Our People
Patrons
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Sir Richard Bowlby
Patron
Sir Richard Bowlby
Patron
Board & Senior Managers
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Deborah Ferguson
Director
Deborah Ferguson
Director
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Nick Onslow
Non Executive Director
Nick Onslow
Non Executive Director
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Stuart Campbell
Chief Executive
Stuart Campbell
Chief Executive
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Joanne Alper
Director of Services
Joanne Alper
Director of Services
Panel
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Marion Hundleby
Panel Chair
Marion Hundleby
Panel Chair
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Jo Meyjes
Panel Advisor
Jo Meyjes
Panel Advisor
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Wes Cuell
Panel Vice Chair
Wes Cuell
Panel Vice Chair
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Veronica Purser
Child Care Social Worker
Veronica Purser
Child Care Social Worker
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Dr Deborah Pritchard
Medical Advisor
Dr Deborah Pritchard
Medical Advisor
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Morris Linton
Childcare Social Worker
Morris Linton
Childcare Social Worker
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Scott Casson-Rennie
Independent Member
Scott Casson-Rennie
Independent Member
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Olu Lamond
Independent Member
Olu Lamond
Independent Member
Support Services
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Ros Brown
Birth Parent Counselling Administrator
Ros Brown
Birth Parent Counselling Administrator
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Alice Hollingdale
Training Administrator
Alice Hollingdale
Training Administrator
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Sophy Osman
HR and Office Manager
Sophy Osman
HR and Office Manager
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Joy Cooper-Watson
Placement Service and Therapy Service Administrator
Joy Cooper-Watson
Placement Service and Therapy Service Administrator
Social Work & Therapist Teams
Claire Grady
Placement Service Manager
Claire Grady
Placement Service Manager
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Claire Grady
Placement Service Manager
BA (Hons) Applied Social Studies, Diploma in Social Work, Practice Teachers Award, PQ
I qualified as a social worker in 1997 and worked for the first 6 years of my career in a community based childcare team in north London. Following a long standing interest in adoption, I joined Bedfordshire’s Adoption Team, where I worked assessing and supporting adopters and finding adoptive families for children, for 10 years.
I joined Adoptionplus in February 2014. I have a BA (Hons) in Applied Social Studies and a Diploma in Social Work. I am trained in Attachment Style Interviewing, reflective functioning interviewing and have supported social work students as a practice teacher.
Pippa Bolger
Senior Social Worker
Pippa Bolger
Senior Social Worker
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Pippa Bolger
Senior Social Worker
MA Applied Social Science with DipSW, BA (Hons), PQSW Child Care Award and PGDip Child Care Studies
I joined Adoptionplus in 2009, following my interest in finding and preparing families for children deemed “harder to place”. I am social work qualified and worked within frontline children's services, as well as a permanence team that focused upon children in need of adoptive families. In the permanence team I worked with children who had been waiting for an adoptive family longest, which included children over the age of 4, children of black or mixed heritage, children with complex trauma, sibling groups and children with disabilities. I learnt that accessible and tailored support is what all families needed and felt drawn to Adoptionplus due to the therapeutic support that was offered.
In addition to my social worker role, I have previously been a member of a local authority Adoption Panel and was also a family link carer, looking after a young child with Down's Syndrome. I have therefore been through the fostering process myself. I have also completed various courses relating to trauma and attachment, including Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy (Dan Hughes), Theraplay® and Sensory Attachment Integration (Eadaoin Bhreathnach). Additionally I am trained in the Attachment Style Interview and the Reflective Functioning Interview.
Mary Kennedy
Senior Social Worker
Mary Kennedy
Senior Social Worker
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Mary Kennedy
Senior Social Worker
C.S.S, Theraplay, DDP
I joined Adoptionplus in the spring of 2015 as a senior social worker. I qualified in social work in 1985.
My working life started in a children’s residential unit and I have worked in a residential setting for fourteen years in total. This includes time in a therapeutic community, a pre-permanence unit and my last role as a manager of an adolescent unit in a London Borough.
I started working in adoption in 1991 for a local authority and after a career break returned to this work. Adoption social work is demanding but I have always found it to be a huge privilege to walk alongside adopters though this life changing process.
Dr Ben Gurney-Smith
Consultant Chartered Clinical Psychologist and Clinical Lead for the Therapy Service
Dr Ben Gurney-Smith
Consultant Chartered Clinical Psychologist and Clinical Lead for the Therapy Service
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Dr Ben Gurney-Smith
Consultant Chartered Clinical Psychologist and Clinical Lead for the Therapy Service
I am the Clinical Lead for the Therapy team at Adoptionplus and oversee the delivery of high quality services that reflect the needs of adoptive families.
As a Consultant Chartered Clinical Psychologist with over fifteen years of experience - thirteen of which have been with children who have experienced maltreatment in their birth families and who are now fostered or adopted — I was involved in the establishment of a nationally regarded, dedicated and specialist local authority service in Oxford.
I have a long standing research interest in how children and their families recover from traumatic beginnings and have published in these fields.
I have been a Visiting Tutor at the Oxford Institute of Clinical Psychology Training course in the area of safeguarding, attachment and work with adoptive families and have spoken at National conferences in these areas of work. My work as an expert witness in care proceedings compliments my work with adoptive families whose children have inevitably been through the legal process. I am also interested in the development of interventions tailored to the unique needs of adoptive families so I am on the Board of Directors of the Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy Institute to see the promotion and evaluation of this promising therapeutic approach.
Jo Meyjes
Service Manager
Jo Meyjes
Service Manager
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Jo Meyjes
Service Manager
BA (Hons) Social Policy and Administration, CQSW
I began my career in social work in 1987 working at the Cotswold Community, a residential therapeutic community for neglected, abused and traumatised boys. In 1992 I qualified as a social worker and started working for Northamptonshire County Council. I spent 10 years working in child care where I placed over 20 children for adoption and developed my interest in working with adopted children and their families. In 2003 I became the first post adoption support worker in Northamptonshire and spent 10 years working in the Team ending up in the role of Team Manager. By this time the team was also supporting Special Guardians too. In 2013 I became Northamptonshire's Adoption Panel Adviser and Adoption Support Services Adviser (ASSA).
In September 2016 I was very pleased to join Adoptionplus as the Service Manager. I had previously worked with Adoptionplus and had experience of their excellent therapeutic work with adopted families and their Birth Parent Counselling Service. I have responsibility for liaising with social workers wishing to make a referral to Adoptionplus to the Therapy Team for assessment and therapeutic work with adopted families; the Placement Team and the Birth Relative Counselling Service.
Julia Davis
Facilitator - Nurturing Attachment Groups
Julia Davis
Facilitator - Nurturing Attachment Groups
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Julia Davis
Facilitator - Nurturing Attachment Groups
I am a Senior Therapeutic Social Worker and Play Therapist at Adoptionplus. I joined Adoptionplus in 2009 having worked as a social worker, trainer and play therapist for local authority teams with Looked After children and in Adoption Support for many years. I have a Diploma in Play Therapy as well as training to Level two in Theraplay and Level two in DDP. I have written a book for adopters titled ‘Preparing for Adoption’ 2014, JKP, and I have a BA in Sociology and English and a MA in Social Work and CQSW.
Jess Christopher
Senior Therapeutic Social Worker
Jess Christopher
Senior Therapeutic Social Worker
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Jess Christopher
Senior Therapeutic Social Worker
BSC (Hons) Behavioural Science, Diploma in Social Work, DDP Accredited Practitioner, Theraplay Foundation Level Practitioner
I am a Senior Therapeutic Social Worker on the Therapy Team here at Adoptionplus, having joined the team in 2015. I am an accredited DDP practitioner and have also completed the foundation level of the Theraplay Practicum. I qualified as a social worker in 2003 and have been working with adopted children and their families since 2006.
Here at Adoptionplus I work therapeutically with adopted children and their families. I enjoy getting to know and supporting children and their families through assessments and therapeutic work. I value the non-judgemental and accepting ethos here, which I believe helps families to feel safe and open to support.
Yvonne Milton
Paediatric Occupational Therapist
Yvonne Milton
Paediatric Occupational Therapist
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Yvonne Milton
Paediatric Occupational Therapist
PgCHEPP, MSc, BA, DipOT(LHMC)
I have a post-graduate diploma in Occupational Therapy from the Royal London Hospital Medical College. Based in Warwickshire, I work as a Senior Occupational Therapy lecturer at Coventry University and as an independent practitioner. I have more than twenty year’s clinical experience of working with children and young people of all ages with a variety of needs including severe and moderate learning and physical difficulties, autistic spectrum disorder, sensory deficits, cerebral palsy, and allied neurological conditions.
I am a registered member of the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC), a member of the British Association of Occupational Therapists (BAOT) and on the National Executive Committee for the British Children Young People and Families Occupational Therapy Specialist Sections Group (CYPF). I have specialist experience and training in working with families with children with cerebral palsy, sensory processing difficulties and allied neurological conditions. I am a member of the Sensory Integration UK and Ireland Network, Bobath Tutors Group (UK and Europe).
Dr Hannah Ford
Chartered Senior Clinical Psychologist
Dr Hannah Ford
Chartered Senior Clinical Psychologist
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Dr Hannah Ford
Chartered Senior Clinical Psychologist
I joined Adoptionplus as a Senior Clinical Psychologist in the Spring of 2016. I qualified as a Clinical Psychologist in 2007 and prior to joining Adoptionplus, I worked for nine years as part of a specialist psychology team offering support to looked after and adopted children and their families and the professionals working with them. I have completed DDP training to level 2.
Patricia Downing
Counsellor & Mindfulness Practitioner
Patricia Downing
Counsellor & Mindfulness Practitioner
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Patricia Downing
Counsellor & Mindfulness Practitioner
MA Psychotherapy & Counselling, Mindfulness Therapist
As a counsellor for the birth relative counselling service in North London, I can offer support and space for those difficult feelings around a child being adopted. I joined the Adoptionplus team in June 2012, attracted by their innovative and committed approach to supporting whole families.
I started counselling in 2005 with Milton Keynes MIND and have since then worked for the Milton Keynes PCT service, CHATS parent counselling, the Trauma Service funded by MK Council, BalancED MK (for eating disorders), City Counselling Affordable Service, SASS (Sexual Assault Service) and I spent two years counselling students at Milton Keynes College: a mixture of time-limited and long term services with differing client groups.
My training was integrative, including psychoanalytic, existential and humanistic elements. I have also done some courses in CBT. I am currently completing training as a Mindfulness Teacher to be accredited to run the eight week MBSR/MBCT programme, a NICE approved treatment for recurrent depression, amongst its many other applications.
Jo Hart
Paediatric Occupational Therapist
Jo Hart
Paediatric Occupational Therapist
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Jo Hart
Paediatric Occupational Therapist
BSc (Hons) OT: PG Dip Psych: PG Diploma in Integrative Child and Adolescent Counselling
Since qualifying as an Occupational Therapist in 1993, I have worked with children and young people in NHS and independent settings including clinic, schools and homes. I also consult to a school for children with autism. I have trained in DIR Floortime, Sensory Integration Theory and Practice, Sensory Attachment Intervention (SAI) and Mindfulness (MBSR). I have had a long standing interest in the emotional and attachment needs of children who have suffered neglect and trauma. I qualified as a Child and Adolescent Counsellor in 2016, now working towards gaining accreditation as a Child Psychotherapist. My professional roles have enabled me to integrate theory and practice of the sensory and emotional regulation needs of children, young people and their families.
I am a registered member of the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC), Bristish Association of Occupational Therapists (BAOT) and Sensory Integration Network (UK and Ireland).
Rachel Staff
Team Manager - London Therapeutic Service
Rachel Staff
Team Manager - London Therapeutic Service
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Rachel Staff
Team Manager - London Therapeutic Service
MA/DipSW. Level One DDP. Practice Teacher
I qualified as a Social Worker in 1997. My experience has included working within the areas of child protection, looked after children, adoption and post adoption support. I have specialised in the field of adoption and post adoption support for the last 12 years working as a Senior Practitioner, Team Manager and Therapeutic Social Worker.
I have developed Adoption Support Services for all parties involved in the adoption process including birth families, adoptive parents and adopted children. I also have extensive experience as a trainer and facilitator for support groups for adoptive parents and adopted young people. I have a particular interest in working with adopted adolescents and their families and have developed services in this area in both group support forums and individual life story work. I am the author of "Parenting Adopted Teenagers: Advice for the Adolescent Years" and have also written about letterbox contact for the publication "Facilitating Meaningful Contact in Adoption and Fostering".
I am a trained facilitator for the Nurturing Attachment Group Programme and am currently working towards my accreditation as a Dyadic Development Practice practitioner. I am also currently working towards an NVQ level 5 qualification in Leadership for Children and Young People's Management.
I am thrilled to be managing the Therapeutic DDP Based Social Work Service for Adoptionplus. The work is innovative and dynamic and driven by a highly skilled and motivated team. We look forward to delivering an effective and empathic service to our families!
Rebecca Atkins
Deputy Team Manager - London Service
Rebecca Atkins
Deputy Team Manager - London Service
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Rebecca Atkins
Deputy Team Manager - London Service
BA (Hons) Social Work, DIPSW, MA Integrative Child Psychotherapy, DDP training to Level 1.
I am a Social Worker and Integrative Child & Adolescent Psychotherapist with more than 19 years experience working with children, families and adults.
My previous specialisms include training and facilitation of group work for perpetrators of domestic abuse and working with young offenders. I have also held front line practice and management roles within child protection, leaving care and safeguarding and reviewing services in an innovative, therapeutically integrated Local Authority in London. All of these roles incorporated work with adopted and pre-adoptive children. In addition, I was trained by the Anna Freud Centre as a group facilitator for New Beginnings: an attachment based group intervention for parents and infants.
Alongside my social work practice, I trained and qualified as an Integrative Child & Adolescent Psychotherapist with the Institute for Arts in Therapy and Education (IATE). My integrative framework draws upon psychodynamic theory and object relations, attachment theory, interpersonal neurobiology, developmental trauma and the use of the creative arts in therapy which continue to be my areas of interest.
Carol Frazier
Therapeutic Social Worker - London Service
Carol Frazier
Therapeutic Social Worker - London Service
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Carol Frazier
Therapeutic Social Worker - London Service
Bachelor of Arts in Journalism and Mass Communications, Masters Degree of Social Work (MSW), Theraplay Level 1, PAC Enhancing Adoptive Parenting Training, DDP Level 1. I am currently working towards my accreditation in Dyadic Developmental Practice (DDP).
I am a Social Worker with more than 15 years experience working with children, families and adults in varied settings. My experience has included working within Education and Attainment within New York City based not for profit organisations and the NYC Department of Education, Addiction, Post-Traumatic Stress DIsorder, Child Protection, Looked Afer Children as well as Adoption and Adoption Support. I have specialised in the field of adoption for the last 7 years.
Throughout the years I have endeavoured to work collaboratively with children, adults and families in a therapeutic and holistic manner. I utilise many approaches in my work to support birth families, special guardians, foster carers and adoptive families such as Resiliency Theory, Systemic Theory, Crisis Intervention, Mindfulness techniques and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy tools. As well as facilitating adoption trainings over the past years, I have also supported families using Theraplay and Life Story work. I am passionate about strengthening all families and have a special interest in working with children and families around identity and Transracial adoption.
Benjamin Hargrave
Therapeutic Social Worker - London Service
Benjamin Hargrave
Therapeutic Social Worker - London Service
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Benjamin Hargrave
Therapeutic Social Worker - London Service
I work as a Therapeutic Social Worker in the DDP Social Work Service in North London.
I have worked in education, residential and youth work settings prior to starting work in children's Social Care in 2010. My first degree was in contemporary fine art and I have an ongoing interest in art which I draw on for the work I do with families. I have been involved in a number of art projects since graduating including setting up a gallery and seeing the workd upside down for 20 days!
Whilst working for Hackney Children's Social Care, I qualified as a Systemic Practitioner at The Institute of Family Therapy in 2014. I then completed an MA in Social Work at Middlesex University in 2016 and registered with the HCPC. I am currently working towards my DDP accreditation with supervision from Dr Kim Golding.
During my time working in Hackney, I worked in the Assessment, Children in Need/Child Protection, Leaving Care, Adoption and Post Permanency services. Throughout my experience and training, I have developed particular interests in life cycle transitions and how we create our understanding of the world through relationship and dialogue. I have always had a passion for stories, both lived and fictional which has spanned my own family life, my work as an artist and my career working with children and families.
Jesse Carlebach
Therapeutic Social Worker - London Service
Jesse Carlebach
Therapeutic Social Worker - London Service
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Jesse Carlebach
Therapeutic Social Worker - London Service
I am a therapeutic social worker based in the DDP Social Work Service in North London.
I have worked as a social worker for over 30 years, mainly in the field of adoption. I have extensive experience in the assessment and preparation of adoptive families and supporting the newly formed family. In the past 5 years I have focused on adoption support and have a broad knowledge and understanding of the multifaceted aspects of support needed by adoptive families managing the complexity of their child's therapeutic, educational and health needs.
I have experience of running workshops and support groups for adoptive parents and enjoy helping adoptive parents develop their knowledge and skills, whilst at the same time facilitating the adopters in supporting each other.
Over the years I developed an interest in Systemic Family Therapy and have a Diploma in Systemic Therapy from the Institute of Family Therapy. I also incorporate many aspects of psychoanalytic theories in my work and have an MA in Emotional Well Being from the Tavistock Clinic. I have completed training in DDP Level One and Life Story Work.
In addition I have always been interested in the role of research and how it informs social work practice and completed an MA in Social Research Methods in Social Work, focusing on Later Life Letters using arts based methods to explore the subject.
Jane Gould
Counsellor
Jane Gould
Counsellor
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Jane Gould
Counsellor
UKRCP Reg Ind Counsellor/Psychotherapist, DIploma in Person Centred Psychotherapy & Counselling, Diploma in Person Centred Clinical Supervision, Advanced Certificate in Person Centred Couples Counselling
Based in Nottinghamshire, I work as a counsellor with the Birth Relatives Counselling Service providing therapeutic support to parents and relatives of children who are in the process of, or who have been adopted.
Working as a therapist for a local government young people's agency allowed me to further develop that work with children, young people and young adults. I co-managed the counselling team and we extended our service throughout schools, youth centres and NHS bases. As Clinical Supervisor for the same organisation, I supported other therapists in their work, which had a strong emphasis on attachment and trauma, and these are areas that I have a continued particular interest in.
I am the Clinical Supervisor for a Young People's charitable organisation and also supervise for an agency working with adults who have experienced incest and sexual abuse.
Ian Orr-Campbell
Counsellor
Ian Orr-Campbell
Counsellor
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Ian Orr-Campbell
Counsellor
Dip Person Centred Counselling, RMA, NVQ4 Management, NEBS
I qualified as a person centered counsellor in 1999. I have worked for Mind, Barnardos Link, Voice of the Child in Care and the National Youth Advercacy Services. Alongside my counselling work, I have also worked for 18 years with people with learning difficulties in both residential and day care settings.
I joined Adoptionplus' birth relative counselling service in 2004, and have worked with a number of birthparents and grandparents on feelings related to the loss of their children. I have also provided counselling services to adopters and adult adoptees.
Carole Green
Counsellor
Carole Green
Counsellor
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Carole Green
Counsellor
Post Graduate Diploma in Counselling, Certificate in Humanistic Counselling, Diploma in Management Studies
I qualified as a Counsellor in 2005 at the University of Hertfordshire. Since then I have worked as a one to one counsellor in a number of charities, educational settings and also in private practice. I am practised in both short term, time limited counselling and longer term counselling and in addition to individual counselling I have also worked with families and have experience in running groups.
The organisations that I currently work for include Milton Keynes PCT, BalancED MK (Eating Disorders) and Barnardos Link. I am also part of the "Drop In" team at Milton Keynes City Counselling Centre. I joined Adoptionplus in 2010 and work with birth parents and other birth relatives in Northamptonshire.
Louise Bomber
Consultant
Louise Bomber
Consultant
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Louise Bomber
Consultant
I am qualified as both a teacher and a therapist. I have worked with individual pupils, classes, whole school settings, teachers and support staff across both the primary and secondary phases. I have provided consultations and training for education, social services and health.
I currently work as an Adoption Support Teacher for Brighton & Hove in an advisory capacity and as an Attachment Support Teacher Therapist for The Yellow Kite Attachment Support Service To Schools (www.theyellowkite.co.uk) that offers a range of services supporting children in care and adopted, in a freelance capacity.
I also work privately as a child & adolescent therapist and as a clinical supervisor for counsellors/therapists working in schools. I have developed a course for education staff supporting pupils with Attachment Difficulties that I am currently running in partnership with the CASPARI Foundation. I facilitated an arts project and exhibition in 2010 called 'Walk A Mile In My Shoes' which gained much media interest and opened up a much needed dialogue in the community regarding the impact of abuse and neglect and the need for increased inclusion within schools and the wider community.
Dr Kim Golding
Consultant
Dr Kim Golding
Consultant
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Dr Kim Golding
Consultant
I am a consultant clinical psychologist with a longstanding interest in parenting, and collaborating with parents or carers to develop their parenting skills tailored to the particular needs of the children they are caring for. I have a special interest in supporting foster carers and adoptive parents. I was involved in the setting up and evaluation of an inter-agency project in Worcestershire, This team is now part of the Integrated Service for Looked After Children.
Within this service I have developed a range of direct and indirect interventions based on Attachment Theory, and have carried out research exploring the use of a Consultation Service for foster carers and other professionals. I provide monthly consultation to Adoptionplus. Drawing on my experience providing therapeutic support to foster and adoptive families, this provides the team with an opportunity to reflect on specific pieces of work with families.