Professor Alan Rushton - Interim Chair of Board and Chair of Practice Sub Group
Barry Morris - Treasurer
Dr Mary Isaacs
Hedi Argent
Jenny Lord
Rory O’Reilly
Raina Sheridan
Peter Sandiford - Chief Executive Officer
Lyndsey Marshall - Deputy Chief Executive
Pavlina Georgiades - Practice Manager - Adult Counselling Service and Child and Family Therapist
Alvina Bokhari - Adult Services and Advice Line Counsellor
Patsy Bolton - Outreach Counsellor
Monica Bradley - Outreach and Advice Line Counsellor
Rita Cleary - Birth Parent Support Worker and Outreach Counsellor
Deborah Connolly - Outreach Counsellor
Arnoldus Coppens - Outreach and Advice Line Counsellor
Rose Dagoo - Outreach and Advice Line Counsellor
Monica Duck - Outreach Counsellor
Kunu Gordon - Outreach Counsellor
Virginia Herron - Adult Services Counsellor
Gill Jenner - Outreach and Advice Line Counsellor
Tessa Kennedy - Outreach Counsellor
Beverley Morris - Outreach Counsellor
Elizabeth Mulhern - Sessional Worker
Jason Oddi - Adult Services and Advice Line Counsellor
Maeja Raicar - Psychotherapist, Placement Counsellor Supervisor, Outreach and Advice Line Counsellor
Maggie Rogers - Head of Training Service, Psychotherapist and Outreach Counsellor
Laura Stephenson - Outreach and Advice Line Counsellor
Rose Wallace - Placement Counsellor
Anne Wardrop - Oureach Counsellor
Maria Wood - Outreach and Advice Line Counsellor
Franca Brenninkmeyer - Head of Child and Family Service
Sue Dromey - Practice Manager - Child and Family Service
Pavlina Georgiades - Practice Manager - Adult Counselling Service and Child and Family Therapist
Anthea Benjamin - Child and Family Therapist
Roz Read - Child and Family Therapist
Julia Clements - Schools Trainer
Training Service
Maggie Rogers - Head of Training Service, Psychotherapist and Outreach Counsellor
Professor Alan Rushton – Interim Chair of Board and Chair of Practice Sub Group (Member since April 2008)
Alan is Visiting Professor at the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London, where for 25 years he was director of the Master's Degree programme in Mental Health Social Work. He is author of seven books and over 50 publications on adoption and fostering and has vast experience of evaluating practice and policy outcomes in adoption. He is currently engaged in a follow-up study of Chinese women who were adopted into the UK from orphanages in Hong Kong and has developed a parenting advice manual for adopters which was published by BAAF in 2012. Alan is an adoptive parent. See separate list of publications.
Barry Morris – Treasurer (Member since November 2011)
Barry has significant business and particularly financial experience. In the past he has provided financial and general management consultancy to a range of smaller businesses and charities and is currently a director of a firm of specialist management consultants providing services mainly to public sector organisations. He has over 24 years’ experience as a trustee, firstly on the board of PAC when it was founded in 1986 – 1998, then at Adoption UK, After Adoption and Intercountry Adoption Centre. Barry is a parent of four children, two of whom came to his family through adoption.
Dr Mary Isaacs (Member since January 2004)
Mary is a Consultant Paediatrician at Ealing Hospital NHS Trust. She has extensive experience in child protection issues and has been named Doctor for Child Protection from 1999 to date at Ealing Hospital. Mary is an adopted person.
Hedi Argent (Member since May 2007)
Hedi has had experience of work with children and families in local authority and voluntary settings for over 35 years, specialising in disability and family placement.She has written and edited many books for BAAF on adoption and fostering, including several guides for children. She is currently working on a new series called Parenting Matters: brief booklets giving information to prospective adopters about a range of issues. See separate list of publications.
Jenny Lord (Member since November 2009)
Jenny worked as a Child Placement Consultant for BAAF for almost 30 years until retiring in June 2009. Jenny provided the social work input for the advice and information service offered by BAAF’s Southern Region and also carried out training. She has written a number of books and practice guides for BAAF.Jenny has regularly served as an independent member of local authority adoption and permanence panels. See separate list of publications.
Rory O’Reilly (Member since January 2010)
Rory is a Project Manager who has worked with a number of companies including major change programmes at NHS DIRECT & The Crown Estate, Ove Arup and the Stephen Lawrence Centre. Rory has also project managed a number of blue chip company office moves and overseen the implementation of numerous IT solutions. He comes from an analytical business background, working on business process re engineering, overhead cost reduction and data integration projects.
Raina Sheridan (Member since November 2011)
Raina has over 25 years’ experience in the not-for-profit and charity sectors and in the past has been Director of Hackney Carers’ Centre and Programme Manager for Barnet Children’s Fund. Since 2005 she has been Deputy Chief Executive for the Fostering Network, a UK-wide organisation that supports and promotes foster care. She holds responsibility for strategic and organisational development, performance and project management, policy and services. Raina is an adoptive parent.
CEO/Registered Manager and Deputy Chief Executive
Peter Sandiford - Chief Executive Officer
Peter has worked in services for looked after and adopted children for 40 years. His experience includes managing residential care services, managing practice learning, lecturing and working as a development manager for National Children’s Bureau. He is trained as a social worker, family therapist and practice teacher and holds a Diploma in Management Studies. Peter has led significant projects including the NCB project Improving Educational Opportunitiesfor Looked After Children, and the InsideOutside project working with birth mothers in prison and through the gateway as part of the Cabinet Office Social Exclusion Unit.
Peter is committed toleading PAC in achieving its vision:
By 2015 we will deliver our services through an expanding network of partnerships and collaborations with other organisations.
Our practice and methodologies will be continually developed and PAC will be recognised throughout the UK as offering the highest quality, evidence based, cost-effective adoption and permanency support service.
Alvina Bokhari - Adult Services and Advice Line Counsellor
Alvina joined PAC as a trainee counsellor in a supervised placement and stayed on after this as a volunteer and later as a sessional worker. Her current role at PAC is offering adult counselling to individuals and couples, as well as advice and guidance to clients who contact the advice line. Prior to this, Alvina had a long career in primary education management, specialising in the coordination of special needs provision. Her interest in psychotherapy developed as a consequence of the challenges presented by this work .Subsequently she gained an M.A. and UKCP accreditation.
Patsy Bolton - Outreach Counsellor
Patsy works as a counsellor in PAC’s outreach surgeries in the London Boroughs of Lambeth and Ealing. She has over 20 years’ experience as a member of Wandsworth CAMHS multidisciplinary team and now works as a senior social worker in Wandsworth's Family Plus (Post Adoption) Team dealing with adoption, kinship care and special guardianship. Patsy holds the CQSW, the Advanced Programme for Social Workers from the Tavistock Institute and an MSc in Psychological Counselling. She completed PAC’s Adoption Counselling Expertise (ACE) course in 1998.
Rita Cleary - Birth Parent Support Worker and Outreach Counsellor
Rita Cleary is PAC’s Birth Parent Support Worker. Within that role Rita provides specialist support for birth parents, including a drop-in service twice a month at PAC and once every two months in Enfield, and a fortnightly outreach counselling service for non-consenting birth mothers in HMP Holloway. Rita also offers support to birth families where there is direct contact with the child. She has written a practice paper for PAC which reflects on her work with birth mothers both at PAC and in HMP Holloway. See separate list of publications. Rita has an advanced diploma in humanistic integrative counselling. She completed PAC’s specialist Adoption Counselling Expertise (ACE) course and is qualified in cognitive behavioural therapy. She has been associated with PAC for 15 years.
Deborah Connolly - Outreach Counsellor
Deborah works as a counsellor at PAC’s outreach surgeries in West Sussex and the London Borough of Havering. Deborah has been a qualified social worker since 1985. She has worked in local authority, but for twenty two years primarily for an adoption service in a major children's charity. Deborah has worked in all areas of the adoption process, including assessment and preparation of children, family finding and assessment of adopters and supporting placements, as well as supporting adults who are exploring birth histories and tracing. Deborah is trained to run Webster-Stratton parenting skills' groups, which she has done over several years. She has been particularly involved in groups that have been enhanced to meet the needs of parents of adopted children.
Arnoldus Coppens - Outreach and Advice Line Counsellor
Arnoldus is an integrative psychotherapist who trained at the Metanoia Institute. He has a background in nursing, social work and education. He has worked for PAC as a counsellor since 1994 as well as having fulfilled other tasks, such as advice line and outreach co-ordinator, group work facilitator, trainer and clinical supervisor. Arnoldus's interests lie in child development, attachment, trauma/loss and relationships and he uses the relevant theories to help guide his clients through their material to find resolve, in a psychodynamic, talking-therapy way. Currently Arnoldus sees clients at the outreach service in West Sussex and staffs the PAC Advice Line.
Rose Dagoo - Outreach and Advice Line Counsellor
Rose has worked at PAC for 23 years as an adoption counsellor, working mainly with adoptive and birth parents, adopted adults and professionals. She works both in PAC’s Head Office as well as in outreach services in Ealing. Rose qualified and worked as a social worker for many years before specialising as an adoption social worker at Coram Adoption Service. She has worked as a children’s guardian for 16 years and does Parenting and Contact Assessments for the Family Courts. Rose also coordinates and supervises PAC’s Secondment Scheme for local authority social workers to expand their knowledge and expertise in permanency and adoption support work. Rose is a member of NAGALRO (The Professional Association for Children’s Guardians, Family Court Advisers Independent Social Work Practitioners and Consultants) and is registered with the HCPC. See separate list of publications.
Monica Duck - Outreach Counsellor
Monica works as a PAC outreach counsellor in West Sussex and the London Borough of Havering. Monica is a qualified social worker and attachment based psychoanalytical psychotherapist. She has over thirty years’ experience of working in the field of adoption and fostering, which has given her considerable insight into the complexities of child development and the impact of early traumatic experiences. Monica was the Director of PAC for over ten years, developing adoption support services for all parties. She has a particular passion for developing ethnically sensitive services to meet the needs of children and adults from minority ethnic backgrounds. Monica is a member of UKCP and The Bowlby Centre.
Kunu Gordon - Outreach Counsellor
Kunu‘s role at PAC is as an outreach worker in Hampshire and Surrey, where she is involved in counselling mainly adopted adults and adoptive parents. She also facilitates Hampshire Adoptive Parents’ Support Groups which take place regularly in 2 different locations in Hampshire and provide adopters with a chance to gain support for their own situations as well as hear the experiences of others. Kunu has been counselling for over 20 years, mainly within the context of a university counselling service for students and staff.She has an MA in Philosophy and Psychology, an MSc in Psychological Counselling, and qualifications in Couples Counselling and Supervision of Counselling. She also completed PAC’s Adoption Counselling Expertise course in 1988.
Tessa Kennedy - Outreach Counsellor
Tess Kennedy is a Person Centred practitioner who has been practising with PAC since 2002 to all people involved in the adoption triad. Tess is currently working with Gill Jenner in the outreach service provided for Medway. Tess has trained extensively in attachment & trauma/loss theory & has a very keen interest in working with families & individuals party to adoption.She has several years experience within the PCT tier 2 as a commissioned Parent/Child therapist & supervisor, working with attachment, trauma/loss in birth families and also facilitating groups of parents.Tess has postgraduate training at UEA (University of East Anglia Norwich) in Focusing & Experiential Psychotherapy (2008) and prior to this completed PAC’s ACE (adoption counselling expertise) (2003/2004), Theraplay & MIM & Group Theraplay (2006) and a Certificate in Group Facilitation at City Lit. Tess is a senior accredited member of the BACP, individually registered member of UKRCP, & registered Focusing & Experiential trainer/practitioner.
Beverley Morris - Outreach Counsellor
Beverley has been counselling at PAC since 2012. She offers counselling at PAC's outreach surgeries in Barnet and Walthamforest. She works with all adult parties to adoption and young adolescents. Beverley has more than 15 years of experience as a Primary Care counsellor. She is trained as a Person Centred counsellor and is a senior accredited member of BACP and a registered individual member of UKRCP. Beverley has undertaken 3 years of post qualification specialist counselling training for preparation and post adoption and working with severe attachment difficulties.
Elizabeth Mulhern - Sessional Worker
Elizabeth joined PAC as an affiliate in 2011 and is currently involved in the preparation of life story books for adopted children in Hampshire. Elizabeth is a counsellor with over 12 years’ experience, including working in a local authority setting with children and families presenting with attachment difficulties. Since completing PAC’s Adoption Counselling Expertise (ACE) course in 2005 she has specialised in the field of adoption and attachment. Elizabeth is skilled in supporting adoptive parents and foster carers and in working individually with children through a variety of mediums including using arts based tools. She is also trained in Theraplay, a tool which helps to develop and improve attachments between children and their parents. Elizabeth is a member of UKCP and The Foundation for Psychotherapy and Counselling.
Jason Oddi - Adult Services and Advice Line Counsellor
Jason is an advice line and adult counsellor at PAC and works with all parties to adoption. Jason is an integrative therapist having trained in various therapeutic modalities and is a member of the British Association of Counsellors and Psychotherapists. Jason has previously worked within the NHS as well as working in the voluntary sector supporting people affected by mental illness.
Maeja Raicar - Psychotherapist, Placement Counsellor Supervisor, Outreach and Advice Line Counsellor
Maeja Raicar has been an advice line and adult counsellor with PAC since 2004, based both in Kentish Town and at PAC’s outreach in Enfield. She works with all parties to adoption. She trained as a psychoanalytic psychotherapist and is registered with UKCP. Maeja is also an NLP Master Practitioner, an Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) and EmoTrance practitioner and a parent-infant psychotherapist. Maeja co-developed with social work colleagues in the mid-1990s a brief child and family attachment therapy programme (CcAT) for adoptive families, as described in Child-Centred Attachment Therapy (Karnac, 2009) They subsequently extended this work to foster, birth and step-families.
Maggie Rogers - Head of Training Service, Psychotherapist and Outreach Counsellor
Maggie works as outreach counsellor for the London Boroughs of Hammersmith and Fulham and works with all parties to adoption. She has an MA in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy and Social Studies and the PAC’s ACE (Adoption Counselling Expertise Diploma). She has also completed Level One Theraplay®, MIM and Group Theraplay® training. Maggie has many years of experience working as an adoption support specialist at PAC, and is also an Associate in an Ofsted registered adoption support agency. More recently she has worked as a Parent Advisor and Trainer in the ‘Enhancing Adoptive Parenting Project’ developed by Alan Rushton and Helen Upright. She is Chair of the Institute of Psychotherapy and Social Studies and has published a number of professional papers. See separate list of publications. Maggie also fulfils a senior management role at PAC as Head of Training Service. In this role she leads PAC’s training, designing the annual training programme and initiating a wide variety of training courses for all parties to adoption. She liaises with expert trainers from all parts of the world. Maggie herself trains in many areas including: infertility and loss; supporting black and minority ethnic adopted and fostered children with identity, attachment and race issues; grief and loss in prospective adopters.
Laura Stephenson - Outreach and Advice Line Counsellor
Laura Stephenson’s role at PAC is as an advice line and adult counsellor. Qualifying as a social worker in 1981, Laura has worked in local authority adoption teams since 1988, specialising in post-adoption work since 2000 following a year’s secondment at PAC.Currently she works part time in a local authority Adoption and Permanence team, supervising social workers offering post-adoption and permanency support and assessing kinship carers."
Rose Wallace - Placement Counsellor
Rose's role at PAC is as a placement counsellor in the adult counselling service, providing counselling to adopted adults, birth parents and adoptive parents. Rose is a qualified social worker with over 20 years’ experience in providing adoption support services for adults in a variety of work settings: local authority, voluntary agency and private practice. She is currently undertaking an Advanced Diploma in Humanistic Integrative Counselling. Rose has worked as a research interviewer/team member on several major adoption research studies.
Anne Wardrop - Oureach Counsellor
Anne works at PAC’s outreach surgeries in Hampshire and the London Borough of Hillingdon.
Anne is a qualified counsellor and senior social work practitioner. She has 17 years’ experience in the field of adoption and prior to that, 11 years in child protection. She holds a post graduate diploma in Systemic Practice with Families and Couples and has several years' experience in relationship counselling. She has also practised as a counsellor in the field of substance misuse. Anne’s specialism is in providing therapeutic support and advice to adoptive parents, adopted adults and children.
Franca Brenninkmeyer - Head of Child and Family Service
Franca is a psychologist (MSc in Counselling Psychology) registered with the BPS as a graduate member. She has a Licence in Pedagogical Sciences (University of Louvain, Belgium), equivalent to an MA in Clinical Child and Family Psychology. She has worked in the field of adoption for 20years. She is Head of the Child and Family Service and part of the management team at PAC where she has worked since 1996. Franca regularly presents on adoption, trauma and attachment related topics.
Sue Dromey - Practice Manager - Child and Family Service
Sue is an integrative Child Psychotherapist registered with UKCP, a registered social worker and a former Guardian ad Litem and who has worked in the field of fostering and adoption for 35 years. She was the Trainer-Consultant for British Agencies of Adoption and Fostering in the 90’s and has continued to train professionals and parents in UK, Ireland and Spain. She is practice manager of the Child and Family Service at PAC and has worked there since 2001. She is trained and experienced in Theraplay®, Dan Hughes’ Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy and is currently working towards her accreditation as a practitioner of EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation Reprocessing). Sue has an MA in Integrative Child Psychotherapy, a Pg. Dip in Drama Therapy, a BA in Applied Social Studies and a CQSW.
Pavlina Georgiades - Practice Manager - Adult Counselling Service and Child and Family Therapist
Pavlina is part of the Child & Family team at PAC working with adoptive children and their parents. She is also the practice manager of the Adult Services, supervising counsellors who work with birth relatives, adopted adults, adopters and prospective adopters and other permanent carers. Pavlina is registered with the BPS as a graduate member and has completed an MA in Psychoanalytic Observational Studies at the Tavistock Institute. She has also trained in counselling and family therapy. With a background of working with children and families in a number of multi-cultural, multi-disciplinary settings including inner-city community projects as well as schools, nurseries and residential care projects , she has been involved in assessing and supporting families for over 20 years. Pavlina began specialising in the field of adoption ten years ago when she joined the Child and Family team at PAC. Since then she has also embarked on outreach counselling for PAC which sparked her interest and experience in working with all parties to adoption. She has been the Adult Services practice manager since July 2011. She is currently putting a portfolio together to become registered as an Adult Psychotherapist.
Anthea Benjamin - Child and Family Therapist
Anthea Benjamin is a qualified counsellor and a registered Integrative Arts Psychotherapist. She has worked extensively with children, adolescents and adults for 10 years in various settings. She has been with PAC’s Child and Family Service for four years and has a special interest in working with adults and children who have been placed trans-racially, exploring issues of identity.
Roz Read - Child and Family Therapist
Roz is part of the Child & Family team at PAC working with adoptive children and their parents as a Child and Family Psychotherapist. She is a UKCP registered Integrative Child Psychotherapist and a Somatic Experiencing®Practitioner. Roz has trained in Somatic Experiencing®, Theraplay®, Dan Hughes’ Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy, Story Stems and Sensory Attachment Intervention. Roz is also completing an MA in Psychoanalytic Observational Studies at the Tavistock Institute. With a background working in the arts, Roz has worked extensively with children and teenagers in multi-cultural inner-city community projects, schools and multi-disciplinary teams for over 20 years. For the past 9 years, Roz has worked with fostered and adopted children and their families firstly at Family Futures and then more recently at PAC. Roz is also Course Director of the Integrative Child Psychotherapy MA training at the Institute for Arts in Therapy and Education.
Julia Clements - Schools Trainer
Julia has worked as the Schools Trainer for PAC since 2011. Her role includes working with school staff, parents and professionals in raising their understanding of the needs of children who have experienced trauma , and how they can be supported and included at school. Julia is a Chartered Educational Psychologist, registered with the Health Professions Council. Julia started working with children, schools and families almost 20 years ago. She originally trained as a teacher and taught in primary schools for several years before training to become an Educational Psychologist. Julia has developed a particular specialism in child and adolescent mental health, well-being and behaviour. She has additional qualifications in counselling and cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). Julia currently practices as a Senior Specialist Educational Psychologist as part of a local authoritiy specialist behaviour team.
