Meet the Assessment & Therapy Team
Richard Cross
Qualifications: UKCP Registered Psychotherapist and Child Psychotherapist., BSc Hons (Psychology)., DHP., Adv Dip SMT., PQD Counselling Children and Young People., Certificate in Child Clinical Assessment.
Job role: Head of Assessment & Therapy
Main areas of interest and expertise: I have had the privilege of supporting the work of Five Rivers since 2009 and I am currently a member of the executive leadership team. I have worked with children and young people for over 30 years who have experienced significant adversity. During my career I have focused on developing innovative approaches to address complex needs, such as bringing the first trauma-informed approach to the UK in 2006.
I am a Fellow and faculty member of the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation and deliver training for mental health professionals in the treatment of complex trauma and dissociation. I am also a faculty member of the Arizona Trauma Institute.
I am currently focusing on developing integrated therapeutic approaches such as the ATIC model for Five Rivers, which incorporates understanding around attachment, trauma, and dissociation. In my spare time I help charities as a trustee of various organisations such as the Bowlby Centre, London.
Laura Garnett
Qualifications: Doctorate in Counselling Psychology, BSc Forensic Psychology
Additional training: Story Stem Assessment Profile Training, Level 3 Safeguarding, Person Centred Counselling, Substance Misuse, Bereavement Counselling
Job role: Counselling Psychologist
Main areas of interest and expertise: Before joining the Five Rivers team I worked in a range of settings including the NHS, schools and the third sector and have a broad range of experience in terms of client groups and presentations, however, I have always had an interest in working with developmental trauma and in particular dissociation. Prior to starting my current role, I worked primarily with adults and saw the lifelong impact adverse childhood experiences could have. I wanted to be able to intervene earlier to support children and young people to work through and recover from trauma before it could impact their adult life. Within my role, I have the opportunity to support children directly using an integrative approach to therapy in order to tailor an intervention that will meet the needs of each individual. I am also able to work with the significant adults in a child’s life to support them to better understand the needs of traumatised children as well as develop their own self-reflective skills. Alongside this, I have an interest in service development and supporting our teams to become more trauma informed and trauma responsive to impact change in a more systemic way.
Charles Wells
Qualifications: MSc Counselling Psychology, BSc (Hons) Social Psychology, Diploma in Existential Psychotherapy. BPS Chartered Counselling Psychologist, UKCP registered Existential Psychotherapist
Additional training: Systemic Family Therapy, Family Therapy for Anorexia Nervosa (FT-AN), Trauma Focussed CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy), Parent Management Training, Triple-PCBT for anti-social behaviour (Reason & Rehabilitation), Family based treatment for young people displaying problem sexual behaviour (MST-PSB), Multisystemic Therapy (MST)
Job role: Senior Principal Psychologist
Main areas of interest and expertise: I have more than 25 years of experience in working therapeutically with children and adolescents. I am the clinical supervisor and team manager for three Multisystemic Therapy Teams (MST) that provide family-based interventions to parents and carers of children with complex behaviour problems. I have supervisory and managerial oversight and responsibilities for the clinicians working within the residential service. Outside of my work with Five Rivers, I have had several years of recent experience as a Senior Eating Disorder therapist within the NHS. After many years of running groups for men who have been convicted of domestic violence offences, I regularly author reports to criminal courts at the pre-sentence report stage and have been delivering risk assessment and risk management interventions in forensic settings for over 12 years. I have acted as an expert witness in around 38 disputed contact cases and public law child protection cases.
Katharine Anderson
Qualifications: MPsych (Hons) Advanced Psychology, Postgraduate Certificate in the Therapeutic Arts
Additional training: Story Stem Assessment Profile Training
Job role: Psychological Practitioner
Main areas of interest and expertise: I have an invested interest in supporting people who are experiencing or have experienced difficulty and adversity. In my current role, I support the delivery of effective and responsive psychologically informed support services across Fostering and Residential areas. My role is multifaceted and diverse, including referrals, research, consulting with staff and being present at reviews around the child, to name a few.
Alongside my current role, I am presently undertaking a Masters in Integrative Child Psychotherapy. I am particularly interested in how the arts can be used therapeutically to help process feelings and emotions, reduce stress and discomfort, and how they can help facilitate the recovery from adversity or trauma.
Bethany Burnett
Qualifications: BSc (Hons) Psychology (Specialised in Mental health), Level 5 Diploma in Applied Therapeutic Practice
Additional training: Parent & Child Placement/Assessment, Mindfulness in Children, Professional Yoga Teacher Diploma
Job role: Assistant Psychological Practitioner
Main areas of interest and expertise: Since graduating in 2016, I have worked in a variety of settings with young people who have faced ACE’s or fall under the category of ‘SEN’ including a pupil referral unit and a specialist school for autism. I have also been 1:1 support staff for children with specific diagnoses and taught children’s yoga. I have experience in working with young people therapeutically, holding their sensory experience in mind and adjusting to their individual needs. I joined Five Rivers in 2021 as a Fostering Support Worker. In 18 months as an FSW, I supported young people using resources and therapeutic interventions as well as supporting carer well-being. Now as an Assistant Psychologist, I support the assessment process in Fostering & Residential by attending Integrated Case Management Meetings, assisting in report writing and carrying out and analysing Story Stem Assessments.
Louise Hatchett
Qualifications: BSc (Hons) Psychology
Additional training: Story Stem Assessment Profile, Standard CANS Comprehensive 3.0
Job role: Assistant Psychological Practitioner
Main areas of interest and expertise: I joined Five Rivers in 2021, having previously worked directly providing care for children during my undergraduate studies. I have an interest in attachment and relationships, and so supporting the Attachment and Trauma-Informed Care approach instilled within Five Rivers has been insightful. In my current role, I manage the Five Rivers Baseline Assessment process and produce assessment summaries which the A&T clinicians use as the basis of formulation for each child. I collaborate with the clinicians to host an Integrated Case Management Meeting where the baseline assessments are reviewed with the team around the child, and a Psychological Wellbeing Screening Assessment Report is produced. This report captures any therapeutic feedback and recommendations from our clinicians according to the level of need presented and discussed. Alongside my role at Five Rivers, I am completing a Masters in Forensic Psychology.
Elizabeth Seed
Qualifications: BSc (Hons) Psychology, MSc Developmental Psychology and Clinical Practice
Job role: Assistant Psychological Practitioner
Main areas of interest and expertise: I graduated from my undergraduate degree in 2021 and postgraduate degree in 2023. Whilst completing these studies, I worked in several educational, clinical and home-based settings with children and young people. I have previously worked in SEN specialist schools and an SEMH residential home, alongside completing a placement in a specialist neurodevelopmental CAMHS for the second year of my MSc. Through these experiences, I have developed a particular interest in supporting children with neurodevelopmental differences and difficulties. More specifically, the interplay between Attachment and Trauma with these difficulties is of particular interest to me. My interest in FRCC’s ATIC approach began through the informal service evaluation conducted as my MSc research project at the Anna Freud Centre. As an Assistant Psychological Practitioner, I am excited to begin supporting the Fostering and Residential teams in A&T.
Fostering
Celine Allder
Qualifications: Masters in Integrative Child Psychotherapy, Advanced Diploma in Therapeutic and Educational Application of the Arts, PGCE (QTS) with PSHE specialism
Additional training: DDP, Counselling Children and Adolescents
Job role: Integrative Child Psychotherapist
Main areas of interest and expertise: Over the last twenty years I have worked across a variety of settings with children and young people ranging from mainstream primary, secondary special schools to working in organisations offering bespoke therapeutic support to children in care and adopted children. I originally trained as a teacher and quickly realised I wanted to learn how to support children and young people who are finding life more challenging. My training, based on an integrative approach with a focus on using creative methods, helps me to find the right support for the individuals, teams and networks within which I work.
Reena Chauhan
Qualifications: BSc (Hons) Psychology, DProf Professional Doctorate in Counselling Psychology
Additional training: Serious crimes training, Domestic and Sexual Violence training, Safeguarding, Mindfulness and Meditation
Job role: Counselling Psychologist
Main areas of interest and expertise: Prior to joining Five Rivers, I worked in a number of professional settings including the private and public sector such as the NHS. My main role consisted of providing one-to-one therapeutic care to several clients with various presenting difficulties and diagnoses. I also had a particular interest in providing online training to professionals to encourage and develop their psychological understanding and skillsets.
Within my current role, I have the wonderful opportunity to support foster carers, supervising social workers and staff to become more therapeutically minded in their understanding and approach towards our looked after children. Through the use of supervision, reflective practice meetings, weekly progress meetings, consultations and more, we collectively endeavour to better provide attachment and trauma informed care.
Eoin Donnelly
Qualifications: Art Psychotherapy M.A., Counselling CertHE
Additional training: Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy L1&2, Theraplay®L1
Job role: Psychotherapist
Main areas of interest and expertise: I joined Five Rivers having worked for over a decade in therapeutic services in the Third sector, Social Care, Schools, and NHS services. My work has focused on using creativity via the therapeutic arts and play-based therapy, supporting the mental health of young people and their families that have had an interaction and involvement with social care, across the spectrum, from early support to children in need, through child protection, fostering, and post-adoption support. I acknowledge and values the difficulties of life, and this is key to my approach to work. I view my work as holistic and systemic, working with young people and carers to recognize and strengthen the areas of most need and value to the young people as we all work to support emotional health and growth.
Claire Friday
Qualifications: UKCP registered MSc in Psychotherapy, Diploma in Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy, Diploma in Child and Adolescent Psychotherapeutic Counselling, Diploma in Adult Psychotherapeutic Counselling.
Additional training: Emotional Freedom Technique
Job role: Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist
Main areas of interest and expertise: I have worked with various charities supporting both children and adults and more recently I have worked as a psychotherapist with adults within an Enhanced Primary Care team in an NHS setting. Before training as a Psychotherapist, I worked for over 15 years in the adoption field and through that work and becoming an adoptive parent myself, I have been passionate about supporting children who have experienced early trauma. A key aspect of my role is supporting those caring for a child to understand the language of developmental trauma.
Adam McCartney
Qualifications: Doctorate in Education, Child and Community Psychology, Chartered Educational Psychologist, BPS Associate Fellow
Additional training: Learning Assessments, Systemic Consultations, Multi-Professional Consultations, Complex Problem Solving, Person Centred Approaches, Research & Publications, academic journal editor
Job role: Educational Psychologist
Main areas of interest and expertise: Before joining the Five Rivers Team I worked in a range of settings including Local Authorities, community interest companies, the third sector and multi-national companies. My experiences in these organisations have allowed me to build up a knowledge of the impact systems have on our children and the families that support them. I learned that systems are made up of people and that I needed to help those people feel confident in their abilities. From this belief I developed a consultation model that values the views of everyone involved in the child’s life when helping them. My experience of working with leaders in schools to support children with emotional needs gave me the fillip I needed to join the Five Rivers team when I learned of their vision of a trauma-informed approach that is threaded throughout the entire organisation to support children, young people and their families to thrive in their communities and live fulfilling lives.
Residential
Louise Bartel
Qualifications: MA Transpersonal Child, Adolescent and Family Therapy, Diploma in Therapeutic Counselling with Adolescents using the Arts, BSc (hons) Applied Psychology & Computing
Additional training: Diploma in Sandplay Studies, Diploma in Anger Management, Transactional Analysis 101 Certificate, Family Support Worker Certificate
Job role: Clinical Practitioner
Main areas of interest and expertise: I have been working with children and adolescents with complex needs since 2002, in a variety of roles within Residential Care, Education and Mental Health.
I have a passion for working directly with young people and the wider system around them. This integrated approach involves sharing knowledge and understanding regarding trauma, attachment and associated needs through reflective practice and more formal training opportunities.
I have presented at various national and regional conferences, as well as delivering trainings to various childcare, mental health and education professionals. Training topics have included Managing anger; Supporting grief and bereavement; Understanding self-harm; Working with developmental age; Managing anxiety; Working creatively with trauma; Young people and the digital world; Multi-disciplinary practice and systemic thinking in Child Psychotherapy; and many others. In 2012, I contributed a chapter to Margot Sunderland’s book ‘Helping Teenagers with Anger and Low Self-Esteem’.
In addition, I contribute to the Child Psychotherapy MA teaching programme at the Centre for Counselling and Psychotherapy Education (London), as a lecturer, tutor, examiner, and marker. I also have my own small private practice. I am a registered member of the UKCP and BACP.
Pete Russell
Qualifications: Art Psychotherapy M.A. PG Dip B.A. Hons, Systemic Family Therapy PG Dip PG Cert
Job role: Psychotherapist
Main areas of interest and expertise: My strengths are working directly with children and carers, I have a toolbox that looks like EMDR – Mindfulness – Art Therapy – Systemic Thinking and Counselling. I draw upon my training and experience of over twenty years working with looked after children and carers. I am very creative and I am a practising artist and also practice mindfulness in my free time.
Heidi Thompson
Qualifications: Doctorate in Clinical Psychology, MA Psychoanalytic Studies, BSc Psychology, PGDip CBT with Children and Adolescents
Additional training: Brief Solution Focused Therapy, EMDR Level 2 and Child
Job role: Clinical Psychologist
Main areas of interest and expertise: Before a career break to raise my family I spent over 10 years of working with children, families and adults, across the NHS, Social Services, the private sector and school settings. I have a specific interest and experience in working with attachment and trauma, using interventions such as CBT and EMDR to help individuals and families regain a sense of control, find meaning, and experience a sense of hope for the future again. Having worked as part of multi-disciplinary teams and in an advisory capacity to external teams I know the importance of having time and space for professionals to reflect on the experience of living with and supporting children who have experienced traumatic events. I am excited to be a part of the Five Rivers process of developing the use of attachment and trauma informed care in residential care settings and beyond.
Hayley Rajpal
Qualifications: Professional Doctorate in Child Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy from the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, PGDip in Psychoanalytic Observational Studies from the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, BA(Hons) in Childhood and Youth studies from Exeter University.
Additional training: Brief DBT training, Masterclass on the Polyvagal Theory, Beacon House Training on Early Developmental Trauma, Accredited with the ACP (Association of Child Psychotherapists)
Job role: Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist
Main areas of interest and expertise: I have a passion for working with children and adolescents, and supporting communication and connections to develop within themselves, as well as with their support networks, whether that be their direct family or the professional teams around them. I worked in a range of settings before qualifying as a psychotherapist. These include schools; learning disability units; residential foster care homes; supporting families within their homes with their children; and, in paediatric hospital units. Additionally, I have worked for over 9 years in the NHS, and various CAMHS teams across the Southwest of England. I also have a small private practice in Salisbury and Southampton which I started in 2018.
My training enables me to use my observational skills and the relationship I build with young people to develop an understanding of their difficulties and concerns. Gradually and over-time I aid and encourage young people to have more of a conscious insight into why they may feel and behave in the ways they do.
I have an interest in and have spent many years working with looked-after and adopted children, as well as their support networks, and the various levels and experiences of trauma they have suffered. In 2021 I completed my Doctoral Thesis which focused on the complexities and challenges of offering therapeutic support and engagement to unaccompanied minors.
Liz Mould
Qualifications: Postgraduate Diploma in Play Therapy, Postgraduate Certificate in Education, BA (Hons) Education.
Additional training: AutPlay Therapy, Filial Play Coaching, Practical Applications of Polyvagal Theory.
Job role: Play Therapist
Experience and Expertise: Since embarking upon a career as a Play Therapist in 2011, I have developed many areas of interest in relation to children’s psychological functioning and wellbeing. Working mainly in a ‘non-directive’ capacity with children and young people; attachment, neuroscience, neurodiversity, sensory processing and polyvagal theory, have all positively influenced and shaped my Play Therapy practice over the years.
I have worked and continue to work with children from a variety of backgrounds, presenting with a wide range of diverse needs and difficulties, most of which have experienced trauma at some stage in their young lives. Children frequently struggle to process, understand and articulate their feelings, particularly those who have experienced adverse childhood experiences. I believe strongly in building trusting positive relationships with children, alongside engaging with them in their natural communication of play, combined with providing appropriate emotional responses, attunement and acceptance, in helping bring about positive change and aid in finding resolution to emotional struggles.