals

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Hello my name is Jude, I have worked in different roles in the NHS for nearly 20 years. I am currently the Director for Psychological Professionals at RDaSH NHS Trust, and have been a member of the NEY PPN Steering Group since its formation in 2020. I am so proud to have these roles as I believe passionately that psychologically informed services are extremely beneficial for the well-being of patients, service users, families, and staff in physical and mental health services.

I am a Consultant Psychotherapist and also Mental Health Nurse. I have specific training in Cognitive Behavioural Psychotherapy, EMDR, Psychoanalysis , Systems theory and also Group Dynamics. My Doctorate was focussed upon the support for people and systems who have experienced complex trauma.

My role concerns directly working with patients, service users and groups and also providing a support and leadership role for all psychological professionals in my Trust. My role also concerns working with ICS partners in Humber Coast and Vale ICS and South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw ICS upon specific programmes of work enabling the advancement of mental health, learning disability and autism services. I feel privileged to work with a vast range of clinical specialists, service user group partners and voluntary services which enable me to create as many options as possible for people to coproduce how we progress together to strengthen the services we provide.

As well as my role within RDaSH I contribute to regional work focussed upon clinical developments, service redesign, service commissioning, leadership , education and also reducing health inequalities. I am also a Fellow with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, a Trustee Board Member with the Queens Nursing Institute and an Executive Coach using the Tavistock Model.

As a professional woman with disabilities and caring responsibilities, I am passionate about understanding diversity and promoting inclusion and belonging. I actively support local LGBTQ+, Disability and Diversity Networks, and am currently partaking in a reverse mentoring programme. A core part of my role is to make sure I’m available to listen to people , please feel free to contact me.

Chief Executive, Sunderland Counselling Service

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Hello my name is Toby. I have been a counsellor for over twenty years and have worked in a range of settings including primary care and substance misuse services. I am currently the Chief Executive at Sunderland Counselling Service, where I have worked since 2007. Despite our name, Sunderland Counselling Service is a charity providing a wide range of counselling, talking therapy and support services across the north east of England. We are involved in several IAPT services across the north east, specialising in counselling and low intensity CBT, as well as providing a range of specialist counselling services for children and young people, survivors of sexual violence and abuse and for people with cancer and with life limiting health conditions.

I am the co chair of the North East & North Cumbria IAPT Network and take every chance I get to promote counselling, IAPT and psychological therapies across the NENC ICS foot print. Having spent most of my career in the voluntary sector, I also try to advocate for the benefits that a strong voluntary sector can bring to this field of work. I am also very active within BACP and am a member of the BACP Healthcare Division Executive Committee. I hope that the PPN will give us all a strong collective voice to promote the value of what we do!

Principal Clinical Psychologist & Clinical Lead, Academic Tutor & Anti-Racism Lead Newcastle University & Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne & Wear NHS Foundation Trust

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Hello everyone; my name is Romana and I joined NEY PPN Steering Group in 2021 as part of my passion and interest in increasing diversity in psychological professions and in supporting psychological professions in attending to and interrogating power, privilege, race, racism and disadvantage. I am currently leading on decolonising the clinical psychology curriculum and developing an Anti-Racism Strategy.

Clinically I specialise in working with children, young people and families subject to human rights violations, exploitation, modern day slavery, gang involvement, forced criminality and trafficking. I have particular interests in setting up and delivering trauma sensitive, aware and informed services for children, young people and families subject to multiple and significant traumas but in particular those whose needs are not met by traditional mental health services. I am currently an Expert Member of the Parliamentary Advisory Group on Child Exploitation, Trafficking & Modern Day Slavery.

I have set up and delivered a number of innovative services utilising collaborative and complex commissioning arrangements which has allowed the delivery of psychological services to communities and individuals experiencing disadvantage and marginalisation. I feel that it is crucial that we interrogate how we do psychology and who it benefits.

I believe that as psychological professionals we have a social and ethical responsibility to ensure that our practice and services are inclusive and are actively addressing inequalities and taking an anti-racist stance. I am keen to begin a dialogue with individuals keen to develop this vision.

Consultant Clinical Psychologist and Psychology Professions Professional Lead (University Liaison and Workforce Development)

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Hello, my name is Lynne. I am a Consultant Clinical psychologist within CAMHS and have worked for over 20 years for the NHS in the Durham area of the North East for TEWV NHS FT. My current role is to work with the Clinical and Counselling Doctorate courses in the region to support training. TEWV employs the Teesside University DCLINPSY trainees and I provide their line management. I also have wider role within TEWV to support the professional development of the psychological professions workforce. It is always a pleasure to see people learn and develop throughout their careers and to enjoy the work as much as I do.

Since 2012, I have been keenly involved in the CYP service transformation work in TEWV and have seen the incredible impact on services over this time. I have also worked tirelessly to help services to embrace the use of outcome measures to support and enhance clinical work. I have been a member of the NEY PPN since it began in 2020 and look forward to seeing the differences we can make for the region.

Head of Clinical Health Psychology, BTHFT

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Hello my name is Andrew Beck and I am Head of Clinical Heath Psychology in Bradford Teaching Hospitals Foundation Trust where we have a multi-disciplinary team of therapists working across the lifespan with people struggling with the psychological impact of health conditions.

I have worked in both Child and Adult services since I qualified over 20 years ago in London, Manchester, East Lancs and now Bradford and have been involved in training therapists as a senior lecturer in IAPT and Hon Senior Lecturer and Children and Families module lead in the Manchester DClinPsych.

I have been in involved in the BABCP for many years, as a member of the Scientific Committee, Chair of the Equality and Culture SIG and now as President and CBT has been my main model of therapy since I trained in the 90s.

I have particular interest in looking at how we can meet the mental health needs of minority communities and have written books, chapters and academic articles on this topic. I led the team that developed the IAPT BAME Positive Practice Guide (2019) which you can download from the BABCP website. I am also the Associate Editor on the Cognitive Behaviour Therapist journal with specific responsibility for papers addressing inequalities.

At this stage in my career the thing that gives me the most satisfaction is contributing to the development of the next generation of therapists, supervisors and service leads and I am very much looking forward to working with the PPN in the NE and Yorkshire to do that.

Consultant Clinical Psychologist and Head of Medical Psychology for NT&H

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Hello my name is Elaine, I am currently head of medical psychology within the NHS within an acute setting. I have worked clinically within Oncology and Palliative for over 20 years and as head of the medical psychology department with North Tees & Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust for over 11 years. In my time within this trust I have been able to grown and develop the psychology service and raise the profile of psychology within the organisation to benefit patients and staff alike. We all contribute to the local doctoral training courses as well as nurse training and my contribution is within my specialist clinical area and particularly end of life care.

I have been a member of the NEY PPN Steering Group since its formation in 2020. I enjoy the diverse roles I play within my work and to be able to work with patients and staff to complete the circle of care is a huge privilege. I am a strong advocate of the ‘physician heal thyself’ philosophy and that when we care for ourselves, our staff and colleagues then we and they will be more able to care for patients and patients ‘Mind and Body’ together.

Whilst I myself am trained to work across the lifespan and all abilities I also specialised in therapy (my Counselling Masters dissertation was in teenage pregnancy), pure research (my PhD was in stress in pregnancy) and in both quantitative and qualitative methodology (my clinical dissertation was a purely qualitative one, as opposed to my PhD) exploring the process of giving and receiving a diagnosis of dementia.

Psychological expertise, knowledge and skills are owned by many differing psychological practitioners thus collaborative learning and working to benefit the most number of people and an organisation is the way forward. We are all more than the sum of our parts, so together we are stronger, as individuals, groups and organisations (after Fritz Perls – Gestalt psychology).

Consultant Clinical Psychologist/Clinical Lead CYP-IAPT Northumbria University

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Hello all, I’m Markku and have the pleasure of joining the PPN NE&Y in my capacity of working both in clinical practice and academia.

As a clinician I have spent over 20 years working across age ranges but always coming back to specialising in supporting children young people and their families. I spend a large part of my week working as a Consultant Clinical Psychologist in Child and Adolescent mental health services in the Durham area with Tees Esk and Wear Valley NHS trust. I enjoying working across conditions but over the years have developed a specialist interest in Trauma, OCD, Psychosis and Autism spectrum conditions but also have a key interest in attachment theories and attachment based interventions. One of my dominant modalities of interest is Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and I have been an accredited CBT Psychotherapist with the BABCP for over 10 years.

As an academic I have worked with several Higher Education institutions but primarily with the University of East Anglia (UEA) where I workied into adult IAPT and the Clinical Psychology Doctorate and Northumbria University (NU). With NU I work as the Clinical Lead for the Children and Young people’s IAPT programmes and have had the privilege there of developing national curriculum in the training of MH professionals who work with children and families, including consulting with HEE and NHSE on the development of the innovative Low intensity wellbeing practitioners, based in statutory, voluntary and education services.

As a researcher my recent interests have been in the development and evaluation of interventions to support children, young people and their families such as the inspirational Rollercoaster project developed by and for parents of young people that experience MH difficulties.

My experience across these fields has led me to a great passion for supporting the development of all psychological professions from low to high to high intensity and I hope to use my role in the PPNNE&Y to champion and to continue the development of psychological roles, widening access to all cultural and ethnic groups and to all levels of education.

Programme Manager, Health Education England

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Hello, my name is Mike Lewis. I am one of two programme managers for Mental Health in the North East and Yorkshire and I have been a part of the PPN since its creation.

I have been working in policy and programme management within the health arena for the last thirty years, including roles within the Department of Health focusing on workforce development, professional regulation and working on the creation and establishment of HEE.

Since 2019 I have worked on the commissioning and provision of training in Mental Health, in the North East and Yorkshire, primarily for the psychological professions. I feel the work of the PPN is vital to support staff and services across the region in delivering the best care for our patients and to grow the professions within the NHS.

Workforce Council Member

Senior Lecturer in Mental Health, Teesside University

Hello, my name is Paul and I am excited to join the workforce council as both a clinician and an academic representing adult IAPT: specifically psychological wellbeing practitioners. I began working as a PWP in 2011 and since then I have developed a passion for the low intensity approach. I believe that PWPs are an important asset to the psychological professions workforce and are a necessity in contemporary mental healthcare. My hopes for the workforce council are to provide strategic advice and intelligence to the psychological professions and their stakeholders whilst supporting the implementation of national, regional, and local psychological priorities to improve psychological wellbeing within the North East and Yorkshire.

Workforce Council Member

Clinical Lead for Psychological Therapies for Severe Mental Health Problem, North Yorkshire and Humber Clinical Network, NHS England

Increasing access to psychological therapies for people with a severe mental health problem, is a key element of the Community Mental Health Transformation which is part of the NHS Long Term Plan and the focus of my role. The Workforce Council offers a fantastic opportunity to meet up with key stakeholders involved in the implementation of this, and gives us a space to share ideas and good practice and to develop a joined up strategic approach to offering service users and carers a greater choice of evidence based care.

Workforce Council Member

Academic Coordinator, Clinical Psychology Doctorate Training Programme, University of Hull and national GTICP/DCP

I represent trainers and trainees in clinical psychology in the region and nationally. I also represent the BPS Division of Clinical Psychology Exec and the professional voice of clinical psychologists within and outside that organisation. I hope the council can be a constructive place of collaboration where we think creatively about solutions to workforce and training issues, keeping in mind the needs of services users and carers, and working towards equitable service implementation and delivery.

Workforce Council Member

Hello everyone; my name is Dorothy and I am aiming to represent psychological practitioners who work in and with physical health services and systems. My hopes for the council are that we can work together to support development of and access to psychology for the people, families and communities we serve.

I’m fortunate enough to currently support various national committee roles – I was a member of the 2022 NICE Diabetes Guideline Update Committee; I am a Board Member for the UK Association of Clinical Psychologists; I currently sit on the National IAPT Stakeholder Group and am National Co-Lead for England for the Diabetes-UK Diabetes Psychology Network.

I believe that psychological professionals as a group are stronger together; that we can celebrate and promote our unique differences and also work together where there is mutual interest. Moving to a system where psychological and social aspects of health and wellbeing are given equal footing to physical health is a goal I believe we can achieve.

West Yorkshire ICS Psychological Professions Workforce lead/Psychological Professions Professional Lead in NHS LYPFT

Hello, my name is Gail and I am a Consultant Clinical Psychologist. I have two roles, as West Yorkshire ICS Psychological Professions Workforce lead, and Psychological Professions Professional lead in Leeds and York Partnership NHS foundation trust. I sit on the council with my Workforce lead hat on.

I thoroughly enjoy working in this new multifaceted role with Mental health trusts and VCSE organisations providing NHS commissioned Psychological services across West Yorkshire. My work is guided by the strategic priorities outlined in the West Yorkshire ICS Psychological Professions strategy which is closely aligned to the PPN vision. Across the various projects I am involved in, I work relationally across the system from high level strategy, to ensuring we have accurate workforce data for our growing professional group. This is always underpinned by a commitment to shared collaboration to make best use of NHS resources for our population.

I offer support to Chief Psychological Professions Officers, the NHS Workforce Training and Education team, and Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). My work sits alongside the Mental Health Learning disability and autism team, working closely with their MH Workforce lead. What I find most fulfilling is the opportunity to engage with a diverse array of individuals, the shared purpose, and the often complex problem solving to navigate an ever changing landscape. My role has enabled the system to have the time required to get into the details to work on our strategy and thus recommend what is required to deliver well governed, resourced services in line with national priorities.