Enabling people to Perform Well

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Our Story

In 2007, with a growing recognition of the limitations of applying psychology within traditional services, James and Andy created Changing Minds in order to apply psychological knowledge and theory more flexibly and effectively within the ‘real world’.

Driven by a passion to develop more positive futures and enable others to realise their potential, Changing Minds UK has developed to work in the UK and internationally with individuals and organisations across a range of settings including high performance sport, business, mental health, and criminal justice.

Enabling people to Perform Well

Our Approach

We aim to apply psychological knowledge and theory both flexibly and effectively in the complex systems that exist in the real world.

Courageously Different
Creatively
Simple
Supportively Challenging

Our Framework

Background Curve

Investing in People,
Sustaining Performance

Performing Well adopts a holistic approach to understanding the developmental needs of individuals, teams, and organisations, seeking to both enhance performance and support wellbeing.

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Our Values

As a sustainable organisation that lives its values and provides ethical and high quality psychological services, we aim to have a meaningful impact with people in everyday life.

People

We believe strongly in the importance of people and relationships, and working with the existing strengths inherent in individuals and systems. We value diversity, equal opportunity, and individual difference and strive to treat each person sensitively, fairly, and with dignity and respect.

Practice

We value high quality psychological practice, underpinned by a strong ethical foundation and robust governance processes.

Perspective

We value the importance of maintaining perspective on our work, emphasising the importance of reflective practice, clinical supervision, and external scrutiny.

Our Clients

Our People

Changing Minds staff have experience of applying high quality psychological services across a wide range of systems, and are passionate about enabling others to Perform Well.

The Directors

Dr Andrew Rogers

Cons. Clinical & Forensic Psychologist and Co-Director

Dr James Bickley

Cons. Clinical Psychologist and Co-Director

The Team

Jon Marzetti

Sport Psychologist

Dr Sue Wood

Clinical Psychologist and Lead for Corporate Services

Dr Charlene Rouski

Senior Clinical Psychologist

Dr Sue Knowles

Consultant Clinical Psychologist / Lead for Child and Family Services

Sinitta Yu

Assistant Psychologist

Alex Feary

Senior Sport Psychologist

Dr Amanda Bickley

Senior Clinical Psychologist

Pauline Hughes

Office Manager

Dr Duncan Law

Consultant Clinical Psychologist

Jen McDonald

Senior Office Administrator

Dr Shreeta Raja

Senior Clinical Psychologist

Dr Jess Sheffield

Clinical Psychologist

Annabelle Matthews

Assistant Psychologist

Dr Andrew Wah

Clinical Psychologist

Matt Thompson

Senior Sport Psychologist

Andrew Bethell

Senior Clinical Psychologist

Lena Kessler

Sport Psychologist

Dr James Bell

Cons. Sport Psychologist and Lead for Performance Services

Rich Hampson

Senior Sport Psychologist and Lead for Professional, Olympic and Paralympic Sport

Adam Bracey

Performance Psychologist

Dr Tom Goodall

Senior Clinical Psychologist

Dr Jenny Weall

Clinical Psychologist - Performance Services

Dr Jenny Mullineaux

Senior Clinical Psychologist - Child & Family Service

Dr Gill I'Anson

Consultant Clinical Psychologist

Dr Chris Wagstaff

Senior Performance Psychologist

Hannah Dunderdale

Honorary Trainee Performance Psychologist

Isobelle Kennedy

Sport Psychologist

Dr James Oliver

Clinical Psychologist

Lerissa Graham

Sport Psychologist

Dr Andrew Rogers

Cons. Clinical & Forensic Psychologist and Co-Director

Andrew is a Chartered Consultant Clinical & Forensic Psychologist and co-director of Changing Minds UK. He has over 20 years’ experience of delivering high quality applied psychology provision across a broad range of care and performance environments including elite sport, business, NHS, mental health, social care and the criminal justice system. He also has substantial experience in clinical management, leadership and psychological service development.

Andrew has a particular interest and expertise in supporting people and organisations with the implications of relational attachment, threat and trauma on human development, resilience, wellbeing, and performance. He is passionate about the value of psychological understanding in developing potential and realising ambition.

Andrew has provided psychological support for a number of CEOs & high-performance leaders and elite athletes across professional and Olympic sports, and has worked with a range of sporting and performance organisations in developing client performance, resilience and emotional wellbeing. Andrew has worked in and managed specialist psychological services within community, residential, prison, and hospital settings supporting children, adults and families presenting with high risk and complex needs arising out of their life experiences. He believes strongly in delivering high quality psychological services within a robust ethical framework, and working with the inherent strengths within people and systems in their pursuit of wellbeing and performance.

Andrew has specialist knowledge and experience of working with young people with a history of high-risk behaviour, including serious offending, and was lead for psychological provision in a nationally recognised NHS adolescent forensic mental health service until moving to work full-time in independent practice in 2014. Andrew has provided consultancy services both in the UK and internationally in relation to psychologically-informed culture change, strategic development of mental health services, complex adolescent mental health, looked after children and youth justice services. Andrew is currently National Clinical Advisor for ‘Secure Stairs’, an NHS England-led project supporting the development of a psychologically and trauma-informed framework of integrated care for young people within the secure estate.

Andrew has been a visiting lecturer at several British universities, has presented research and clinical interests at conferences nationally and internationally, is published in a variety of books and peer-reviewed journals and has a number of mainstream TV and radio appearances promoting psychological understanding of human development and mental health. Andrew currently clinically supervises professionals from a wide range of backgrounds, as well as supervising trainee and qualified practitioner psychologists.

Andrew is married with three young children and enjoys time with family, reading and sport.

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Dr James Bickley

Cons. Clinical Psychologist and Co-Director

James Bickley is a Chartered Consultant Clinical Psychologist and co-director of Changing Minds UK.   He combines a passion for sport with a desire to support others, particularly those at risk of exclusion, in realising their potential, achieving their goals, and enabling them to Perform Well.

James has over 20 years of experience working with challenging presentations in a broad range of care and performance environments.  He has led or developed psychological services in Mental Health, Youth Justice, and High Performance settings.  In particular, James has specialist knowledge and considerable experience in working with young people who present with high-risk behaviours.

Through his work, James has developed an ability to make sense of complex presentations or needs, and enables others to work effectively with these challenges through the provision of training, supervision, consultation, or expert opinion.  James promotes the importance of developing shared understanding and firmly believes that an effective consultant or practitioner leaves an individual or system more psychologically informed, more empowered, and ultimately in a better place.

James started Changing Minds UK with his business partner Andrew Rogers in 2007, as a result of a growing recognition of the limitations in traditional models of delivery in complex systems. The company has since become one of the most highly regarded providers of comprehensive psychological services in the UK, striving to have a meaningful impact with people in everyday life.

James is an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society (BPS) and is a Practitioner Psychologist registered with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC). He has presented research and clinical interests at both national and international conferences and published in a variety of books and peer-reviewed journals.

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Jon Marzetti

Sport Psychologist

Jon is a Chartered HCPC registered Sport Psychologist at Changing Minds, and member of the Division of Sport and Exercise Psychology. Jon also holds qualifications in counselling skills and a FA Level 2 coaching badge. Jon is embedded within a professional Football Academy, supporting the psychological needs of the organisation and the individual needs of their developing athletes.

Jon has also been involved in supporting the psychological assessment of clients in looked after children settings. This work has included the administration of standardised assessment tools and the preparation of psychological reports. Jon’s other responsibilities include the development, delivery and evaluation of psychologically informed training sessions for a variety of organisations in both sport and business.

Jon has previously worked for Brighton and Hove Albion FC, where he supported the provision of psychological support for their Women and Girls’ First Team and Development Squad. His wider background includes working for the English Football League’s commercial department, working as a support worker with adults with learning difficulties, as well as a brief period as a full-time athlete.

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Dr Sue Wood

Clinical Psychologist and Lead for Corporate Services

Dr Sue Wood BSc MSc DClinPsy

Sue is a Clinical Psychologist who has experience in working with people across the lifespan in a variety of service contexts including community, inpatient and applied settings. Prior to joining Changing Minds, Sue worked in a NHS child and adolescent mental health service (CAMHS) for 2 years. She has also worked as a mental health mentor at the University of Warwick and as an Associate with St Basils, supporting the delivery of training for staff in providing psychologically informed environments.

 

Since joining Changing Minds in October 2018, Sue has been working with the performance team across a variety of professional and elite sport settings. Her role includes supporting individuals and systems to enhance wellbeing and performance in a way that is sustainable. This includes individual psychological support, consultation with systems, strategy development and education/training.

 

Sue has a longstanding passion for sport. She has undertaken research into mental health and help-seeking within professional football and hopes to collaborate on further research in this area. Sue has also competed at junior international level for football and continues to play both football and hockey at a national level.

 

Sue was awarded a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology jointly from the University of Warwick and Coventry University in 2016, and also holds an MSc in Clinical Applications of Psychology and a BSc in Psychology, both from the University of Warwick. Sue has training across a range of psychological approaches and has undertaken further introductory courses in Cognitive Analytic Therapy (CAT) and Dialectic Behavioural Therapy (DBT). She is registered as a Practitioner Psychologist with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC).

 

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Dr Charlene Rouski

Senior Clinical Psychologist

Charlene is a Clinical Psychologist who specialises in working with young people and adults with complex needs and the support systems around them.

Charlene works with a variety of client groups, including young people and families with complex needs, working in residential care provisions, educational settings, fostering and adoption services and services that support care-experienced young people. Charlene facilitates ongoing psychological consultation to staff teams and carers, undertakes multi-agency team formulation sessions, delivers training, contributes to the ‘matching process’ when thinking about foster carer suitability, provides clinical supervision to staff from a range of disciplines, and supports with service development, including the development of models of care and outcome frameworks. She also completes comprehensive psychological assessments, provides therapeutic interventions to adults, young people and families and works with Local Authorities supporting children and families where there are safeguarding needs. Charlene also works within adult wellbeing services undertaking assessment and therapeutic work.

Charlene utilises an integrated approach where she draws upon attachment and trauma informed frameworks to guide her work. She has a special interest in developmental trauma, self-harming behaviours and Child Sexual Exploitation. Charlene has also undertaken training in Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy (DDP).

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Dr Sue Knowles

Consultant Clinical Psychologist / Lead for Child and Family Services

Sue is a Consultant Clinical Psychologist and CMUK Lead for Child and Family Services, where she leads a team of Applied Psychologists, Therapists and Assistant Psychologists. She is part of the Senior Leadership Team at CMUK, and her role involves liaison with multiple stakeholders and agencies, ensuring high quality practice across the service through outcome measurement and evaluation, development of frameworks of care, supervision and coaching. Sue is trained to work with clients across the lifespan, including adults, young people and families. She has specialist skills in working with clients who have experienced complex trauma, and/or present with concerns including anxiety, self-harm and attachment/relationship difficulties.

In addition, Sue works within organisations, promoting emotional wellbeing and resilience within high pressure and high challenge environments, supporting them to ‘Perform Well’. This work includes developing company-wide wellbeing and development strategies, psychological consultations, personal development planning and coaching with Senior Leadership Teams and designing bespoke training. Sue is an accredited ‘Spotlight’ and ‘Spotlight Teams’ facilitator (a personality profiling tool and a team dynamics tool for use within organisations, which are designed with performance in mind).

Sue’s clinical practice involves undertaking comprehensive psychological assessments and therapeutic work, consultations, training and supervision with birth families, foster carers and residential care staff. Sue also provides individual therapy for adults and young people. In addition to her clinical work, Sue writes self-help books for young people (including the bestselling books ‘My Anxiety Handbook: Getting Back on Track’ and ‘The Anxiety Survival Guide: Getting Through the Challenging Stuff’) with Jessica Kingsley Publishers. Her third book ‘My Intense Emotions Handbook: Manage your Emotions and Connect Better with Others’ will be published in January 2021. Sue is also research supervisor for the Doctorate in Clinical Psychology course at Lancaster University. She has a range of academic publications from her own research and the studies that she supervises.

In addition to her registration as a Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) Clinical Psychologist, Sue has undertaken formal training in Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy (DDP) (levels one and two) and Theraplay® (level one) and uses an attachment/trauma framework in much of her work. She works in an integrative manner and has also had training in a range of therapeutic approaches including Compassion-Focused Therapy (CFT), Mindfulness, and Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT).

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Sinitta Yu

Assistant Psychologist

Sinitta works within the Child and Family Service at Changing Minds UK. She works with young people, and those who care for them, who have complex needs including attachment di­fficulties, developmental trauma, social communication di­fficulties and mental health needs.

Sinitta has a range of experience having previously worked within a national residential child care provision, a Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS), and an inpatient secure ward. Sinitta works with the Applied Psychologists at Changing Minds to support psychological consultation and team formulation for fostering and residential care services, to undertake comprehensive psychological assessments for young people with complex needs and their families, to facilitate training, and provide individual psychological therapy. Sinitta uses an integrative therapeutic approach in her work, drawing from attachment/trauma principles, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT) and Mindfulness.

Sinitta also undertakes clinical research, outcomes and evaluation activities for Changing Minds and other associated organisations. Sinitta has attended training in Sensory Processing Principles and Parenting with PACE. She holds a BPS accredited Undergraduate degree in Psychology and a Master’s degree in Psychology.

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Alex Feary

Senior Sport Psychologist

Alex is a Senior Sport Psychologist at Changing Minds, who holds a master’s degree in Sport and Exercise Psychology from Loughborough University. He has worked as an applied practitioner within elite sport since 2012, and prior to this worked as an assistant psychologist within a clinical setting with adolescents presenting with complex needs.

Alex has supported child, adolescent, and adult performers, across a range of Olympic and professional sports and businesses. This includes work with Premier League and Championship football clubs, England Netball, GB Canoe, GB Hockey, and both national and domestic cricket. Alex enjoys working as part of a team towards a shared goal and believes strongly in integrating psychological knowledge from a range of theoretical perspectives to help assess and understand the needs of the people he works with.

Alex is passionate about both performance and wellbeing and enjoys supporting both the individuals within a system and their leaders, allowing for a combination of personal and environmental growth within the organisations he works with.

Alex has enjoyed competing in a variety of sports, including rugby, water polo, and mixed martial arts!

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Dr Amanda Bickley

Senior Clinical Psychologist

Prior to joining Changing Minds in 2016, Amanda worked for 7 years in a specialist Local Authority Looked After and Adopted Children’s Psychology Service. She is highly experienced in working with children, families and those in the care systems around the child using attachment and trauma frameworks to offer psychological assessments, consultations and therapeutic intervention.

Amanda’s current clinical practice involves undertaking comprehensive psychological assessments and working therapeutically with children and their families and individual adults to support their emotional wellbeing and mental health needs. Amanda continues to specialise in providing attachment focused intervention and provides post adoption support to a number of families, funded through the Adoption Support Fund. Amanda has undertaken training in Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy (DDP) and Theraplay® and regularly uses these approaches in her clinical work.

Amanda also manages a psychological consultation service commissioned by a local authority for both foster carers and residential staff. Amanda has extensive direct experience of offering consultations to staff teams (foster carers, senior social work managers, social workers and teachers) who support children and young people who have experienced complex trauma, separation and loss. The focus of these consultations is to create shared understanding and promote therapeutic parenting approaches in all aspects of the child or young person’s life.

Amanda is currently leading on the development of our services in the Midlands and supervises a staff team of Clinical Psychologists and Assistant Psychologists.

Prior to working as a Clinical Psychologist, Amanda worked for the Youth Justice Board supporting the development of offending behaviour programmes in secure and custodial environments. She has also held a Senior Management position (Head of Youth Offending Services) within a custodial setting for young people, managing a multi-disciplinary team responsible for psychological intervention (including offence focussed work) within the centre.

Amanda’s interest in working in youth offending developed when studying criminology as part of her undergraduate degree. She went on to complete a PhD in Forensic Psychology and wrote her thesis on the impact of film violence on young offenders.

Amanda is registered as a Practitioner Psychologist with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC). She holds an enhanced DBS certificate.

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Pauline Hughes

Office Manager

Pauline has worked in the NHS for over 19 years, she has extensive experience working in Human Resources, administration and as a Medical Staffing Manager. She provides management oversight for all administrative functions within Changing Minds UK.

Pauline is the first point of contact for Human Resources, Finance and Accounts. Pauline believes strongly in supporting staff and the importance of polite, effective and engaging customer service.

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Dr Duncan Law

Consultant Clinical Psychologist

Duncan is a Consultant Clinical Psychologist with over 30-years experience working in psychological health across the NHS, local authority, higher education, third sectors. He has worked with Changing Minds, since 2016, in elite sports environments spanning: football, rugby, rowing, horse racing, and swimming. He is an Honorary Associate Professor of Psychology at University College London’s Faculty of Brian Sciences. He collaborates on a variety of mental health, leadership, and research programmes across the UK, Europe and North America. He teaches on ‘leadership and transformation’ and has worked with senior leads across health, social care and third sectors as well as in sport.

In addition, he was a founder of the Child Outcomes Research Consortium (CORC) and board director for 15 years. He is the former Chair of the British Psychological Society’s Division of Clinical Psychology’s Faculty for Children, Young People and their Families. He has written extensively in academic journals and books including: Cooper and Law (2018) ‘Working with goals in psychotherapy and counselling’ Oxford University Press. He has specialist expertise in working with goals; developing of the Goal-Based Outcomes (GBO) tool (see www.goals-in-therapy.com). He has particular interest in applied psychological practice in whole system change, quality improvement, evidence-informed & feedback-informed practice. Above all he is interested in the effective application of complex psychological ideas in ways that make them accessible, to enrich lives and enhance performance.

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Jen McDonald

Senior Office Administrator

Jen is a qualified Primary Teacher with 10 years teaching experience within a variety of settings including Nursery, Primary and SEN schools. From her teaching career, Jen has experience of working effectively within a team, prioritising workloads in order to meet targets and deadlines, and using creativity to plan and organise. All of these skills are utilised in her role at Changing Minds UK.

Jen provides support with all administrative functions within Changing Minds UK and 19 Wilson Patten.   She is the first point of contact for booking enquiries and for people visiting 19 Wilson Patten. Jen believes in the importance of delivering a polite, welcoming and effective customer service.

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Dr Shreeta Raja

Senior Clinical Psychologist

Shreeta is a HCPC registered Senior Clinical Psychologist, and has over 10 years’ experience in the NHS, working with people across the lifespan and in settings ranging from community to forensic inpatient.

Much of her work has been working with young people, young adults and families with complex clinical presentations and with the services that support them, in order to increase psychological understanding and wellness. She has particular experience in working with care-experienced young people and those who have experienced adversity and trauma.

Shreeta also has considerable experience working within the area of elite sports, recognising that many of the same psychological theories and skills she had used in other settings can be applied to the high-performance environment. Since joining Changing Minds, Shreeta has worked with individuals (elite athletes and support staff), performance teams and organisations to improve performance and promote overall wellbeing through psychological consultation and individual work. Shreeta is working to support the development of the Changing Minds provision in London.

As a Clinical Psychologist, Shreeta draws on a range of psychological knowledge and theories to understand human behaviour and performance, including complex trauma and attachment theory. She integrates a number of therapeutic approaches into her work including Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and Cognitive Analytic Therapy and recognises the high value of working systemically. In addition to her clinical work, Shreeta is a past member of the British Psychological Society’s national committee for children, young people and families and has published on traumatic presentations in young people at risk of entering the criminal justice system. She is registered with the Health and Care Professions Council and the British Psychological Society.

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Dr Jess Sheffield

Clinical Psychologist

Jessica is a HCPC registered Clinical Psychologist who specialises working with young people and families in a variety of different settings. Jessica is part of the child and family team at Changing Minds working with clients within fostering and adoption services, residential care and educational settings. She provides psychological assessment, formulation, consultation and therapeutic intervention to address a wide variety of difficulties through direct and indirect work with individuals, families, groups and wider systems. Jessica utilises an integrative approach with an attachment and systemic focus.

Prior to joining Changing Minds in 2019, Jessica was in training completing core placements across the lifespan and varying service contexts. This has included working with adults, young adults and children to provide psychological therapy to address a wide-range of emotional, social and behavioural difficulties, with specific practice in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Mindfulness and Attachment-based therapy. In her final year of training, Jessica had specialist experience of working in an Autistic Spectrum Condition (ASC) and Learning Disability service for children and young people and a Children in Care (CiC) service.

Prior to training, Jessica has over ten years experience of working with children and young people. This has included supporting their learning, development and wellbeing within education, residential and community settings, particularly with children who have social communication and sensory processing differences and additional learning needs. Jessica has also worked as a Research Assistant on a national research trial in the field of adolescent mental health.

Jessica was awarded a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology in 2019 from the University of Lancaster, a Post Graduate Certificate in ASC in 2009 from Manchester Metropolitan University and a BSc in Psychology in 2006 from the University of Birmingham. She has undertaken training in Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy (DDP).

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Annabelle Matthews

Assistant Psychologist

Annabelle works within the Child and Family Service at Changing Minds UK. She works with young people, and those who care for them, who have complex needs including, attachment difficulties, developmental trauma, social communication difficulties and mental health needs.
Annabelle holds a BPS accredited undergraduate degree; BSc in Psychology and Abuse Studies and is due to complete her masters, MSc in Clinical Skills in Integrative Psychotherapy in February 2020. Alongside her studies, Annabelle has volunteered with a local young carers’ charity. She led bi-weekly respite sessions for 6-10-year olds. The sessions supported the young carer’s; learning, social, emotional wellbeing, whilst also providing fun activities such as, residentials and day trips. Prior to joining Changing Minds UK, Annabelle previously worked within an inpatient functional elderly unit. Whilst working within the unit she undertook psychological assessments, case formulations and psychological interventions.
Annabelle works with the Applied Psychologists at Changing Minds to support psychological consultation and team formulation for fostering services, to undertake comprehensive psychological assessments for young people with complex needs and their families, to facilitate training, and provide individual psychological therapy. Annabelle utilises an integrative therapeutic approach in her work, drawing from attachment/trauma principles, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavioural Therapy and Mindfulness.
Annabelle has also undertaken clinical research and service evaluation throughout her studies. She explored secondary-school staffs’ experiences of student self-harm; how they manage, process and cope with these disclosures. Annabelle has a personal interest in self-harm, developmental trauma and promoting resiliency.

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Dr Andrew Wah

Clinical Psychologist

Andrew is a HCPC registered Clinical Psychologist who specialises working with young people and their families. Andrew provides psychological assessment, formulation, consultation and therapeutic intervention to address a wide variety of difficulties through direct and indirect work with individuals, families, groups and wider systems.
Andrew has been awarded a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology from Lancaster University in October 2019. During his training he completed 4 core placements across the lifespan including child, adult, older adult and learning disabilities. In his final year of training, Andrew’s completed a specialist placement on an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) pathway. He worked as part of a multi-disciplinary team assessing and diagnosing along with consultation with parents, carers, and schools regarding the presentation of ASD behaviours.
Andrew has a broad range of experience with children and adolescents across several cultures. He has worked in many youth settings as well as working in an educational setting in the middle east. The experience of working abroad developed Andrew’s understanding of different cultures and the complexity systemic practices.
Andrew has undertaken training in Dyadic Development Psychotherapy (DDP) and Eye-Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR).

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Matt Thompson

Senior Sport Psychologist

Matt is a HCPC registered Sport Psychologist who is passionate about helping driven people achieve their goals. He takes a positive, solution-focussed approach and believes everyone has the potential to become the best version of themselves.

 

Matt has worked with individuals, teams and systems across a range of professional and Olympic sports to develop self-awareness, individualised psychological skills, and psychologically informed performance cultures.  He uses this broad range of experiences to challenge the thinking of those he works with to help them maximise their potential.

 

Matt is a friendly guy who is purposeful and direct in working towards growth and achievement and is passionate about collaboration. He gets inspiration from the desire to grow of those he works with and will normally be seen with a coffee in hand, connecting with someone and loving his job!

 

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Andrew Bethell

Senior Clinical Psychologist

Andrew is a HCPC registered Clinical Psychologist with an interest in mental health in sport. He is part of our performance team and works in high performance sport environments, working with teams, staff and individual athletes to promote positive mental health and well-being. Andrew also delivers mental health training across the UK, and leads a research study investigating mental health and wellbeing in football.

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Lena Kessler

Sport Psychologist

Lena is a Chartered HCPC registered Sport Psychologist at Changing Minds, and member of the Division of Sport and Exercise Psychology. During Lena’s training for chartership, she gained experience working with the Australian Institute of sport, Canberra University, and the Mind Room Melbourne.

Lena has worked with elite and amateur athletes across the globe at various stages of the career and ages. The mix of sports that Lena has worked with include figure skating, martial arts, weightlifting, lacrosse, rugby, athletics, among others. Lena’s experience in delivering performance psychology with mental health awareness can be seen in her work with the Football Association grassroot female referees and her time working for Xenzone, a mental health company. Lena’s time at Xenzone sparked her interested further in working with young people. Lena’s work as part of the AASE program for Marathon sport allowed her to further develop her sport psychology skills with young people.

Lena has also gained experience in executive coaching during her time in the corporate space where her role was to educate and support managers to become better leaders.

Lena believes in a holistic approach to developing sustainable long-term performance in athletes, moving away from unachievable perfectionistic ideals to psychology informed environments that combines psychological well-being and performance.

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Dr James Bell

Cons. Sport Psychologist and Lead for Performance Services

Dr. James Bell originally completed his training as a PGA Golf Coach in 2005. He then went on to train as a performance psychologist, studying for an MSc and Ph. D at Bangor University. Since graduating from his Ph. D he has held 4 different roles in elite sport. Initially he worked as a trainee performance psychologist in the England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB), principally working in their development programs along the England Cricket Pathway. In February 2013, Dr. Bell was recruited by the Cleveland Browns as the Director of Psychological Services which involved providing psychological support to athletes, coaches and support staff. He was also involved in the identification, screening and selection of players in the NFL draft. In October 2014 James returned to the UK to be the National Lead for Psychology with the Rugby Football Union (RFU). At the RFU Dr. Bell was responsible for developing at team of Psychologists to support the England Rugby teams (Men’s, Women’s, 7s programs). He was also responsible for enhancing psychological practice across the English Rugby system. In February 2017 Dr. Bell started his most recent role as Head of Culture Development at UK Sport where he is responsible for ensuring every WCP adopts a High Performance Culture that drives sustainable performance. In October 2018, Dr. Bell was appointed as Head of Mental Health with the EIS to go alongside his existing commitments as Head of Culture Development at UK Sport. In February 2020, Dr. Bell started in his new role as Lead for Performance Services at Changing Minds where he is responsible for applied psychology into performance environments. Initially Dr. Bell is delivering applied psychology directly into Brighton & Hove Albion FC and the LTA.

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Rich Hampson

Senior Sport Psychologist and Lead for Professional, Olympic and Paralympic Sport

Rich is a chartered Sport and Exercise Psychologist with the BPS (CPsychol) and is also HCPC registered. He began his formal training following the completion of his two postgraduate degrees (PGDip and MSc) which were undertaken at Nottingham Trent University and Loughborough University.

Since beginning his work in the performance domain he has held a number of roles across professional and Olympic / Paralympic sports. His first full-time job in sport involved working with the Nottingham Forest Football Academy where he spent one season. He has also worked in tennis including providing the psychology support for the GB Davis Cup Tennis Team in 2015 and 2016. He has worked four different Olympic organisations including leading the psychology provision with various Great Britain teams into the last three Olympic Games – starting with the British Swimming team from 2014-2017 (Rio Olympics); the Great Britain Short Track Speed Skating team from 2016-2018 (PyeongChang Winter Olympics); and he is currently is the Senior Psychologist at the Great Britain Cycling Team in the build up to the recently rescheduled Tokyo Olympics. His current role at British Cycling involves him providing psychological support to riders, coaches and support staff whilst also overseeing the creation of a new mental health strategy which includes the proactive integration of sport and clinical psychology. He is also involved in redesigning how the sport identifies, understands and supports young riders who enter the academy set-up from a psychological perspective.

Rich re-joined Changing Minds in May 2020 as one of the team’s senior psychologists and has a role in the ongoing development of the team as well as providing services to contracts which initially is limited to British Cycling.

 

 

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Adam Bracey

Performance Psychologist

Adam is a Chartered HCPC registered Sport Psychologist at Changing Minds and holds a Master’s degree from Liverpool John Moores University. He has worked as an applied practitioner in elite sport since 2015 and is currently embedded within a professional Football Academy, supporting the psychological needs of the organisation and the development of the individual athletes. Adam’s other responsibilities include the development, delivery and evaluation of psychologically informed training sessions for a variety of organisations in both sport and business.

Adam has supported adolescent and adult performers and coaches and the environments around them across a range of sports. This includes Premier League and Championship Football clubs, athletes, and organisations, in boxing, golf, athletics, gymnastics and netball. Adam believes in developing strong professional relationships which allow the integration of psychological knowledge to assess and understand the needs of the clients and the environments they are within.

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Dr Tom Goodall

Senior Clinical Psychologist

Tom is a HCPC registered Clinical Psychologist who has experience working across a range of healthcare systems including primary care, community and inpatient services. Having delivered psychological input across a wide variety of settings, Tom has worked with people across the lifespan and has provided support and consultation to other professionals and multi-disciplinary teams. Prior to joining Changing Minds, Tom previously worked within Early Intervention in Psychosis services for four years, with specialist experience in working with young people and their families affected by a first episode of psychosis.

 

Since joining Changing Minds in August 2020, Tom has been working within the performance team across a variety of professional, elite sport and business settings. His role includes supporting individuals and systems to draw upon psychological approaches to increase wellbeing and performance in a sustainable and accessible way; this includes providing individual psychological support, offering consultation with systems, supporting the development of strategy and delivering education and training. Tom is passionate about engaging individual’s and systems in being able to access psychological approaches in a meaningful way in order to support them to perform well in their area of expertise.

 

Tom was awarded a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology by the University of Birmingham in 2016, and also holds an MSc in Rehabilitation Psychology from the University of Nottingham, as well as being awarded a BSc in Psychology from the University of Derby. More recently, Tom has undertaken further training in wider psychological approaches and has completed courses in Enhanced Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), as well as being trained in the use of Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing approaches (EMDR). Tom also has experience in delivering teaching as a guest lecturer as a part of Clinical Psychology Doctorate training programmes, as well as supervising trainee and newly qualified practitioner psychologists.

 

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Dr Jenny Weall

Clinical Psychologist - Performance Services

Jenny has joined the Performance Team at Changing Minds with a breadth of clinical experience, gained from working with individuals and the team(s) around them. She has worked within Occupational Health services in the NHS and independent sector, helping clients to understand and manage the interactions between their worklife and their psychological wellbeing. She has also worked within physical health and weight management services in the NHS, promoting good physical and psychological wellbeing, and in NHS mental health services, working with individuals with severe, complex and enduring mental health difficulties. In each of these settings, Jenny has worked directly with service users, as well as with staff teams, offering consultation, reflective space, supervision and/or training, to maximise their understanding of individuals’ difficulties and ability to work effectively with these, and to support staff wellbeing. She is now bringing these skills into her work in sports clubs, working with athletes and the teams around them.

Jenny has undertaken further training in working with trauma and is an EMDR Consultant/Clinical Supervisor. In her independent practice, she offers individual and group supervision to other psychological therapists to support them in their trauma-focussed work with clients. Jenny is a Chartered Clinical Psychologist, and registered with the HCPC.

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Dr Jenny Mullineaux

Senior Clinical Psychologist - Child & Family Service

Jenny is a Senior Clinical Psychologist and the Lead for Education Provision at Changing Minds. She has a broad range of experience working with children, young people and their families across health, social care and education settings.

A large part of Jenny’s work with Changing Minds involves providing psychological services to educational settings. This work includes supporting these settings to develop and embed ‘whole school’ approaches to promoting the emotional health and wellbeing of children and young people. She also works more specifically with schools to develop ‘trauma informed therapeutic frameworks’ to address the needs of children who have experienced trauma and adversity in their lives. Jenny also provides training and consultation to staff teams to support them in their understanding of the psychological difficulties and needs of the children they work with.

Prior to joining Changing Minds, Jenny worked within NHS Children’s Psychological Services, providing specialist psychological care to children, young people and their families, as well as clinical supervision to staff, and consultation to multidisciplinary professionals. In her clinical practice, Jenny draws upon a range of psychological models and interventions to support the families and organisations she works with. She has a particular interest in complex trauma, attachment and systemic practice.  Jenny is an accredited VIG (Video Interactive Guidance) practitioner (an intervention focussed on enhancing communication within relationships) and has undertaken training in Theraplay ® (Level 1). Throughout her time in the NHS, Jenny was involved in the delivery of Family Therapy and other specialist parenting clinics.

Jenny previously worked for two years within a specialist Looked After Children’s service (embedded within Children’s Social Care), providing support to carers and professionals working with Looked After and Adopted children.

Jenny’s research interests are in understanding the needs and experiences of vulnerable children and young people. Her doctoral thesis explored the experiences of young people making the journey out of homelessness and was developed alongside a research advisory group of young people with lived experience of homelessness.  Jenny has a keen professional interest in working creatively and innovatively to reach those most in need of psychological support, and her work with schools has grown out of the idea that a young person’s educational experience, and the relationships they develop within school, can represent key protective factors in their lives.

Jenny was awarded a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology from Lancaster University in 2014 and is registered with the HCPC.

 

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Dr Gill I'Anson

Consultant Clinical Psychologist

Gill Is a Consultant Clinical Psychologist who has provided psychological formulation and intervention in a variety of settings over the last 20 years, including CAMHS, Paediatric Health, Expert Witness Court Assessment (private and public law), Looked after Children, Adoption Support and both Individual and family therapeutic interventions.  She specialises in working with young people and adults with complex needs and the support systems around them.  She works in residential care provisions, educational settings, fostering and adoption services and services that support care-leavers.  Gill provides ongoing psychological consultation to staff teams and carers, undertaking multi-agency team formulation sessions, delivering training to a range of professionals and supporting service development. Her work also includes comprehensive psychological assessments and providing therapeutic interventions to young people and families, including working with Local Authorities supporting children and families where there are safeguarding needs. Gill also provides assessment and therapeutic interventions with adults drawing on her range of training and experience, particularly attachment and trauma informed frameworks. Gill has also undertaken training in Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy (DDP) and EMDR.

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Dr Chris Wagstaff

Senior Performance Psychologist

Chris has 15 years of experience working in applied psychology with a diverse range of clients including: international, Olympic and Paralympic athletes, coaches and support staff, business executives, Government agencies, senior military officers in the British Army, Navy and Air Force, emergency service personnel, politicians, and performing artists. He recently acted as Head of Performance Psychology at the English Institute of Sport in the lead up to the postponed Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

Chris is a Chartered Psychologist and Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society (BPS). He combines his work with Changing Minds with his employment as a Reader in Applied Psychology at the University of Portsmouth, where he developed the first Health and Care Professions Council-approved Professional Doctorate in Sport and Exercise Psychology.

He has authored over 100 publications, predominantly on organisational sport psychology. He acts as the Editor for Sport and Exercise Psychology Review, an Associate Editor for the Journal of Applied Sport Psychology and sits on the editorial board of Case Studies in Sport and Exercise Psychology. He is a past Associate Editor of the International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, Journal of Sport Psychology, and Journal of Applied Case Studies in Sport and Exercise Sciences.

Chris is passionate about the development and supervision of trainees and serves on the BPS Division of Sport and Exercise Psychology’s executive and training committees.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Hannah Dunderdale

Honorary Trainee Performance Psychologist

Hannah is an Honorary Trainee Sport Psychologist at Changing Minds and is currently studying her Professional Doctorate in Sport and Exercise Psychology.

Hannah studied her BSc in Psychology (Hons) at Sheffield Hallam University, before flying out to Arkansas State University to study an MSc in Exercise Science, where her thesis focused on researching “Factors contributing towards mental toughness in collegiate athletes”. Hannah then returned to SHU to gain her MSc in Sport & Exercise Psychology, during which time she worked as a Wellbeing Personal Trainer and voluntarily delivered sport psychology educational workshops for the academy players at Sheffield Wednesday FC. Following this, Hannah enrolled on the Professional Doctorate in Sport & Exercise Psychology course at the University of Portsmouth. Hannah is pursuing her studies towards chartered status, whilst working as an Honorary Trainee Performance Psychologist at Changing Minds UK.

Hannah has competed for over 15 years in athletics as a heptathlete. During her career, she has represented England, and Great Britain. Hannah’s achievements as a junior athlete, led to a scholarship as a NCAA Division I student-athlete, where she medalled at each of her Conference Championships in the multi-events.

Hannah is passionate about utilising her physiological and psychological education, alongside her experience as an athlete, to support psychological wellbeing and improve sporting performance with a positive, holistic approach.

 

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Isobelle Kennedy

Sport Psychologist

Isobelle is a trainee sport psychologist at Changing Minds. Isobelle is completing the final stage of training required to be a chartered sport psychologist (CPsychol) and HCPC registered. Following a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a master’s degree in sport and exercise psychology, Isobelle explored mental health and illness in high-performance sport during her PhD. Isobelle has an interest in unique socio-cultural environments and how they can influence the experience of mental health and illness. Isobelle has a passion for qualitative research that places emphasis on subjectivity, creativity, and depth, which reflects her approach to applied practice.

 

Isobelle has researched in various high-performance environments, including professional and Olympic sport. Isobelle’s interest in unique social environments is not limited to sport and extends to other high-performance domains where mental health interacts with performance. Isobelle believes that good mental health and performance success are not experienced, or obtained, in isolation from the social environment. Therefore, Isobelle places precedence on the social, cultural, and personal facets of an individuals’ life to help them perform well and feel good.

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Dr James Oliver

Clinical Psychologist

James is a HCPC registered Clinical Psychologist working within our Performance Services. He brings experience of working within a variety of healthcare settings, including primary care, community, and hospital-based mental health services. James has extensive experience working within child and adolescent mental health services, and prior to joining Changing Minds, worked as a Highly Specialist Clinical Psychologist at The Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital.

James achieved his Doctorate in Clinical Psychology at Lancaster University in 2017. Prior to this, James also completed an MSc in Sport and Exercise Psychology from the University of Central Lancashire in 2013. Subsequently, James has published his thesis research into a peer reviewed journal and undertaken additional training courses in a variety of therapeutic modalities including Level 1 Narrative Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Trauma Focussed CBT for children and young people. James also has experience delivering teaching as a guest lecturer on the Doctorate in Clinical Psychology training programme and offers supervision to trainees and newly qualified practitioner psychologists.

Of relevance to his role within Performance services, James brings personal experience of both playing and working within high-performance systems. Firstly, as an aspiring tennis player, and later working as a tennis coach in clubs across the North-West of England, and as far as Perth, Western Australia. This experience furnished a special interest in the relationship between emotional wellbeing and performance.

Within his role at Changing Minds, James works into professional sport organisations, as well as corporate settings, where learnings from the world of elite sport often apply.

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Lerissa Graham

Sport Psychologist

Lerissa is a Chartered Sport and Exercise Psychologist and registered with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC). She holds over a decade of experience supporting the well-being and performance of individuals and groups, across a range of performance contexts, including sport, performing arts, business and education. Specifically, this includes international and amateur athletes, GB representatives, Military personnel, Championship League Football, The Royal Ballet School, The English Table Tennis Association and various corporate organisations.

Lerissa completed a BSc in Psychology with Sport and Exercise Science and an MSc in Sport and Exercise Psychology at Brunel University. Lerissa’s interest in psychology was initially sparked by her own experience competing as a national level tennis player. Lerissa is also a level-3 qualified tennis coach and therefore brings a unique, 360-degree perspective to her work, as a performer, coach and psychologist.

Anchored in Positive Psychology, Lerissa takes a proactive approach to her work, whereby she believes that building well-being and resilience acts as a vaccination against ill mental health and enables individuals and groups to flourish. Lerissa loves to be embedded into systems and cultivate positive environments, which foster good relationships, strengths and positive mental health.

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Courageously Different

We pride ourselves on a willingness to work outside traditional models of psychological delivery. By applying a broad range of psychological theory flexibly we are better able to meet the needs of a range of clients, avoiding a ‘one size fits all’ prescriptive approach.

We aim to empower clients and systems to grow and develop through promoting shared understanding and co-ordinated action, which live beyond our involvement.

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Creatively
Simple

Our focus is always to deliver a high quality service, bringing psychological science to life by creating practical solutions to complex problems that have a meaningful impact with people in everyday life, always maximising the resources available.

We understand the need to be innovative in tailoring our services to the needs of our clients, be they individuals, teams or organisations.

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Supportively Challenging

We recognise the importance of developing resilience within individuals and organisations, and the potential to grow through adversity. We promote the notion of being ‘stronger together’ which incorporates the provision of nurturing care and people looking after themselves in order to support others effectively.

We recognise that people are always doing their best, and can also be appropriately challenged to do better, encouraging them to feel secure in what they do and collectively reflect on their actions.

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