Delia Davidson-Martin
Trustee and Chair
Delia has worked in Education for over 25 years, working initially as a teacher and then as a Headteacher for over 11 years. During this time, she has seen the mental health struggles and the impact of trauma faced by many of the young people in her care and has worked hard to ensure the educational provision is providing the very best pastoral care it can. She has also experienced the frustrations around trying to secure the appropriate and timely external support for these young people and the impact of this not been available.
Delia has also experienced the impact of trauma and mental health struggles within her family setting and is keen to support ‘The Wellness Gateway’ to ensure that people are able to access support when they need it.
Lizzie Hollins
Lizzie is our development manager, building connections with other organisations and planning events. She is mother to three children, one of whom has learning and physical disabilities plus autism. Lizzie embarked on a well-being journey after initially struggling with the role of parent carer to her son and is now studying counselling as a way to help others with their mental health. She is a passionate believer in people and the power of connection, she also loves crochet, cake, and a good chat!
Janet Clapham
Janet is a BHSc Hons Occupational Therapist and is an EMDR UK Accredited Therapist and working towards her Consultant EMDR Accreditation.
As an Occupational Therapist registered with Health and Care Professionals Council (HCPC) and is an Accredited EMDR Practitioner registered with EMDR Europe, Janet has over 25 years experience of working in the NHS and Private Practice in varied roles within Mental Health and crisis and risk management. Janet is passionate about Trauma recovery and has experience working with various trauma difficulties examples of which are, single event Trauma, Complex Trauma, PTSD, veteran trauma, traumatic childbirth, childhood sexual abuse, abuse, rape, domestic violence, road traffic accidents, work place bullying, bereavement.
Janet works with clients to identify the presenting trauma problem, understand the complexity and determines if EMDR can meet their needs. Janet incorporates trauma education within this and self soothing and grounding resources to increase coping to encourage the mind to become ‘unstuck’ and to rebuild life from past painful experiences. As an experienced therapist, Janet offers remote/online EMDR Therapy with the Wellness Gateway on Mondays.
Nicola Priest
Nicola a yoga instructor who supports our fundraising events with Trauma-informed Restorative Yoga which is a therapeutic yoga using bolsters, cushions and blankets to support the body in poses that allows quieting of the mind and balancing of emotions.
This type of yoga can be a powerful tool in aiding the process of regulating the nervous system and helping undo the effects of stress bringing about a sense of feeling grounded, calm, relaxed and safe.
Dr. Nicola Taylor
Nicola is an experienced general dental practitioner who became interested in hypnosis for use with her anxious patients. She completed the Foundation Level training with the British Society for Clinical and Academic Hypnosis and continued her studies at Birmingham City University and after a year achieved her Graduate Certificate in Clinical Hypnosis and Related Techniques in 2020.
Clinical hypnosis is a natural and enjoyable process which feels similar to daydreaming. It can be used to help achieve more control over thoughts, feelings and behaviour. During hypnosis the communication with the inner self, or subconscious mind, is strengthened so positive suggestions have a more powerful effect. This means that it is possible to make remarkable and rapid changes for a range of conditions. This includes release from, and processing of, negative emotions such as those associated with traumatic events, stress, anxiety conditions and insomnia.
Gail Donnan
Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Gail has twenty seven years’ experience in Integrative Health Care both within the corporate and therapy fields. She is the author of two mental health and wellness books, is a keynote speaker on trauma and childhood adversity along with being an external trainer for NHS.
She has a Level 7 Postgraduate Masters Degree in Interdisciplinary Psychology (specialising in trauma – Leeds Beckett) and is a registered Trauma-focused EMDR therapist with The National Council for Integrative Psychotherapists (NCIP). Gail is a Level 7 Postgraduate Counselling and Psychotherapy Supervisor.
She is qualified in Advanced Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Counselling, The Rewind Technique, Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), Inner Child Therapy, Three Principles Coaching, Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction, NLP (Nero-linguistic programming), Meditation, PTSD and TQUK Level 2 Certificate in Awareness of Mental Health Problems (RQF), ADHD and Pathological Demand Avoidance (PDA) and Level 2 Understanding Autism.
Gail is also an Advanced Menopause Practitioner, a Vagus Nerve Practitioner, Reiki Master Teacher Practitioner, she holds qualifications in Teaching, Assessing, Internal Quality Assessment, Lone Working, Data Protection, Equality & Inclusion and Safeguarding. She has interests in trauma (PTSD and Complex PTSD), Neurodiversity and ADHD and works with a biopsychosocial approach helping people live healthy and fulfilling lives.
In her spare time Gail writes for Beauty Despite Cancer (Jennifer Young).
Jo Mackay
Jo is our client care manager, is a Safeguarding Officer and facilitates our Women’s Circle. In 2019 she was looking for ways to cope with anxiety following a period of poor health and has enjoyed using the skills to learn to live with anxiety which have changed her life in ways she never thought possible.
“I feel so passionately about my experience that I jumped at the chance to help the team.”
Suzanne Lamb
Suzanne is a Consultant Psychotherapeutic Counsellor, Integrative Psychotherapist and a retired medically trained nurse and emergency nurse practitioner (A&E). She has thirty years’ experience in both the acute and community sectors and is registered with the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP).
Her experience ranges from psychotherapy, hypnotherapy, Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), DBT – Dialectical Behavioural Therapy, Rewind Technique and she is also Meditation and mindfulness teacher and has a vast experience with trauma.
Suzanne has worked with clients experiencing domestic abuse and has experience with working with childhood abuse. She has also spent twelve years running antenatal classes and supporting woman who have had a traumatic birth..
Suzanne feels all her clients are, without exception, amazing and bring a strength and energy to the sessions, sometimes without realizing it at first; and feels that it is their trust in her which makes her feel privileged, the work is theirs and she is just opening the tool bag for them and helping them find what they need.
Karen Kirtley
Karen is a member of the BACP and offers person-centred and humanist approaches to therapy and counselling of which include using CBT and Transactional Analysis.
She offers support with loss, bereavement, trauma, abuse, depression, disability and health issues, women’s issues, stress and self-esteem.
She offers both short term or longer-term deeper level work face-to-face or Zoom.
Dr. Amina Aliyu Gani
Dr. Amina Aliyu Gani, lifestyle medicine GP is one of our clinical advisors. Dr. Amina is a GP, has a Master’s Degree in Public Health and has trained at the Institute for Integrative Medicine. She is a holistic health coach specialising in weight loss and chronic disease prevention.
Her website is Draminaa.com
Craig Donnan
Craig Donnan has Level 2 in counselling, is a safeguarding officer, trauma-informed mental health first-aider and has a diploma in PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), The Rewind Technique, Nutrition and EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique). Craig leads our Men’s Support Social Groups in Ripon.
Craig works with a blend of psychodynamic, person-centred and cognitive approaches which help others understand their issues, identifying possible causes and the factors that are feeding into them.
He is passionate about empowering people to help themselves and can assess referrals for any needed progression onto psychotherapy treatment with us.
Natalia Woznicka
Natalia runs the bookings for our community hubs and measures efficacy and impact of everything we do. She is studying a Counselling and Mental Health degree at York St John University and is a student member of the NCIP (The National Council for Integrative Psychotherapists). She is interested in trauma therapy and counselling psychology. She has worked with adults with learning disabilities and mental health issues before becoming a mum. She is passionate about helping people and understanding their mental health challenges. Natalia’s passions are yoga meditation, everything outdoors and particularly enjoys walking meditation.
Natalia has seen the work that organisation does to help the community and what services they offer which attracted her to work for us. She is keen to help people achieve overall health and well being by healing using various different methods and resources available through the centre.
David Rhodes
Trustee
David is a health and safety professional who has dedicated a large part of his working life to ensuring the health and safety of others. Through
this time, he has lived with the effects of Adverse Childhood Experiences resulting in sustained trauma well into his adult life and whilst looking for treatment self-referred himself to the Ripon Trauma Centre where he met the criteria for complex PTSD. Finally, for him this now explained the persistent symptoms and constant feelings of sustained unhappiness which had affected his day-to-day life. Learning new skills using meditation, mindfulness, neuro-linguistic programming, somatic psychotherapy (body awareness) and trauma-focused EMDR (Eye-movement, De-Sensitisation and Re-processing) therapy his life changed considerably resulting in a more positive approach in all aspects of life.
“I simply cannot believe the transformation to my life and am so grateful for the help I was given, now I have a positive outlook on the future and want to help others and was very humbled to be asked to become part of the team”.
Dr Angela Wright
Trustee
Dr Angela Wright is a Director, GP, Menopause Specialist and Clinical Sexologist. She is also qualified in Palliative Medicine and worked in hospice medicine for over a decade. She is particularly interested in improving sexual function and menopausal symptoms in women who have undergone cancer treatment
Angela completed her Advanced Menopause Care training in Hull. She now has a permanent NHS clinic there, seeing patients with complex menopause issues, female sexual dysfunction and premenstrual disorders. Her 2-year Clinical Sexology training was with the Contemporary Institute of Clinical Sexology (CICS) and went on to attend the European Society of Sexual Medicine’s Advanced School of Sexual Medicine. She then passed the examination to become a Fellow of the European Committee of Sexual Medicine (FECSM).
Angela is passionate about women’s health and sexology and is increasingly involved in teaching and talking about this subject. She is a registered trainer for the BMS & FSRH, involved in training future menopause specialists and is also part of the Faculty for the sexology course she trained on, teaching the biomedical part of the course. She has recently joined the committee of the British Society of Sexual Medicine.
Angela has a private practice – Spiced Pear Health, helping women to be in charge of their bodies, and mind, going through the menopause.
Alexandra Bailey
Alexandra has a Masters Degree in Integrative Counselling (Leeds Beckett) and holds a 1st Class Honours BSc in Counselling Psychology (Leeds Trinity) and is a member of the BACP.
She holds a Psychological Trauma-Informed Diploma, and a Level 2 Certificate in Self-Harm and Suicide Awareness and Prevention. She is also currently undertaking a Diploma in Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT).
She is an Integrative Therapist, with Person-Centred and Trauma-Informed backgrounds, and influences from Cognitive-Behavioural and Psychodynamic modalities. She is interested in working with body-image issues, self-harm, family issues, suicidal ideation, trauma, anxiety, depression, attachment styles and grief and bereavement.
Her aim is to offer each and every client a space where they feel psychologically and physical safe, where they can be exactly who they are.
Tracey Cunningham
Tracey facilitates and advises for our Community Wellness Hubs.
Tracey has over 20 years experience working with children and families in mainstream and special schools. She has personal experience healing through trauma and loss which she feels enables her to be patient, understanding and empathetic of others. She is passionate around making a difference to the well-being of the individual and their family’s well-being.
Tracey holds trauma-informed qualifications, Level 2 in Counselling, she is our deputy safeguarding officer for adults and children, has a Child Mental Health Awareness, Autism Awareness and Extremism and Radicalisation Awareness qualifications. She is also our Mental Health First Aider Champion.
