Clinical Team
Please find below all members of the Living Well Clinical Team.
Patrick Kwesiga
Clinical Director
Patrick Kwesiga is the Clinical Director for Living Well Consortium.
He is a psychotherapist registered member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy. He holds relevant qualifications, including a masters in Integrative Counselling and Psychotherapy, a BA (Social Sciences), a Postgraduate in IAPT Leadership and Management of Health, and corporate leadership accreditation. He is also a qualified Talking Therapies supervisor and an accredited Well-being Facilitator.
Patrick has a depth of experience in community development, is a children mentor, community advocate, and health and well-being promoter.
He also specialises in writing and literary works, theatre director, acting and African drumming. He is author of Glad Made Mad a socio-cultural drama, and co-author of The Dancing Tree children’s stories.
Holly Beedon
Clinical Lead
Holly Beedon is a qualified Integrative Psychotherapist and Cognitive Behavioural Therapist with over 13 years’ experience in the mental health sector.
At Living Well, Holly overseas all services ensuring the highest standard of clinical processes and structures. Holly is the go to person for all practitioners across the organisation for anything related to clinical practice. Holly sits in the weekly panel with FTB and works with course leads at various universities to aid the process of Talking Therapies training and qualifications for our staff.
In her spare time Holly enjoys making candles, homemade cleaning sprays and bath bombs. Holly loves walking in the woods with her staffie, Bruce Wayne (who she let her kids name) and also enjoys swimming and shadow boxing.
Awa Njie
Senior Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner
Awa graduated with a degree in medical bioscience, and then went on to do a masters in public health.
She began her career with LWC as admin officer and progressed quickly to admin and operations manager. Awa wanted to utilise her qualifications and passion for wellbeing, and went on to complete the Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner Course.
Awa says that she loves her current role and looks forward to exploring further opportunities for growth within LWC.
Awa loves cooking, working out at the gym and travelling. Fun fact: She shares a birthday with her son.
Stuart Yeates
Senior Clinical Practitioner
Stuart Yeates is a qualified BACP Counsellor and Psychotherapist, he graduated from Warwick university in 2018. He has been working in the mental health field since 2014 – both voluntary and in private counselling practice. He has experience working with individuals / couples / young people and children. His experience is primarily with person centred counselling, but he also has experience working with the cognitive behavioural model.
At Living Well, he provides 1 to 1 therapeutic support to children and young people ages 11+. works with groups of young people online and also engages in mental health triage assessments.
In his spare time, he enjoys walks, playing video games, making music, and reading. Stuart enjoys being creative and finding new and interesting ways to express himself.
Mabel Newman
Project Lead
Mabel joined the Living Well Consortium in 2020 and has held various administrative roles. As Project Officer - Clinical, Mabel works on clinical projects throughout the organisation. She is also assisting Evan Grant with his support of and advocacy for the VCFSE sector, as well as the running of the VCFSE Mental Health Collective and Panel.
Her favourite night of the year is Eurovision – she normally throws a party based on the theme of the year, but in 2023 she finally got to go and see the show in person!
Waqar Azam
Trauma Therapist
Waqar is a qualified and accredited integrative psychotherapist with a background in youth work and working in the arts. Waqar supports the Living Well team as a trauma therapist and has worked with Living Well across various projects and contracts.
In his spare time Waqar likes to enjoy travelling, cooking and spending time with his family. Waqar has recently upgraded from cat dad to actual dad to his baby girl Aya who he enjoys spending time with and who definitely keeps him on his toes.
Maria Forde
Children and Young People Counsellor
Maria Forde is a Child and Young People Counsellor for Living Well Consortium. She joined Living Well earlier this year.
Maria worked as a Legal Secretary for over 15 years but decided that she needed a career change. She went back into education to retrain as a Counsellor. She has worked as a Person Centred Counsellor with children and young people for over 10 years.
In her free time, she enjoys going for walks with her family and baking.
Becky Moore
Walking Therapist
Becky is a psychotherapist currently working with the Living Well Consortium as a Walking Therapist, offering counselling to people outdoors. As a therapist she has her own therapy and understands how challenging yet life changing it can be. "I am so truly humbled by the courage my clients show me day to day."
The outdoors is somewhere Becky feels most comfortable, beaches, forests, countryside so being able to share this with her clients is a real joy.
Becky grew up in North Devon and feels that shaped her love for the outdoors, adventure sports and walking which she personally finds very therapeutic, especially when accompanied by her beautiful boy, Spencer, her little Shih Zu.
Deborah Shaw
Walking Therapist
Deborah, or short Deb, is a walking therapist with Living Well. She is trained as a person-centred counsellor and has adapted this way of working to deliver it whilst walking in local parks with clients since joining Living Well.
She has a background of working in the law but made the life-changing decision to become a therapist about 6 years ago when she realised she was more interested in helping her clients with their personal problems rather than their legal ones.
She has always enjoyed the outdoors, whether mountaineering, hill-walking or just taking the dog out to the park and can attest to the mental and physical benefits of all!
Simon Davies
Walking Therapist
Simon delivers walking and outdoor talking therapies as part of the Living Well clinical team.
Simon originally studied English at Oxford University before going on to train in Person-Centred Counselling and the Psychotherapeutic Relationship at the University of Warwick.
A BACP registered counsellor, Simon has a keen interest in the relationships we build with ourselves, others, and the environment. As such, he leaped at the chance to join Living Well’s walking therapies pilot in 2021. He also delivers person-centred counselling for Consortium member Citizen Coaching.
In his spare time, Simon continues to seek out green spaces while making sure he isn’t away too long from his demanding pet cat.
Samuel Perry
Clinical and Referrals Administrator
Sam joined the team in August 2023 shortly after graduating from his degree, MSci Psychology and Psychological Practice at the University of Birmingham. At university, Sam found experience both in direct clinical work on an inpatient ward and in volunteering with Birmingham Nightline in a variety of committee roles.
At the Living Well Consortium, the bulk of Sam's work involves handling referrals through the new digital pathways, including referrals to the SilverCloud platform. As well as this, he regularly minutes meetings.
The strangest thing Sam has ever done is co-create a comedy podcast about (and involving) monkeys. The second strangest thing is bringing this up to everyone he meets.
Damien Phillips
Mental Health Connector
Damien has extensive experience working in the NHS since 2018 starting as a clinic administrator at the treatment centre, Good Hope Hospital. Gradually moving to the Ophthalmology and clinic preparation departments before becoming a full time GP receptionist for Midlands Medical Partnership.
In June 2022, Damien's passion for helping people flourish, and he joined the Active Wellbeing Society as a Social Prescribing Link Worker within the Birmingham East Community, working across 6 surgeries. In this time, he progressed to Senior Social Prescribing Link worker where he managed a team of 4, and set up a community workshop with Communities Engage and thrive 'Manage Your Diabetes'.
Damien has now joined the Team in April 2024, where he will continue to support his community as a mental health connector.
Outside of work, Damien's favourite past time is music, he recently performed at the Jam House Birmingham some of his original songs he wrote, and performed as a backing singer for the Jennifer Bolton Band. He recently appeared on Black Country radio ahead of his performance promoting his musical endeavours. Damien also loves to travel across Europe experiencing other cultures and speaks a little French, German and Spanish.
Kenya Shepherd
Mental Health Connector
Kenya Shepherd recently joined our LWC team in August, she is employed as a Mental Health Connector.
Her main responsibility will be to help individuals with social, psychological & mental challenges by making allocations to lifestyle programmes, clinicians, community events and counselling/ therapy. Kenya has always had a passion for helping people as she has previous employment in charity roles involving supporting people with housing, debt, and benefits. Alongside that Kenya was a part of the Household Support Fund which was a city-wide government funded scheme, she covered the Selly Oak and Northfield Area distributing grants to those who were facing hardship or crisis, and a low income.
She is a big believer in being positivity and love, always putting God on the forefront.
In Kenya’s spare time she enjoys meeting up with her friends doing fun activities such as Bowling, VR & going to different cities to see what fun ventures are out there! On the other hand, she also loves a chill evening ordering a takeaway or going to a restaurant.
Kirandeep Thiarra
Mental Health Connector
Kirandeep graduated from university in 2020 with a degree in Psychology and went on to do her master’s degree in occupational psychology and graduated in 2022. During this time, she was also a Mental Health First Aider, and carries a strong passion to help and support individuals overall well-being. She is a new Mental Health Connector who is very excited to see what the future holds within the new role.
Outside of work, Kirandeep enjoys travelling, shopping, and socialising with friends and family.
Sarah Cannon
Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner and Personal Trainer
Sarah Cannon is a Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner and Personal Trainer for Living Well Consortium.
Sarah started her career as a Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner working in various Improving Access to Psychological Therapies services. She has always been passionate about the positive impacts of physical activity on mental wellbeing.
This passion spurred Sarah on to complete further training in Personal Training and Nutrition Coaching to offer a more holistic approach to looking after our mental health. Sarah has experience of working in the gym environment and on a more personal one to one basis. Sarah loves helping people to get active and find ways to incorporate enjoyable movement into their day-to-day life.
In her free time, Sarah loves training at the gym, spending time outside in nature, walking her dog, cooking, and hunting for a good meme.
Natalie Bird
Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner
Natalie previously worked in aviation industry as a flight attendant for a number of years before going into the healthcare industry in an administrative role. Following a lifelong passion for psychology and mental health and researching the different roles this career had to offer, Natalie decided to train as a Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner and joined the living well team in 2022.
In her free time Natalie enjoys travelling, cooking, reading and spending time with her cats.
Ashwina Chohan
Psychological Wellbeing Assistant
Ashwina graduated with a 1st Class Degree in Health Studies from the University of Wolverhampton and achieved a Master’s Degree in Psychology at Aston University.
Ashwina has experience of volunteering with reputable organisations such as Birmingham Children’s Hospital as a Play Therapist and NSPCC as a Childline Volunteer Counsellor.
Ashwina joined the team in September 2023 and is passionate about helping others and making a positive change to the way mental health is viewed.
Outside of work Ashwina is a music lover and enjoys playing the guitar and violin (whether she is good is questionable!) Ashwina is a self-certified book worm and has a keen interest in rom-coms and thrillers. Finally, Ashwina has a passion for travelling, exploring new places and trying different cuisines (she’s a bit of a foodie).
Lavinia Haarhoff
Psychological Wellbeing Assistant
In 2019, Lavinia graduated from the University of Wolverhampton with a First-Class Undergraduate degree in Psychology. She then went on to work in a range of settings such as mental health support, youth homelessness and mentoring for looked after children. Whilst working, Lavinia has been completing a Level 5 Professional Diploma in Therapeutic Counselling and has career aspirations of becoming a Trauma Informed Psychotherapist.
Outside of work and study, Lavinia enjoys playing computer games such as The Sims 4 on PC and Animal Crossing on her Nintendo Switch.
Claire-Marie Glennon
Wellbeing Practitioner
Claire-Marie is currently retraining to become a psychotherapist, following a successful career in PR and marketing which saw her working with organisations across a variety of sectors worldwide.
With roots secured firmly within the entertainment arena, she has also shared the stage with many household names in venues on land and sea spanning the globe.
Joining LWC in April 2022 as Wellbeing Practitioner, Claire-Marie provides support to the clinical team to help maintain a seamless, accessible, and supportive service user experience.
Claire-Marie’s interests include music, mindfulness, reading and food. If Claire-Marie was a superhero, she would be ‘Giggle Girl,’ lifting people’s spirits by making them laugh.
Leiselle Walker
Telephone Triage Practitioner
Leiselle joined the Apprenticeship programme on October 17th 2022. She was based at Pattigift Therapy for her training during the programme.
Prior to joining the Apprenticeship Leiselle worked in Health and Social Care supporting children and adults with sensory impairments, autism and learning disabilities.
In her spare time Leiselle enjoys cooking Caribbean food , travelling to explore new places, reading and gardening. She comes from a family of farmers.
Bilkis Miah
Trainee Couples Therapist
Bilkis joined Living Well Consortium in April 2023 assessing and counselling individuals and soon will be delivering couple therapy. She is currently doing her level 7 postgraduate degree in couple’s therapy for depression at Tavistock Relationships London. Prior to this Bilkis has worked as an integrative and person-centred counsellor in schools and local community in Windsor, Berkshire for 23 years. She also supported local authorities in London and Berkshire supporting children with disabilities and challenging behaviours.
Fun fact: Bilkis enjoyed diving off a cliff into a river in Bosnia, spent 8 hours on a mountain collecting herbs for her cup of tea. She loves animals and as a child she and her little brother sneaked in a pet goat to sleep under the bed for the night!
Lydia Williams
Trainee Children's Wellbeing Practitioner
Lydia has a wide range of experience supporting Children, Young People and Families. She graduated from Liverpool Hope University with a 1st Class Honours in Psychology and Childhood and Youth. She has always had a great passion for helping others and following University worked as a Family Support Worker.
Lydia is currently completing a Postgraduate Diploma, training to become a qualified Children’s Wellbeing Practitioner. She is looking forward to gaining a greater knowledge on supporting Children and Young People and using this to make a positive difference.
Whilst Lydia is not in work she loves to go on long walks with her dog, go to the theatre and read psychological thrillers.
Vinell Martell-Corbett
Trainee Children's Wellbeing Practitioner
Vinell has a BA (Hons) degree in Working with Children, Young people and Families. She has a wide range of expertise when working with children and young people as she has worked with children with social, emotional and mental health needs and has worked as a mentor in college for children and young people. Vinell has seen the effects of poor mental health in her community first hand and this has inspired her to help others and try to get mental health spoken about more!
Vinell is currently completing a Postgraduate Diploma, training to become a qualified Children's Wellbeing Practitioner. She is looking forward to helping others within the community and gaining extra knowledge on how to spread mental health awareness to children and young people who are in need of it.
Whilst Vinell is not working, she loves to go on walks, listen to unsolved mystery podcasts and meet with friends.
