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A British Iranian with lived experience of Mental Health, Neda has a doctorate from Kings College, London and a postgraduate Management diploma from London Metropolitan University.
Her early career was in SME management before joining the NHS. Latterly she was a director at NHS Interim Management and Support as well as a Fellow of the NHS Institute of Improvement and Innovation.
She sat on the Board of the UK Faculty of Public Health where she was an active member of the Risk Management and Finance Committee, was an Associate at KPMG LLP and has been a coach and advisor to small charities in England and in Europe.
A Trustee for the charity Making Space since 2019, Neda joined the Maytree board in 2021.
Svetlana joined as a Trustee in 2021. Svetlana has extensive fundraising experience and has held senior roles at Carers Trust, Beating Bowel Cancer, Samaritans and Diabetes UK as well as working at several leading charities including NSPCC, Comic Relief and The Prince’s Trust.
In her spare time, Svetlana enjoys theatre and ballet and loves travelling particularly in Central and South America.
Mike trained in psychiatry at the Royal Free and Maudsley Hospital and in epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Following this he completed an MD on the management of suicidal behaviour. He works as an honorary consultant psychiatrist at Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust.
As a professor at Imperial College London, his primary academic interest is in mental health services research. He is involved in the development and evaluation of psychosocial interventions for people with complex mental health needs such as those with personality disorder and psychosis. Current projects include clinical trials of creative therapies, psychoeducation and brief intervention for alcohol misuse.
He also works for the Royal College of Psychiatrists as the Director of the Centre for Quality Improvement. This involves helping run national audits, quality networks and accreditation programmes aimed at improving the quality of mental health services. Mike joined Maytree as a Trustee in April 2016.
Michael Knight, alongside Paddy Bazelely, co-founded Maytree in 2002 after having volunteered with the Samaritans for many years. Michael and Paddy founded Maytree after
identifying a need to offer residential support to those in suicidal crisis. Michael’s first career was in business and management consultancy, he subsequently qualified as a Cognitive Analytic Psychotherapy (CAT) psychotherapist and supervisor, working first in the NHS and then in private practice until his retirement in 2022.
Judith Knight was a director and member of the Executive Board of Centaur Media PLC and played a key role in its growth over twenty-six years. She subsequently trained in counselling and psychotherapy and is a qualified forensic psychotherapist. Judith has extensive experience working in multiple NHS settings, including in the male and female prison estates. She currently works in private practice.
Professor Stephen Briggs, PhD, is now Emeritus Professor of Social Work, University of East London, Honorary Professor at the Universities of Nottingham and Exeter, Fellow of The Academy of Social Sciences (FAcSS) and a BPC accredited psychodynamic psychotherapist. Previously (1991-2012) he was Vice Dean and Consultant Social Worker in the Tavistock Clinic’s Adolescent Department (NHS). He has researched and written widely on suicide and self-harm, adolescence, adolescent psychotherapy, and infancy. He led a team research team evaluating Maytree in 2005 and 2012. His recent publications include: The effectiveness of psychoanalytic/ psychodynamic psychotherapy for reducing suicide attempts and self-harm: Systematic review and meta-analysis (British Journal of Psychiatry 2019), and Psychoanalytic understanding of the request for assisted suicide (International Journal of Psychoanalysis 2022).
Dr Darren Bull is a medical doctor, graduating from Bart’s & The London with subsequent Psychiatry training within the Royal Free: a fusion of Psychiatric and Psychotherapy experience & training. Alongside working with street-marginalised groups and within Medium Secure Forensic Hospitals and Prison Psychiatry for over 15-years he become a BPC registrant as a Forensic Psychotherapist. Subsequently he moved to Perinatal Psychiatry where his particularly interest of infant well-being and mental health, through the lens of the parent-infant dyad, has developed further to include those under-5; supported by additional training at the Tavistock. His focus is on the impact of prenatal and early years on later outcomes for health and well-being bringing psychodynamic-psychoanalytic thinking to this work.
Eric Farnworth is a retired solicitor, having spent most of his career specialising in Property Law. He worked in the city in the Private Capital departments of both Speechly Bircham and Charles Russell before those two firms merged to form Charles Russell Speechlys. In his late thirties he became a volunteer with the Samaritans, Central London Branch, where he continued as a volunteer for eight years. In 2007 Eric trained as a Maytree volunteer and worked as a volunteer for twelve years until 2019. He was involved in volunteer training and was appointed an Associate Director.
Nick retired in 2015 after a lengthy career in the oil and gas industry, mainly working on the design and construction of offshore facilities projects. In January 2013 he was employed as project manager for a compression upgrade at the In Amenas gas plant in Algeria when it was attacked by Al Qaeda. Forty oil workers died in the four day hostage crisis but Nick survived and escaped. Building on his experience of recovery from a traumatic incident he enjoys supporting charities and not-for-profit organisations assisting victims of terrorism, hostage taking, trauma and mental health issues.
Professor of psychiatry and Director of the Centre for Suicide Research at Oxford University and Consultant psychiatrist at Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust. For more than thirty years he and his research group have been conducting investigations concerning the causes, treatment, prevention and outcome of suicidal behaviour. He has published more than 400 papers and chapters and fifteen books.
Professor Hawton is co-editor of The International Handbook of Suicide and Attempted Suicide (2000, Wiley), editor of Prevention and Treatment of Suicidal Behaviour: From Science to Practice (2005, Oxford University Press), co-author of By Their Own Young Hand: Deliberate Self Harm and Suicidal Ideas in Adolescents (2006, Jessica Kingsley Publishers), and co-editor of Suicide (2012 Routledge). He is a member of the National Suicide Prevention Strategy Group for England, the All Party Parliamentary Group on Prevention of Suicide and Self-harm, and the US Suicide Research Strategy Task Force.
Professor Hawton has received the Stengel Research Award from the International Association for Suicide Prevention (1995), the Dublin Career Research Award from the American Association of Suicidology (2000), the Research Award of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (2002) and a Life Achievement Award for outstanding contribution in research, treatment and teaching in the field of suicidology presented by the European Symposium of Suicide and Suicidal Behaviour (2012).
British journalist, broadcaster, political aide and author, best known for his work as Director of communications and strategy for Prime minister Tony Blair between 1997 and 2003.
Joy is an inspiring singer-songwriter whose Bangladeshi-Irish South Londoner identity and heartfelt lyrical honesty are keystones of her work. She is a soulful storyteller with a beguiling, timeless sound and is undoubtedly one of the most exciting artists to emerge in the British music scene. Labelled the one to watch by The Guardian, BBC Radio 1, Clash, Indie and Vogue, she has also been an outspoken campaigner for mental health. Her deeply felt connection with music and performing has helped her understand her own mental health in a complex way, and she has joined Maytree as a patron in the hope that her voice can help others talk with each other and seek help when it is needed.
