About Us

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.

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.

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.

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).

Barney Wren

Sport Psychologist

Barney is an HCPC registered Sport and Exercise Psychologist and a Chartered member of the British Psychological Society. Barney has been working through contracts to provide simple, purposeful, and individualised psychological support. Barney was awarded full Accreditation as a Sport and Exercise Psychologist in 2021 and holds an MSc in Sport and Exercise Psychology and a BSc in Psychology, both from the University of Portsmouth. Since starting with Changing Minds, Barney has been embedded within a professional football academy, supporting the creation of a person-centred environment to influence at a system, culture, training, team and individual level. Currently, Barney is supporting athletes and staff in a Pro Cycling team and City Football Group. Barney has also been instrumental in the development of a bespoke leadership training program for use within corporate settings and in elite sports. Barney believes in developing strong professional relationships, which allow for deeper-level surface conversations to help understand the needs of the individual and the environments in which they operate.

Dr Chris Beaumont

Sport Psychologist

Chris has been involved in Sport Psychology for over a decade. During this time, he has worked with multiple professional, Olympic, Paralympic, and World Championship level athletes, coaches, and teams, as well as multiple businesses and registered charities. Alongside his work as a Sport Psychologist, Chris has also worked within coach development, leading coach development programmes and initiatives across a wide variety of sports.

Chris is passionate about supporting people to develop and to deliver consistently high levels of performance. He enjoys not only working with individuals and teams, but collaborating with leaders and coaches to help create sustainable environments that allow people to thrive.

Chris is a Chartered Sport and Exercise Psychologist with the British Psychological Society (BPS) and a registered Practitioner Psychologist with the HCPC. He is also a member of the BPS Division of Sport and Exercise Psychology. Chris was awarded a Doctorate, M.Sc., and B.Sc., all in Sport Psychology from the University of Central Lancashire.

Currently, through his work with Changing Minds, Chris is one of the Podium Psychologists for the Great Britain Cycling Team and delivers within corporate settings.

Emily Hill-Smith

Trainee Sport Psychologist

Emily is a Trainee Sport Psychologist with the British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences. Since graduating from her MSc at Loughborough University, she has worked in a range of settings including Premier League hockey, football academies, and Moonshot, a children’s wellbeing and performance company. Emily’s work with Moonshot involved designing online teaching resources which promoted self-awareness and emotional and behavioural management in young people.

Emily believes in combining a holistic approach to understanding the environments and systems which athletes operate within and the importance of developing strong relationships to successfully assess and understand the needs of the clients.

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!

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.

Paul Davies

Finance Lead

Paul is the Finance Lead for Changing Minds group of companies and is responsible for the financial accounting and management accounts, Payroll. Paul gives full financial support to the teams at Changing Minds Ltd & Changing Minds Wellbeing Ltd and supports the board of directors.

In addition Paul has over twenty years experiences within finance and Information technology and has worked within a wide range of organisations. Paul is highly qualified in Accountancy, Payroll and Software.

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.

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 and is lead for HR.   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.

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.

Dr Henry Briscoe

Clinical Psychologist

Henry is a HCPC registered Clinical Psychologist who has experience of working within a range of different contexts. After completing clinical training, Henry went to work with young people and their families in the NHS. Since joining Changing Minds, Henry has worked across several elite performance environments including horseracing, rugby, and cricket. Henry works to develop relationships, enhance resilience, and sustain performance. 

Henry has a particular interest in anxiety research and how this impacts our ability to understand another person’s perspective. He is actively completing research to better understand how emotion impacts perspective taking.

Henry has a passion for sport outside of Changing Minds, with golf and cricket being his favourites to play. Despite the continuing development of applying psychological principles in elite performance, this is yet to transfer into his skill execution.

Dr James Griffin

Clinical Psychologist

James is a HCPC registered Clinical Psychologist who has experience of working with a variety of different people in different contexts and across the lifespan. James holds a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology which was awarded from the Universities of Coventry & Warwick in 2022. James also has also completed an MSc in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and BSc in Psychology. Prior to completing his clinical psychology doctorate, James qualified as a CBT therapist from Royal Holloway University in 2017 and subsequently worked as a CBT therapist in NHS mental health services in London. James has also carried out research which explores elite/professional athletes’ experiences of returning to sport following a long-term injury. It is hoped that this research will help sports organisations to effectively support athletes when they transition back to sport following an injury. Since joining Changing Minds, James has gained experience in providing psychological support at both an individual and systemic level within high performance sport and corporate settings.

Dr Lewis Marston

Clinical Psychologist

Lewis is a HCPC registered Clinical Psychologist who has experience in working with people within a range of different contexts and across the lifespan. Graduating in 2020, Lewis went on to work within a community eating disorder team before he joined the Performance Team at Changing Minds.

Lewis has a keen interest in sport through both his personal and professional life, with his doctoral thesis exploring the mental health stigma and help-seeking behaviours of elite athletes. He draws upon cognitive analytic and systemic principles within his practice.

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!

Dr 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.

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.

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.

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.

Dr Nikki Crawley

Sport Psychologist

Nikki is a HCPC registered Sport and Exercise Psychologist and a Chartered member of the British Psychological Society. Alongside training for chartership Nikki completed a PhD at Brunel University which involved being embedded within a professional football academy to understand and analyse the impact of an elite academy environment on the psychosocial needs and development of youth footballers. In 2023 Nikki published the paper ‘Mind the gap: Environmental influences on player psychosocial needs and development in an elite youth football academy’.

Prior to joining Changing Minds Nikki gained experience at GB Paralympic Archery as well as working with AASE athletes and elite youth footballers. Nikki’s role with Changing Minds currently involves supporting players and staff at Fulham FC Academy, GB hockey and City Football Group. Nikki works to understand and support the psychological needs of the organisation which involves working at individual, team and system level. Nikki primarily works from an Acceptance Commitment Therapy framework to develop psychological flexibility in those she works with to enhance both wellbeing and performance.

Vicki Hill

Consultant Clinical Psychologist

Vicki is an HCPC registered, enhanced DBS checked and Chartered Consultant Clinical Psychologist with over 30 years of experience in the NHS within mental health services. Much of her time was spent in therapeutic services for children and families and in single and multi -agency training on safeguarding and child protection. The focus of the clinical work was on working in trauma. She has published resources for working with child and adult survivors of domestic abuse. Her role developed into providing consultation to other parts of the service and to other agencies in her role as clinical psychology lead. Prior to joining Changing Minds, Vicki provided clinical supervision to senior staff within the company.

Since joining Changing Minds in 2021, Vicki has been working within the performance team across different contracts including elite sport and business. Her role includes primarily supporting individuals’ wellbeing and performance in their different settings through the provision of a range of psychological therapies, particularly via the EMDR (eye movement desensitization and reprocessing) approach.

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.

Kay Tart

Lead for Operations - Performance Services

Kay is the Lead for Operations for the Performance Services team at Changing Minds. Kay is responsible for managing all aspects of operations to ensure the smooth delivery of our services. This includes oversight of contract management, financial and business planning, reporting and internal communications. Kay’s approach is friendly, collaborative and purpose driven.

Kay worked for ten years in the administration and delivery of Olympic and Paralympic sport and was lucky enough to support Team GB in Sochi 2014, Rio 2016 and Toyko 2020. These experiences have given Kay great insight into elite sport and how these environments can thrive.

Gemma Douglas

Senior Sport Psychologist

Gemma is a HCPC registered Sport Psychologist with over 15 years’ experience working within high performance sport / systems. After completing her studies (MSc / PGDip) in Sheffield and following a 12-month internship with the English Institute of Sport (EIS), Gemma started her applied work with the British Sailing team focusing on pathway psychology skill development and transitions. Following the London Olympic cycle, Gemma took on the role of lead sport psychologist for the British Gymnastics team, driving both the strategic and applied psychology support for the 2016 Olympic cycle. This included working closely with coaches and gymnasts around pressure training skills and principles. Alongside her work in gymnastics, Gemma worked for the England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB), providing support for the England Women’s cricket team during their transition to becoming a professionalised sport, and throughout an Ashes & World Cup series.

Following 10 years at the EIS, Gemma moved on to work for the Football Association (FA) in 2018, to help provide the cultural and psychological support to the senior women’s football team during their 2019 World Cup campaign. Following the World Cup, Gemma became strategy lead for youth development phase (YDP) for both men’s and women’s pathways, focusing on leadership development through coaches and captains.

Having worked closely with Changing Minds during many of her applied years, in 2021 Gemma began working directly for the company.  During her first 12 months, Gemma divided her time between her role as Lead Sport Psychologist for the ECB (men’s pathway) and providing executive coaching to clients across our corporate contracts.  Gemma has a passion for trying to make applied psychology clear and tangible, and for using creative ways to bring thinking and performance to life.

Dr Alex Turner

Honorary Applied Research Associate

Alex is a BPS chartered psychologist who holds a PhD in performance psychology from Bangor University. She joins us in the role of Honorary Applied Research Associate for the next two years as part of our KTP (Knowledge Transfer Partnership) with Bangor University. This project is aimed at helping us to develop a more evidence-based and consistent assessment/ decision making process in relation to an athlete’s likelihood to perform well.

Prior to joining Changing Minds, Alex worked with the RFU during her PhD, to explore the efficacy of the RFU’s talent development pathway, with a particular focus on the psychological characteristics which underpin talent and the multidisciplinary factors which influence progression through the pathway. She has also previously held operational roles at major international sports events, working in both rugby and tennis for World Rugby, Gloucester Rugby, and the International Tennis Federation.

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.

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.

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.