Meet Our Board
Dr Chris Nicholson
TCTC Chair & Training Committee
Dr Chris Nicholson is the Head of the Department of Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies, University of Essex. A Senior Lecturer teaching on several programmes, Chris has devised two new degrees, BA Therapeutic Care and BA Childhood Studies. Before joining the Department, Chris worked in a range of children’s services for over fifteen years, principally therapeutic communities for traumatised adolescents, developing an assessment service, a provision for leaving care, and with colleagues, setting up the Junction Young Person’s service for Colchester MIND. His 2010 book, Children and Adolescents in Trauma: Creative Therapeutic Approaches, draws on these experiences. Chris’ research centred on life and key writings of the poet Robert Graves in the light of his traumatic WW1 experiences. His other interest are in psychoanalysis and literature, therapeutic communities and experiential forms of learning. He sits on the Editorial Advisory Board of two Journals, the Robert Graves Review, and the International Journal of Therapeutic Communities. Chris sits on the Executive Board of the charity, The Consortium of Therapeutic Communities. He developed the Core Competency Framework for Therapeutic Communities, and has pioneered Active Education Events, a variant model of group relations conference. Chris also provides training, consultation and supervision to therapeutic services in and the UK, Greece and India.
Dr Kevin Gallagher
TCTC Training Committee
Dr Kevin Gallagher is a qualified social worker who has worked in and around residential child care and education for over 25 years – starting as a front line practitioner and working through into middle and senior management roles at regional and national levels. In the course of this journey, Kevin has further qualified as a Psychodynamic Organisational Consultant (Tavistock D10 programme) and operates a small private consultancy practice focussing on therapeutic child care and education sectors, service design, restructuring, HR and Personnel, team development and role consultation. Starting initially in the state sector, most of Kevins career has been in the independent sector in both operational and strategic roles and he has completed an MBA to underpin this work. Kevins interest in TCs grew out of increasing specialism in therapeutic child care and his organisation was part of the Community of Community pilot of the Therapeutic Service Standards for Children – he has been involved in this quality improvement cycle ever since and is part of the Advisory Group. A former Chair of The Charterhouse Group (a charity representing TCs for children), Kevin was actively involved in the merger with ATC and the formation of TCTC, acting as vice-Chair for the initial year and then taking on the role of Chair until 2018. Kevin is involved in a wide range of sector groups and practice networks and enjoys the cross fertilisation of ideas. Kevin completed his PhD in 2023 and his thesis developed a theory of change for therapeutic residential settings. This qualitative study looked in particular at the role of relationships in the change process. Kevin is Managing Director and co-owner of Amberleigh Care which operates two Accredited TCs for teenage boys with sexually harmful behaviour.
Fitsum Teklu
Treasurer
Fitsum works as the Chief Financial Officer for Community Housing and Therapy (CHT). She formerly worked for CHT as Head of Finance and Management Accountant. Before joining CHT she worked for an accountancy firm. Fitsum is a chartered accountant (ACCA) and has an accounting degree
Peter Clarke
TCTC Secretary
Peter Clarke has been a TCTC Board Member for over 10 years. Before moving into consultancy work in 2021 he had over 10 year experience in a leadership role of an Accredited Therapeutic Community for teenagers. Peter is Chair of the Royal College of Psychiatrist’s Accreditation Panel for the Community of Communities project supporting Enabling Environments and Therapeutic Communities. Peter is a qualified social worker registered with the General Social Care Council and has a research based M.A. from the school of Social Work and Health Studies at the University of East Anglia and has published work on the application of the Therapeutic Community model to work in a forensic settings with young people who have harmed others.
Iwona Munia
TCTC International Group Co-Chair and Shadow Secretary
Iwona Munia is the Head of Services for Community Housing and Therapy CHT, a charity working with adults with complex mental health needs. During last 13 years Iwona has been working at CHT in different roles and at different sites, practicing within TC (therapeutic community) and PIE (Psychologically Informed Environments) models. Iwona completed MA in Clinical Psychology and MA in Special Education at Warsaw, Poland before moving to UK in 2005. She worked with vulnerable adults and children in variety of settings including secure units, day centres and schools. Iwona is interested in group work and is completing Diploma in Groupwork Practice.
Abi Trales
TCTC Admin
For any queries please email us or drop me a line, I am always happy to help. I started with TCTC in October 2022.
Brian Hogan
TCTC Board
Brian Hogan has over 35 years experience working in relational residential care of
young people the vast majority of this in Secure Care. Twenty years of this has been
in senior management roles. He is a former member of the board of TCTC and of the
social care workers registration board. He is now director of relationships at work
providing mentoring training and team development.
Dr Deborah Judge
TCTC Children’s Network Co Chair
Deborah has enjoyed a varied career working as a Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist and Family and Systemic Psychotherapist. Deborah has a passion for service development and innovation and has been involved in forming and shaping youth services both in the NHS and in 3 rd -sector organisations. Her medical career, spanning 25 years within the NHS, included 14 years as a Consultant in Specialist Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) with expertise in addictions and the development of trauma-informed services for young people with substance use problems in Southwest England. In a change of direction in 2014, Deborah was one of the founding Directors of Birribi, a therapeutic residential care organisation in West Wales. As Therapeutic Programme Lead for Birribi, she focusses on the development of therapeutic residential care practice for young people with complex developmental trauma. Recently retiring from clinical psychiatric practice, Deborah is actively developing systemic practice in various settings and moving away from a medical model of youth mental health and wellbeing. Surprisingly, a love of horses has facilitated this shift away from traditional frameworks of mental health treatment. Over the years Deborah has connected her passion for horses with therapeutic work since starting training in 2005 in Equine Assisted Therapy and Learning. This environment in the company of horses now informs and develops her therapeutic practice at Birribi – with children, young people and families, in team development and reflective practice, and in professional development and leadership training.
Gill Attwood
TCTC Board
I am dual-trained as a mental health nurse and psychodrama psychotherapist. In 2002 I was seconded into a team tasked with developing Personality Disorder Services in Oxfordshire for adults of working age. This developed into a tier 3 specialist personality disorder service, delivering psychotherapeutic interventions within a therapeutic community model: With four
therapeutic communities including more recently a TC for 18–25-year-olds. Since then, I have developed professionally holding the role of Service Lead across Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire, In May 2025 I partially retired and now only hold the role for Oxfordshire. My portfolio includes operational and strategic oversight of the clinical service, and Training and Vocational Initiatives in Personality Disorder team (TVI-PD), PD pathway development for Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust, as well as working clinically.
I have particular interests in:
Co-production and working to develop services and workforce, with a view to increasing access to services for those who require it in a non stigmatising manner. Within TVI-PD we have ex-service users who support the delivery of clinical services working alongside clinicians, as well as developing and delivering all the trainings we offer.
The development and sustainability of Adult Democratic TC’s across all health, social and voluntary sectors. I am an active member of the Community of Communities Advisory group ensuring this remains on the agenda.
The development and use of research in TCs to strengthen the model validity. I have taken on a number of research projects and supported others in their research. I strongly believe that without robust research including quantitative measure then the TC model in adult TC’s is at risk
Co-production and delivery of training across sectors in working with personality disorder in psychologically informed way. These trainings are both standardised as well as developing bespoke trainings for organisations based on their needs
Dr Jennelle Clarke
TC Journal Editor
My name is Dr Jenelle Clarke and I am a lecturer in the sociology of health and social care at the University of Kent. I am sorry I cannot be with you in person as I have Welcome Week duties this week at the University. I recently took over as Editor-in-Chief of the TC Journal. I have been around the TC world for a number of years in a variety of roles. In fact, it was a TC that first drew me to the UK, and I was a member of Christ Church Deal (CCD) TC in Deal, Kent from 2005 until I moved to the midlands in 2011. I have recently moved back to Deal and am delighted to reconnecting with CCD. I did my PhD research in TCs (completed 2015) at the University of Nottingham with Professor Nick Manning and Dr Gary Winship, working with two communities for adults with a diagnosis of personality disorder. I used ethnography, a combination of participant observation and interviews, with clients and staff members to understand how times outside of therapy (like meal times and smoking breaks) contribute to personal change. These interactions are powerful moments in the life of a community where members engage in a number of ‘rituals’ that enhance their therapeutic journeys. I stayed active in TC research as a member, and then chair, of the TC Research and Development Group until 2018. I am very excited to be leading the journal and working with members on contributions and the direction and developments of the journal. I am especially keen to broaden the title and scope of the journal to include Enabling Environments (EEs). TCs have a natural close link with EEs as many of the principles of TC also underpin EEs. Formalising this relationship will expand, extend and strengthen community research in TCs and in areas where TC principles are being used, though maybe not formally recognised as TCs. I am especially keen to have more contributions from international authors and we know there are numerous examples of innovative and community approaches to mental health in our international community. I am working with Emerald, the previous Editor-in-Chief Dr Gary Winship, and the TCTC board to further develop the journal, particularly in terms of readership, contributions, influence and reputation. Our plans have started with raising the TC journal at a number of conferences this past year, reaching out to known and new contacts with the revised remit of the journal to now include a focus on EEs, and highlighting the most read/downloaded articles on the journal. Gary in particular has done a lot of work over the past year to reach out to our international community to raise the journal profile and I am pleased that this work has resulted in some author contributions. I am also very open to ideas, suggestions and comments for the journal. Please get in touch with me via email, j.clarke2261@kent.ac.u
Julie Dilallo
TCTC Adult Mental Health Group Co-Chair
Julie Dilallo has worked in mental health services for almost 40yrs moving from CAMHS 10yrs ago. She is a Consultant Psychotherapist and Clinical lead for Specialist personality disorder services in Kent where there are 2 Therapeutic communities, Ash Eton In Folkestone and The Brenchley Unit in Maidstone. She worked on the transformation of mental health services in Kent bringing the ethos of relational practice to the pathway, she continues to support the local SUN project and is a keen advocate for engaging experts by experience into such projects.
Luca Mingarelli
TCTC International Network Co-Chair
Psychologist, social entrepreneur, founder (1997) and President of Therapeutic Communities for Adolescents Rosa dei Venti onlus, Past President of Il Nodo Group(www.ilnodogroup.en ), National Manager TCs for adolescent and Board member of Mito&Realtà Scientific Association. Founder and board member of the International Network of Democratic Therapeutic Communities(INDTC), Board Member of The Consortium for Therapeutic Communities. Director of Learning From Action since 2011, LFA in Japan (2017 and 2019). Director of other Group Relations Conferences in Italy (ALI, ECW) and in the world . Journalist, singer, past basketball coach. Author of many volumes f.e. : Difficult Adolescents, an autobiography of a therapeutic community for adolescents (Ananke 2009) ;Roles in Therapeutic Community – life and care organization- (Ananke 2018); Learning from Action Working with the Non -Verbal ( Phoenix 2022) with R.D.Hinshelwood. Ambassador of Michelnagelo Pistoletto’s Third Paradise.
Mike Staines
EEDI
Mike was a staff member and manager at the Mulberry Bush School for 26 years. He now leads other aspects of the Mulberry Bush charity’s work, including supervision training. He teaches on the charity’s foundation degree and has led outreach training with various organisation. Mike is a trustee and board member of TCTC. He has been involved with Community of Community projects since 2011, mostly as lead or TC specialist for accreditations and peer reviews, including for prison TCs and in both Ireland and Greece. Mike was a member of the working group that developed the C of C / TCTC Core Competencies. Mike’s training is psychodynamic and he is a member of APCIOSS and of the Relational Practice Movement.
Neelam Khawani-Connett
Communications and Lived Experience
Neelam Khawani-Connett has a diagnosis and lived experience of personality disorder. She graduated from a therapeutic community in the UK over 10 years ago, having battled with her own depression from a very young age. The skill-set she has developed allows Neelam to work collaboratively alongside mental health practitioners to support service users & raise awareness of personality disorders and emotionally challenging behaviours. She is a KUF trainer and a group facilitator, helped establish one of the therapeutic communities in Buckinghamshire, co-developed the TCEPT course and leads reviews in therapeutic communities and enabling environments for two projects within The Royal College of Psychiatrists. Since she has been in Goa, Neelam is a member of the Hank Nunn Institute trust board, helps deliver webinars, is a staff member of their academic therapeutic community, Mosaic, and co-facilitates the greencare group, GreenCloud International. More recently, she has been co-opted on to The Consortium of Therapeutic Communities trust board.
Patrick Mandikate
TCTC Board
Patrick Mandikate is African, a Group analyst and has previously worked for 12 years as Head of Psychotherapy at HMP Grendon Therapeutic Prison. Post retirement from the public sector, he now contributes to ideas generated towards improvement in several organisations such as the Ministry of Justce, The Howard League for Penal reform, Specialist Emotion Regulation Services in the NHS and is an Associate at Tavistock Consulting presently engaged in working towards change in the Church of England. Patrick has experience in consulting on Group Relations Conferences from 2001 to the present. He holds a black belt in Mugendo kick boxing and utilises the spiritual aspects of martial arts in his work.
Richard Cross
TCTC Board
Richard Cross is Head of Assessment & Therapy at Five Rivers Childcare and
Director of a social enterprise, MCTS, seeking to expand knowledge around traumaresponsive care. He is a registered child psychotherapist & psychotherapist (UKCP.,
EAP., WCP) who has worked in group-based therapeutic environments since 1992.
He is a Fellow & Faculty member of the International Society for Trauma and
Dissociation and a visiting Arizona Trauma Institute faculty member. He is
particularly interested in delivering training to professionals to support expanding
knowledge around complex trauma, attachment, and dissociation.
For over 30 years, his career has focused on developing relationally based
approaches. His early career focused on developing treatments within correctional
environments to reduce recidivism (Advanced EQUIP, A-SOTP, etc.) and managing
democratic prison-based Therapeutic Communities. For the last 22 years, he has
focused on developing approaches for children who are cared for. He collaborated
and spent time in the USA to bring the Sanctuary Model, the first trauma-informed
approach in the UK, in 2004, which was embedded across 18 children’s homes.
Since then, he has developed a multi-component approach called ATIC (attachment
and trauma-informed care). He is a director of the Bowlby Centre in London and is a
member of a research group and works in collaboration with senior researchers from
the Anna Freud Centre in London to publish regular peer review articles to expand
knowledge around trauma, attachment, and dissociation