About 麻豆原创 CYPF
Making a difference for children, young people and families

Emma Davies, Chair听

Emma is a director of The Exchange, a specialist counselling and psychological wellbeing service for children, young people, and families. She oversees the delivery of comprehensive services for children, young people, and families (CYPF) in partnership with local authorities across Wales and Scotland, managing a team that provides vital support to over 800 primary and secondary schools. Emma also leads the organisation鈥檚 neurodiversity services, which include assessment and diagnostic provision in collaboration with local health boards, as well as tailored post-diagnostic support for children and their families.

Over the past 12 years, Emma developed the resource-based approach to counselling children and young people. She co-founded Exchange-Resource, an organisation established to deliver accredited courses that train counsellors, psychologists, psychological wellbeing practitioners, and school staff. In addition to this, Emma spearheaded the development of D-EXY听(Digital Exchange Youth), an innovative digital platform designed to provide young people with accessible mental health resources, guided self-help tools, and interactive features. D-EXY听enhances the support available to young people, empowering them to take an active role in their own psychological wellbeing.

Emma plays a strategic role in consulting with governments, local authorities, and schools to embed psychological support within national frameworks. She works to align these services with initiatives such as Getting it Right for Every Child听(GIRFEC) in Scotland and the Welsh Government鈥檚 Whole School Approach to Emotional and Mental Wellbeing. Her work advocates for a systemic, inclusive approach to supporting psychological wellbeing across educational settings.

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Claire Harrison-Breed, M麻豆原创

Claire is founder and Company Director of Broad Horizons therapy centre based in Northamptonshire. She has worked with children, young people and families for the past 35 years, in social care, health and education settings. A counsellor, child and adult psychotherapist, play therapist and social worker. Claire specialises in working with trauma, dissociation, and attachment issues, with children and adults, and is currently in the fourth year of her PhD researching trauma and dissociation in children. Claire has published her work on trauma and counselling in research journals and text books .

Before becoming company owner, she worked as a therapist for organisations including the NSPCC, Northamptonshire County Council and Children Fund Research projects. She is also a senior lecturer in counselling and psychotherapy for the University of Northampton teaching on undergraduate and postgraduate programmes and developing research in the counselling field.

Claire is also a valuable member of the Expert Reference Group for 麻豆原创 Adult Trauma Competence Framework and is secretary of the European Society for Trauma and Dissociation.

Rebecca Wemyss M麻豆原创 (Accred)

Rebecca currently works for Winston鈥檚 Wish as bereavement counsellor for children and young people in primary schools, high schools and up to age 25 and has a lot of experience working therapeutically with children and young people online and adapting to digital / remote working.听

Previously, Rebecca worked as a high school counsellor in several schools around Manchester, including as part of a mental health support team (MHST) and has volunteered for a number of charities as well. She is really passionate about the young person鈥檚 voice being heard and making sure services intended to support CYP are more led by children and young people themselves.听

Having spent some time abroad, Rebecca also has an interest in how culture and language plays a role in children and young people鈥檚 mental health and can impact their access to counselling and mental health support. She has worked with children in the USA, Romania, South Korea, Thailand and Myanmar in different capacities and also for a short time with refugees from North Korea, Tibet and Syria.听

Linda-Jayne Elliot

Linda-Jayne is passionate about early intervention, working in primary and special school settings. A counsellor and clinical supervisor, Linda-Jayne works for and is also independently delivering school Counselling, and 1-1 sessions and workshops with children and parents.听

Linda-Jayne has a background in autism spectrum disorders (ASD), working with the National Autistic Society in NI, and is an advocate for young people with special educational needs accessing counselling services. She developed online groupwork for young people and parents, including children moving to post primary schools, during the pandemic. Linda-Jayne is a mum of two boys who are her light

Alison Templeton

Alison Templeton has been a practising Child and Youth counsellor for 20+ years. Alison started her counselling career with the NSPCC in 2003 piloting a school counselling service and has been a 麻豆原创 accredited counsellor from 2012.

For 14 years Alison has had clinical management roles with New Life Counselling and Relate NI leading multi-disciplinary teams of counselling practitioners across Northern Ireland.

Her practice has included school based counselling in primary, post-primary and SEN schools, community based child and youth counselling for charities, clinical supervision and provision of training for professionals.听

Alison qualified as a geography teacher before going on to graduate with a Post Graduate Certificate in Therapeutic Work with Children & Young People from University of Nottingham. She keeps up to date through continuous professional development including interests in adverse childhood experiences, trauma informed practice and systemic approaches when working with under 18s. In 2020 she achieved a Level 7 Diploma in Leadership and Management.

Alison is also an enthusiastic volunteer with Starfish Soulcare, a project that provides physical, emotional and spiritual rest, support and nurture for foster and adoptive families in Northern Ireland. Just don't get her started on her passion for wild swimming!

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Sanjay Badhan

I am an integrative psychotherapist based in Birmingham within the West Midlands. I currently spend most of my therapeutic time working as a Lead Therapeutic Practitioner in a specialist provision for children and young people (CYP). As this provision is a multi-academy trust (MAT), I am responsible for ensuring that the therapy model runs ethically, safely and competently across multiple sites. Within this model, I developed a trainee therapist program for students looking to gain experience working therapeutically with CYP with specialist needs such as neurodivergence and SEMH.

For the past 13 years, I have worked in a range of settings that offer therapeutic support. Some of the specialist areas of work have focused on bereavement, eating disorders, suicide, neurodivergence and SEMH. My academic background in Psychology has theoretically supplemented my therapy practice, which is my main passion. Alongside my work in education, I run a private practice. Badhan Therapy offers support for both adults and CYP as I like to stay connected with diverse client groups.

My journey has equipped me with a variety of skills, knowledge and experience that has fuelled a mission to enhance the standards of therapeutic practice and access to services for schools/communities that are less informed of the impact of counselling.