Meet the staff

Our Buckinghamshire community service is a multi-disciplinary team, with staff from a variety of backgrounds, bringing different areas of expertise to the service.

Operational Lead – Kirstie Swan

Deputy Operational Lead – Jade Kilpin

Clinical Nurse Consultant – John Stewart

Mental Health Practitioners: Nurses: Raquel Sealy, Nathalia Pennington, Nyasha Muchaka, Hafi Mahama. Social worker: Jess Hobson

FREED Champion – Sophie Bailey (RMN)

Consultant Clinical Psychologist
The Consultant Psychologist provides clinical leadership alongside the Consultant Psychiatrist and Modern Matron to the inpatient, day patient and community service. He is part of the Eating Disorders Management Team and involved in the further development of the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire eating disorders services as well as the HOP New Care Models.

Psychologists Team: Counselling Psychologists: Dr Lydia Ling, Dr Jacqui Pearse, Clinical Psychologist: Dr Jenny Davis
The team of psychologists offer assessment, formulation and psychological treatment. Working in the local eating disorders community team, they play a key role in the multi-disciplinary team and with the delivery of the group programme.

Assistant Psychologist – Megan Dunnage, Theodore Clarke
The Assistant Psychologists deliver a CBT-based, manualised, guided self-help intervention for patients with a diagnosis of binge eating disorder or bulimia nervosa. Guided self-help is the recommended first line of treatment for both binge eating disorder and bulimia nervosa. The evidence-based manual that is followed at Cotswold House is ‘Overcoming Binge Eating’ by Professor Christopher Fairburn.
The Assistant Psychologists are also responsible for the collection and analysis of our patient questionnaires, which are completed by patients at assessment, start of treatment and end of treatment. This data allows us to measure our patients’ progress throughout treatment and also evaluate our interventions and service as a whole.

Dietitians 
The Dietitian is a specialist source of expertise in the dietetic management of eating disorders. They work with the patients to develop an agreed meal plan and also contributes to the running of the group programme.

Family therapist– Rasa KubiliuteSupport Worker & Carers Lead – Paula Stevens and Mariam Khan
Peer support worker
Peer Support Workers have lived experience of being an eating disorder patient. They bring their experiences of treatment and recovery to patients and the team, offering empathy, compassion and hope. Peer support workers help patients brainstorm and experiment with building a recovery identity, and give practical support with challenges in daily life, such as mealtimes, shopping, conversations with family/friends, social activities, difficult feelings or body image. The idea for the role of a peer support worker is to work collaboratively with the patients to create goals, skills and strategies, and test these out, learning practical tips for how to live well.

Team Administrator – Sue Carthew
Our admin team provide an efficient and comprehensive secretarial and administrative service to the unit. They manage all administrative duties and ensure all systems are in place for the effective running of the unit. Their duties include arranging meetings and sending out clinical information securely.

Page last reviewed: 29 July, 2024