UKPTS 2025

Chérie Armour is a Professor of Psychological Trauma and Mental Health in the School of Psychology at Queens University Belfast. She is the Director of the Research Centre for Stress Trauma and Related Conditions (STARC). Chérie is a trauma psychologist and has published extensively in the field of psychotraumatology and mental health. She has a particular interest in occupational groups that are at increased risk of experiencing trauma and traumatic stress outcomes due to their occupational roles, for example, military, police, and emergency service workers, such as those in the fire and ambulance services.

Andrea Danese is Professor of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King’s College London, UK. The research from his team focuses on childhood trauma, and he has published widely on the consequences of childhood trauma, the mechanisms through which childhood trauma affects health, and prevention and treatment of trauma-related psychopathology. Professor Danese is also Consultant Child & Adolescent Psychiatrist and co-founder of the National & Specialist CAMHS Trauma, Anxiety, and Depression Clinic at the Maudsley Hospital, London, UK.

Ron Dodzro’s personal and professional experiences have impacted how he views trauma and PTSD but also the context that surrounds people experiencing community violence. With Ron’s interest in dissemination, he has presented at conferences, provided workshops, participated on podcasts, and has various publications focusing on the experiences of community violence in London. One of his well-known works is a report named ‘The Life of A Top Boy’ which amplifies the voices of those with first-hand experience of the community violence that dominates our headlines. It unpicks the psychological impact of community violence through a lens of trauma.

Siobhan Hugh-Jones is Chair of Mental Health Psychology at the University of Leeds and specialising in adolescent mental health research. She is a co-investigator on a 4 year, national UKRI Attune project using creative arts approaches to understand how Adverse Childhood Experiences unfold to affect adolescent mental health. She is also Co-I on the UKRI project Create, examining how creative arts programs can support adolescent mental health.

Sarah Lloyd is a Consultant Occupational Therapist who developed the BUSS Model after 25 years of working in CAMHS, recognising the impact of trauma on the development of bodily regulation as well as the more usually understood emotional and relational consequences. Sarah is the Director of the BUSS® team in Leeds, which works with children and families across the UK and Ireland. BUSS® is also a training organisation, supporting health, education and SW staff to extend their expertise in this area. Publications include 2 books and an article in Adoption and Fostering 2023 and one in press.

Penny Netherwood has worked as a Consultant Clinical Psychologist for over 20 years in the NHS, mostly within mental health services for children, young people and families. She is the programme lead for a new multi-agency team working to develop trauma-informed and adversity-aware practice across services for children, young people and families in Leeds.

Jenny Perry and Martha Pearson have worked across adoption services, local authority care, CAMHS settings and neurodevelopmental assessment services. They recently published a paper discussing the complexity of ADHD assessment in the context of developmental trauma, considering ideas and approaches to apply to the task of assessment. Their workshop is an opportunity to share knowledge and further this discussion together. We aim to facilitate a space in which to discuss ideas from the paper and how they may play out in practice, consider contextual issues and diagnostic dilemmas, and explore key questions and considerations that may help strengthen an assessment.

Nicola Shaughnessy is Chair of Performance at the University of Kent with expertise in contemporary performance, autobiography, applied and socially engaged theatre. In the Attune project, she brings interdisciplinary knowledge of creative practices with young people as research tools, as forms of knowledge and as expression.

Solace: surviving exile and persecution is a specialist therapeutic service for refugees and asylum seekers, based in Leeds and working throughout Yorkshire and Humberside since 2006. Recognizing the multi-faceted factors that impact refugee mental health and wellbeing, Solace works holistically by incorporating various therapeutic modalities including individual talk therapy, various body orientated therapies, group, family and creative approaches. Working in partnership with other refugee sector organisations, Solace tries to not only meet the needs of individuals and families but also support their connections and integration to the wider society by creating a welcoming environment and promoting good mental health policies. Solace also collaborates with researchers and delivers training through their e-learning courses as well as directly to a wide range of organisations. The Solace website hosts academic and practical resources to support refugee mental health and wellbeing. In 2018, the Child & Family Wellbeing Support project with resettlement refugees began. Anne Burghgraef is the Solace Clinical Director has been the clinical lead since it began. Originally from Canada, she is systemic and family therapist as well as a trauma specialist, and project manages the Solace Child & Family Wellbeing service. She has also been a foster carer for unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children and supports a refugee programme in Kenya. Gayle Clark has been a Therapist and Family Therapy practitioner working on the Child and Family Wellbeing Support Team since 2020 covering vast geographical area. Previously she worked asylum seekers and refugees with the Haven project based in Hull for many years. Azam Imani has been with Solace in various roles including interpreter, administrator, therapist and manager of the interpreting service for more than 15 years. Originally from Iran, she is a Farsi speaker, currently working with many Afghan families and is completing the intermediate course in Family Therapy. Margaret Gilbert has a social work and creative art therapeutic background with many years of experience offering individual therapy to Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children. She works on the Child & Family Wellbeing Support service as well as on an Early Help project in Bradford with Refugee Action offering individual therapy to children and young people and supporting refugee parents through groups.
Hernan Sosa-Canal is a Family & Systemic Psychotherapist, who has been with the Child & Family Wellbeing Support service since it began in 2018. Currently he combines therapeutic work remotely from his home in Spain with periods of in person work, primarily in North Yorkshire. He holds a Parenting support group once a month and engages with many young refugee men along with his therapeutic work with families.

Eva A Sprecher is a Research Fellow at UCL and Anna Freud. Her research interests are working alongside care-experienced young people to develop the evidence base for supporting the mental health and wellbeing of children living in care, with a special interest in the role of relationships and systems. She is a mixed-methods researcher, with particular focus on coproduction and she has co-produced workshops, zines and a children’s book (‘Where did my dinosaur go?’ published by Coram BAAF) on alongside care-experienced advisors, researchers and advocates. She originally trained as a secondary school teacher and is a co-founder of Lighthouse Pedagogy Trust, a innovator in the children’s residential care sector.

Amy Stevens is a Public Health Registrar in Yorkshire with a degree in International Health and a Masters in Public Health. She has a special interest in child health having previously worked as a paediatric doctor in the UK, New Zealand and India. She works as the Public Health Lead at Bevan Healthcare, a social enterprise providing health and wellbeing services to Inclusion Health populations. Amy has worked with Doctors of the World UK, Save the Children, the Children’s Commissioner’s office and WHO in research, policy and advocacy.

David Trickey is a Consultant Clinical Psychologist who has specialised in working with traumatised children, young people and their families since 2000. He is Co-director of the UK Trauma Council which harnesses the expertise of the UK’s leading child trauma experts to produce resources for those working with traumatised children and young people, as well as guidance and policy briefings based on the best available evidence. His focus is on direct clinical work, and the training and supervision of other clinicians around the world working with traumatised children and young people. In all of his roles he draws heavily on the published research literature, to which he has made a modest contribution.