PARTNERSHIPPROJECT UK - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Clinical Nurse Specialist & Systemic Practitioner
- Clinical Nurse Specialist & Systemic Practitioner / NVR Association
Amy is a Clinical Nurse Specialist and Systemic Practitioner with over 10 years' experience working within Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS), specialising in the care of children, young people and families. Amy has worked in both inpatient and community settings in the UK and Ireland, working with the parents and families of children and young people with complex moderate to severe behavioural and emotional health difficulties. She is registered with both the NMC and NMBI as a mental health nurse.
Amy has been working with NVR since 2014 and has played a key role in the development of NVR practice and its delivery within a number of CAMHS teams; this has involved the planning and development of NVR clinics and group work, and its integration into the service. Amy is a trained NVR Supervisor and is passionate about the delivery of quality supervision for those working with NVR and its importance in ensuring safe and effective application of the methodology.
Job Titles:
- Highly Specialist Systemic Psychotherapist
- Highly Specialist Systemic Psychotherapist / NVR Association
Ben is a systemic & family psychotherapist who has worked therapeutically with children and young people, individual adults, couples, parents and families in various contexts over the past 15 years. He is an associate of PartnershipProjects, offering training and psychological interventions for overcoming the effects of trauma, aggression (including a specialism in child-to-parent violence) and anxiety in families and individuals. He has many years of experience working with the NHS in Child & Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) where he currently works as a Highly Specialist Systemic Psychotherapist consulting with young people and their families with a broad range of emotional and mental health difficulties.
Ben has an interest in the use of the Internet, film and technology in engaging children and young people in therapy. He is also a passionate musician and has used music as a medium to connect with young people and their families.
Job Titles:
- Worker
- Therapeutic Life Story Worker
- Therapeutic Life Story Worker / NVR Association
Cheryl has worked professionally and therapeutically with young people, their families and carers since 2004. She holds a BA (Hons) degree in Childhood and Youth Studies and a diploma in Therapeutic Life Story Work. She has worked with children and young people who have been fostered and adopted and their carers for the last 15 years.
Cheryl has been a life story worker since 2010 and trained as a therapeutic life story work practitioner in 2015. She also delivers training on life story work to professionals and carers working with children and young people.
Cheryl has further advanced her career by training in NVR in order to support young people and their families as well as working in partnership with schools.
Job Titles:
- Psychologist and Family and Marital Therapist
Dan specializes in NVR-oriented systemic interventions. He is internationally recognized as an expert in the Non Violent Resistance approach, as well as in NVR interventions with families of socially withdrawn adolescents and post-adolescents who fail to emerge into adulthood.
His professional activities include clinical work with families in crises, consulting to mental health organisations, training, teaching and speaking, in Canada, Europe and Israel. He currently serves as staff member, clinical supervisor and therapist at the Calgary Center for Family Therapy, and as director of the Center for Non Violent Resistance Psychology, an international private NVR counselling group for families and organisations, originally co-founded with Professor Haim Omer,
Job Titles:
- Consultant Clinical Psychologist & Systemic Family Therapist / PartnershipProjects Consulting Director
- Consultant Clinical Psychologist / PartnershipProjects Consulting Director
Job Titles:
- Psychologist / Clinical Neuroscientist
Marie Luise completed her Phd in Child and Adolescent mental health at the University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus in Dresden, Germany and now works as a post doc at the University of Tübingen, Germany.
Previously, she also worked as an assistant psychologist to Dr. Peter Jakob while she trained in NVR working with parents and foster parents. Her research is focussed on how the brain interprets emotional signals, and how it can regulate emotional states to control behaviour. She is currently mainly active as an assessor for course work and academic collaborator for PartnershipProjects.
Job Titles:
- Medical Director in Child Psychiatry, Paediatrician
Michaela is a paediatrician and child- and adolescent psychiatrist, specializing in NVR consultation and therapy in acute crisis situations and complex cases, as well as trauma therapy. She is a contractual partner of the Institut für Neue Autorität in Austria (INA), assimilating NVR methodologies as supervisor and coach in schools, foster homes and families in Austria. Michaela is Medical Director of HPZ Rust, a therapeutic center for residential treatment of children aged 6 to 16 years and Deputy Medical Director of an outpatient department at PSD Eisenstadt / Burgenland.
She has been involved in social projects in Europe and abroad, including voluntary humanitarian work with terminally ill people (UK), war refugees (former Yugoslavia, Macedonia, South Sudan, Gaza) in mission with several NGOs. She is a graduate of the University of Vienna, and completed her post-doctoral fellowship at Thomas Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia. Michaela is a certified psychotherapist and trauma therapist and completed NVR advanced training in Tel Aviv.
Job Titles:
- Operations Director
- Accredited NVR Practitioner and Supervisor
Erica is the Operations Director and one of the Home Managers in a therapeutic residential service for young people, and is an accredited NVR practitioner. She has been employed in the field of Health and Social Care for over 30 years, gaining experience of working with young people on the autism spectrum, street/homeless young people, and ex-offenders as well as looked after young people with EBSD.
Job Titles:
- Operations & Administration / Company Director
- Operations Director & PartnershipProjects Director
Gabrielle joined PartnershipProjects an an Administrator and PA. Her natural organisational ability and management skills, along with her passion for PartnershipProjects, the people within it, and the people it serves, have seen her role and responsibilities blossom over the years. So much so, that she is now joint owner and director of the company.
She has over 30 years' experience in business administration and management. She has set-up and run her own businesses and supported many companies to grow and be successful; from small start-ups to large corporations. She considers herself a hands on person, and it is important to her to always make a positive difference.
Gabrielle considers herself to be incredibly fortunate to be such an integral part of the company she loves and believes in, and work alongside such dedicated and professional colleagues who are the best in their field.
Job Titles:
- Administration & Accounts
- Training Co - Ordination Manager
Gus has a wealth of experience in a number of sectors including Sales, Corporate Management and National Tendering Teams. He also developed and ran his own successful business for many years, and is a qualified Bookkeeper. This has given him strong administration and organisational skills, a keen eye for detail and he describes himself as having an unhealthy love of spreadsheets! Additionally, he prides himself on providing the very best customer service, and has a rare ability to stay calm whatever the situation.
Gus joined PartnershipProjects in 2018 with a remit to take over the logistics of running a busy training calendar for PartnershipProjects. Since then the company has seen substantial growth in both Agency Based and International training and Gus has been responsible for implementing new systems and databases to enable and facilitate this growth. Furthermore, Gus is an important part of the company's Operations & Management Team.
Job Titles:
- Highly Specialist Music Therapist / Company Director
- Highly Specialist Music Therapist / PartnershipProjects Director
Jackie qualified as a Music Therapist in 2000. Since then she has worked extensively as a clinician, a supervisor, a facilitator, a trainer and a manager across a variety of health, education and charitable settings. Originally specialising in Neuro-rehabilitation, since 2008 she has worked full time with vulnerable children and their families and since 2015 most of this work has been in educational settings.
Jackie became interested in NVR through working in Pupil Referral Units and searching for a model that would help staff working in these settings to have more of an impact in supporting change for young people and their families. She is passionate about the potential of NVR to bring about positive change both for individual families and particularly within educational settings through the training of whole staff teams.
Job Titles:
- Highly Specialist Systemic Psychotherapist & Registered Social Worker
- Highly Specialist Systemic Psychotherapist & Registered Social Worker / NVR Association
Jill is a qualified Systemic Psychotherapist and Social Worker. With over 30 years experience of working with children and families, she has a particular interest and expertise in working with parents and trauma. She is based in Cardiff where she practices as an independent Psychotherapist across the South Wales area. Jill also holds a part time post in the NHS as a Specialist Family Therapist in the Serious High Risk Eating Disorders team where she works primarily with the 16-25 year old age group and their families.
Jill works as an Advanced NVR Practitioner with PartnershipProjects and is registered with the UKCP and Social Care Wales.
Job Titles:
- Specialist Family and Systemic Psychotherapist
- Specialist Family and Systemic Psychotherapist / NVR Association
Jo qualified as a Family and Systemic Psychotherapist in 2013 but has been working therapeutically with individuals and families since 2005. She has worked previously within social care, the third sector and education and currently works as a Specialist Family and Systemic Psychotherapist for the NHS.
She is a visiting lecturer at the University of Bristol and has co-authored the book: ‘Family Therapy Skills & Techniques in Action', Routledge, 2018. Jo is interested in working with NVR in education settings and has been involved with establishing NVR within a school based in an adolescent inpatient setting. She is passionate about the ability of NVR to change lives and transform relationships.
Job Titles:
- Highly Specialist Family & Systemic Psychotherapist / Systemic Supervisor
- Highly Specialist Family & Systemic Psychotherapist / Systemic Supervisor / NVR Association
Julie has been working with children and families for 30 plus years, as a paediatric nurse, school nurse, parent, mental health worker and psychotherapist. Contexts include London hospitals, schools in Newcastle upon Tyne, and youth offending services and CAMHS in Dorset. Working with parents and developing understandings of attachment have been consistent threads.
She believes that it is in our relationships that we discover what it means to be human; in loving and being loved that we grow. She sees non-violent resistance calling us into new ways of loving, and so is embracing being part of the PartnershipProjects community
Job Titles:
- CBT & Mental Health & NLP Practitioner
Kerry is a qualified Cognitive Behavioural Therapist with nine years of therapeutic experience and over 20 years' experience of supporting vulnerable young people and their families. Kerry works as a Director of Care and Therapies within a residential setting, where she delivers direct therapeutic interventions with young people, as well as clinical supervision for individual carers, managers and core teams. Kerry's role is to help shape therapeutic care planning and ensure the environment is one where young people can recover from past trauma. Her work is also informed by Dyadic Developmental Practice.
Kerry is an accredited NVR Practitioner (NVR UK) and is registered with the BACP.
Job Titles:
- Substance Misuse Worker, Supervisor and Systemic Practitioner
Luke has been working with children, young people and their families in a variety of supportive and therapeutic roles for the last 18 years. He has provided NVR group work for adolescent substance misuse and serious behaviour problems, and most recently, Luke has been working with foster carers and adopters.
Luke has trained to Advanced Level in NVR and has begun to train professionals in the PartnershipProjects Group Hybrid Format of NVR.
Job Titles:
- Finance Director
- Finance Director to Assist the Directors
Mark joined PartnershipProjects as Finance Director to assist the Directors in the Financial Management of the business. Since 2015 he has worked exclusively with SME and charities looking to support growing businesses, focusing on adding value and improving business performance.
With over 20 years' experience in Finance Director, Financial Controller and Business Finance Partner roles, he has also worked in a number of different businesses and sectors including Defence, Security, Aerospace, Financial Services, IT, FMCG, On-line Retail and Training.
He is a member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CGMA)
Very much a non-traditional accountant, he likes to understand what makes a business work, to understand the key drivers of improving business performance.
Mark is an amateur palaeontologist and baker of artisan bread.
Job Titles:
- NVR Training Consultant, Social Worker
- Social Worker, HR and Training Consultant
Martin A. Fellacher is a social worker, HR and training consultant, NVR trainer and coach in Feldkirch, Austria. He is Executive Director of PINA, an institute in Western Austria that provides NVR in different contexts such as family counselling, education, foster homes and foster families, management and in community development settings.
Martin is chairperson of B4HP (Bridges for Hope and Peace), an NGO that provides training to practitioners and consultation in NVR for teachers, parents and care workers in developing countries and regions in which there is a high incidence of deprivation and trauma.
Job Titles:
- Registered Social Worker
- Registered Social Worker / NVR Association
Michele is a registered social worker. She has many years' experience working with children and families in different settings in Germany as well as in London. She is experienced in working in the field of child protection and in supporting parents and carers of adolescents who are experiencing family breakdown. She delivers NVR to individual parents and in parenting groups.
Michele has worked closely with colleagues from Oxleas CAMHS in delivering NVR to parents and in training professionals in using the NVR principles.
Job Titles:
- Specialist Behaviour & Parenting Practitioner / PartnershipProjects Director
- Specialist Parenting Practitioner / Company Director
Rachael has worked with families and young people as a behaviour support specialist for over twenty years, mainly with local government and most recently with a non-statutory service.
She has carried out innovative work with NVR in parent groups, and single family intervention with parents in their home environment. Rachael has pioneered the integration of NVR and 12-step principles in her work with parents recovering from addiction, and has supported PartnershipProjects by providing training and supervision on the NVR Certificate Course.
Job Titles:
- Organisational Consultant
- Organisational Consultant / NVR Association
Job Titles:
- Social Worker
- Family and Systemic Psychotherapist / Supervisor
- Family and Systemic Psychotherapist / Supervisor / NVR Association
Shila is a Social Worker and Family and Systemic Psychotherapist and Supervisor and has over 25 years' experience. She has worked extensively as a clinician, supervisor and trainer across looked after services for children and families and in community and inpatient settings across CAMHS, adult mental health and perinatal services. Shila has a lifelong interest in learning and educating and has contributed as a trainer for many years both with PartnershipProjects UK and with Birmingham Systemic Training. She is passionate about connections and hope in relationships and has learnt from both her professional and personal life what it is to keep going and to speak out.
Job Titles:
- Educator / Former Head Teacher
- Educator / Former Head Teacher / NVR Association
Tony has 29 years of experience as a teacher in mainstream secondary and special schools. This includes over 8 years as head of a Pupil Referral Unit, working with the vulnerable pupils excluded from mainstream school and their families in inner London, before retiring in 2017. It was during this latter period of his career that he became convinced of the urgent need to explore alternative approaches to managing challenging behaviour in order to stem the flow of exclusions from mainstream schools.
Tony sees NVR as a powerful alternative to the traditional behaviourist models in operation in almost all mainstream schools; as a model rooted in authentic relationship-building, it is particularly apt in its focus on supporting adults to manage themselves effectively when faced with challenging behaviour from a young person.
Tony is currently carrying out research into the effects of exclusion on pupils and their families.
Job Titles:
- Social Worker
- Highly Specialist Family & Systemic Psychotherapist / Systemic Supervisor
- Highly Specialist Family & Systemic Psychotherapist / Systemic Supervisor / NVR Association
Vasiliki is a Social Worker, Systemic Psychotherapist and Systemic Supervisor with extensive experience in the fields of mental health, eating disorders and addictions. She has worked in community and in-patient services with adults, children, adolescents and families.
Vasiliki has lived and worked in Greece, Denmark, Ireland and the UK and is particularly interested in how culture and language affect the experiences of individuals and families.
Her experience using the Non Violent Resistance approach within inpatient CAMHS, sparked her passion for NVR with groups and communities, including residential / in-patient settings, as well as NVR and mental health.
Job Titles:
- Senior Faculty Member Interactie Academie & Systemic Psychotherapist
Willem is a systemic psychotherapist and a faculty member of Interactie-Academie, an institute for systemic training and psychotherapy in Belgium. In his clinical work he combines his systemic background with NVR principles/methodology and the use of specific co-generated imaginary methods. He specialises in child to parent violence and working with parents of (young) adult children with entrenched dependence, supporting these families in their distress and in the diffcult challenges they face such as agression, anxiety or isolation. He has provided NVR training and workshops all over Europe.