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- Sanctuary for the Suicidal
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Michael Knight was executive Chairman of Maytree’s Trustees for its first 10 years and, together with Paddy Bazeley its Director, conceived the Maytree model, brought about its implementation and practice, the house opening in 2002.
His first career was in investment, government, and banking prior to becoming an executive director of an industrial PLC. He then went on to become a management consultant, advising Boards on vision, values and strategy.
Concurrently, from being a Samaritan volunteer he trained in brief-term psychotherapy (CAT), qualifying in 1993. He held a position as a part-time senior therapist and supervisor in the NHS for many years, whilst also working in private practice. He is a former Trustee of UKCP.
He came back from retirement in 2023 to save Maytree from liquidation.
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).
Trustee
Dr Naomi Low-Beer has extensive teamwork and leadership experience in clinical practice and medical education. Previously a consultant gynaecologist at Chelsea and Westminster NHS Foundation Trust, she subsequently relocated to Singapore where, as Vice-Dean for Education, she led the development and delivery of a new undergraduate medical programme at the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, a partnership between Imperial College London and Nanyang Technological University Singapore. Currently she is Founding Dean of Brunel Medical School. She has a passion for introducing evidence-informed innovation to create environments in which people can flourish.
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.
Trustee
John Shimwell is a psychotherapist, qualifying from Regent’s College (now University) in 2016. He has worked as a therapist for a charity in west London for the past 10 years, and worked with primary-school children in a deprived part of northwest London for three years with Place to Be. He has spent much of his adult life living and working outside the UK, mainly in the Middle East, where he worked for the World Health Organization, and in the United States.
Trustee
Dr Alexander Ross is a psychodynamic psychotherapist working in an NHS community crisis service, in private practice and as a guest lecturer for London
South Bank University on their postgraduate Mental Health and Clinical Psychology course. He initially graduated as a medical doctor at the University of Bristol practising in North Devon before training in intercultural psychodynamic psychotherapy at the Tavistock. He has an interest in Meditation and is author of ”Meditation for Psychotherapists” published in 2024.
Trustee
Alma Fridell was brought up on a farm in Sweden where her family looked after foster children and people from prison. She trained as an actress in Copenhagen and London, and has run a firm of decorators from 2008 to the present. Her primary interest is in the field of mental health care.
Nick Hitch had 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 a 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. After retiring in 2015 he has built on his experience of recovery from a traumatic incident and is active in supporting charities and not-for-profit organisations in assisting victims of terrorism, hostage taking, trauma and mental health issues.
Professor Keith Hawton is 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. He has received many awards for his work, including 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).
Alastair Campbell is 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. He is an advocate of support for mental health, and the value of open disclosure of his personal experience.
Joy Crookes 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, significant in the British music scene, acclaimed by The Guardian and BBC Radio 1. She is also an outspoken campaigner for mental health, her deeply felt connection with music and performing helping her understand her own mental health. As a patron Joy hopes that her voice can help others talk with each other and seek help when it is needed.
