AOC - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- CHIEF EXECUTIVE
- Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts
CHIEF EXECUTIVE - Christian founded The AOC. The AOC was originally conceived in 1996 and reborn in 2014. Christian is also a fellow of The Royal Society of Arts and has always held a strong passion for working with children, young people and adults. Drama, acting [...]
CASE MANAGEMENT OFFICER - Julie along with AoC's Chief Executive Christian Dixon work together to provide an array of training, therapy, counselling and contact for those accessing services. She has also worked with families in Europe and UK showing the amazing value and effect that therapeutic interventions can [...]
Christian founded The AOC. The AOC was originally conceived in 1996 and reborn in 2014.
Christian is also a fellow of The Royal Society of Arts and has always held a strong passion for working with children, young people and adults. Drama, acting and creative expression was a great way for him to do this from a very early age.
"It was a sort of outlet for me to express myself, because under my sometimes - apparently ‘confident' exterior - I was extremely shy and often unsure of myself!" Christian developed a
keen interest in puppetry from the age of eight. This led to making puppets for local schools - simple rod and glove puppets as well as performing shows in the family back garden. Christian then joined a local drama group and went on to perform at The Edinburgh Festival, Scotland in 1981. It was to be his very first full length stage production in Oh What A Lovely War. Before long he was auditioning and got accepted into The National Youth Theatre of Great Britain performing with great young directors and actors from all over the country. One particular actor is now a household name and stars regularly on TV's Downton Abbey - Hugh Bonneville. Other famous names whom Christian worked with during his time at NYT included Nathaniel Parker who went onto play the title role in the Inspector Lynley Mysteries.
By the time he was sixteen, he knew he wanted to take acting to the professional level and two years later received an invitation to attend the prestigious Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London and completed the three year acting course where he went on to win The Sarah Churchill Memorial Acting Award. Other well-known names that attended his school included Sarah Lancashire, Orlando Bloom, Daniel Craig, Ewan McGregor, Alistair McGowan, Lesley Sharp and Dominic West. Christian continues to work with top, and award winning theatre and television companies whilst running and facilitating exciting workshops and courses both nationally and internationally. He recently worked at the Royal Court Theatre in London in a brand new play for the main stage and directed by award winning director - Dominic Cooke and finished a feature film alongside well known actress Anna Friel. Most recent feature films Christian has worked on include: Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them and Mary Poppins Returns. Jumping backwards to 1996, Christian completed his formal dramatherapy training at the University of Hertfordshire and was invited to run workshops in Malaysia for MIND and accompanied head of voice of Guildhall and The National Theatre - Patsy Rodenburg OBE to work in Montreal and Toronto.
This year, he has been working tirelessly in helping the expansion of The AoC into new and exciting territories and the AoC Trust - a national therapy arts charity. Christian has also set up a new organisation with colleague and co-director Julie-Franklin Baker called The Creative Arts Projects.
Christian's interest in human behaviour and how dramatic play and creativity interweave seamlessly and can help people unlock hidden talents, and develop life skills, continues to fascinate him. Read some of The AOC's testimonials here: https://www.theaoc.org.uk/about-us/testimonials/
COMPANY ADMINISTRATOR - Dan is also one of the newest members of the team and joined our administration team in May 2024. He has settled well into his role and is enjoying all aspects of the work. Dan currently works on Wednesdays and Saturdays. More [...]
Job Titles:
- CONSULTANT
- EMPLOYABILITY CONSULTANT
EMPLOYABILITY CONSULTANT - Jason is a qualified and highly experienced integrative Counsellor and fully competent in an array counselling models and theories (including CBT, Psychodynamic and PCT) and has over twenty years' experience working within the Welfare to Work Sector.
Julie along with AoC's Chief Executive Christian Dixon work together to provide an array of training, therapy, counselling and contact for those accessing services. She has also worked with families in Europe and UK showing the amazing value and effect that therapeutic interventions can have.
Julie is married and has three grown up daughters. She also lives on a working farm in Devon where she is able to use the outdoor space as a therapeutic and teaching platform for both her therapeutic work. Julie has used her own experiences as a young mother, single parent and guardian to inform the work she now undertakes as a Play and Creative Arts therapist, Educator and trainer. She has also had the privilege to have been taught by some highly acclaimed tutors and educationalists such as Professor and writer Dr. Elizabeth Wood, Educationalist and author Dr Janet Rose, and dramatherapists Dr. Sue Jennings and tutor and author Dianne Gammage.
Julie became interested in therapeutic play whilst senior lead for a large children's nursery school. It was through her continued research and observation of early relationships between parents, carers and their children, that Julie realised that there was a need to develop systems within the setting; where children and parents, carers were able to access therapeutic support and where
DIRECTOR - Richard has been working in the charity and community sector for over 20 years. He has a wide experience of working within local communities helping to develop and deliver projects that aim to improve people's lives. This has involved working with a wide [...]
Richard has been working in the charity and community sector for over 20 years. He has a wide experience of working within local communities helping to develop and deliver projects that aim to improve people's lives. This has involved working with a wide range of organisations and groups across an assortment of sectors both locally, nationally and internationally. Key to this is an understanding and more importantly a passion for engaging with causes that really help people overcome issues and barriers in their lives and helping people to improve their outlook on life.
Since joining the AOC as a director just over a year ago, he has helped to develop the organisations operations, logistics and developing projects for the team to deliver that will aid the AOC to continue to grow and move forward.
Tenika started her role in November 2023 and is enjoying being part of the team
Tenika has studied at the University of Central Lancashire from 2014-2017 where she graduated with honours and received a 2:1 in Acting. She continues to pursue this career alongside her work with us. She has many hobbies, some of which include dancing, singing and roller skating, but she mostly loves being a mum to her little boy and spending time with her family."
COMPANY ADMINISTRATOR - Tyla is one of the newest members of the team and joined our administration team in May 2024. He really enjoys working in this role and gets on well with all of the team. Tyla works on Mondays and Thursdays. He is [...]
Tyla is one of the newest members of the team and joined our administration team in May 2024. He really enjoys working in this role and gets on well with all of the team. Tyla works on Mondays and Thursdays.
He is currently studying an Access Module at the Open University in Psychology,
Social Science, and Wellbeing. He is interested in Psychology and would like to study it further and have a career in the Psychology field. He also likes listening to music and playing street racing games along with keeping busy in general.