We have a passionate team of professionals who are active members of professional bodies to ensure safe practice and access to the most up to date therapy and support.

These include: HCPC, UKCP, BACP, BPS & MHFA England.

 

All our team are highly skilled in their own roles specialising in a lot of different interventions which can help with depression, anxiety, building confidence and self-esteem as well as a range of other mental health problems. 

Name: Janine

Role: Chief Executive Officer

Worked at The Link since: 2010

 

Favourite Food: Pasta

Superpower of choice: Telepathy

Favourite TV show/ Film: Harry Potter

 

A day in your role...

A typical day in the role of Acting CEO involves lots of emails, meetings and planning with a focus on the future of The Link. Ensuring we are delivering a service that meets the needs of the Children and Young People of the Tees Valley and the team are providing the highest quality support.

Name: Tina

Role: Managing Director / Founder

Worked at The Link since: 2010

 

Favourite Food: 

Superpower of choice: 

Favourite TV show/ Film: 

 

A day in your role...


Name:  Hayley Hill

Role:  IAPT Lead/ CBT Practitioner

Worked at The Link since:  March 2015

 

Favourite Food:  Curry

Superpower of choice:  Protective Forcefield
Favourite TV show/ Film: So hard to choose!...How to Lose a Guy in Ten days!

 A day in your role...

 There are no two days the same in my role, but each day is a pleasure! In my role as a CBT practitioner, I deliver high-intensity cognitive behavioural therapy to Children and Young people (usually aged 8 and over) and would provide one to one sessions to help them with a wide range of difficulties including Social Phobia, Generalised Anxiety disorder, OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder), Specific phobia, Depression/Low Mood, Self esteem difficulties and Panic disorder. As IAPT Lead, my role also involves leading on the delivery of CYP-IAPT within the service, providing clinical supervision to IAPT practitioners, supporting and leading in new CYP IAPT service developments and attending meetings with external agencies.    

Name: Nathan

Role: Therapeutic Lead/Supervisor & Trainee Child Psychotherapeutic Counsellor

Worked at The Link since: September 2013

 

Favourite Food: Steak

Superpower of choice: Invulnerability

Favourite TV show/ Film: The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy

 

A day in your role…

Most of my day is spent working directly with children, young people and families to provide a variety of therapeutic interventions including, Systemic Family Practice, Psychotherapeutic Counselling and Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy. Furthermore I offer supervision and work with the other members of the senior management team to shape service delivery and support the other clinicians in their work.

 



Name: Camilla

Role: Team Clark and Relax Kids Instructor

Worked at The Link since: September 2015

 

Favourite Food: Sticky Toffee Pudding

Superpower of choice: Granting Wishes

Favourite TV show/ Film: The Lion King

 

A day in your role...

A typical day in the role of a Team Clark involves providing ongoing support to the full team of practitioners, diary management, and liaising with outside agencies/professionals. My role also entails providing support to the service users within Friends groups and Relax Kids Sessions.

Name: Sarah

Role: Operations Manager/Training Coordinator

Worked at The Link Since: October 2014

 

Favourite Food: Tagliatelle Carbonara

Superpower of Choice: Ability to control time

Favourite Film/TV show: The Heat

 

A day in the role:

 A typical day in the role involves overseeing, managing and developing the operational running of the staff and service here at The Link, screening referrals, monitoring of waiting lists, managing allocations and work outputs, and conducting operational case management supervision with all the clinical team. As the Deputy Safeguarding Lead, being the secondary point of contact for all Safeguarding queries in the service. As well as delivery and evaluation of both accredited and non accredited training.



Name: Holly

Role: HR & Business Support

Worked at The Link since: March 2014

 

Favourite Food: Pizza

Superpower of choice: Invisibility

Favourite TV show/ Film: Friends

 

A day in your role...

A typical day in the role of Business Support Coordinator/ HR involves working within The Links business unit, providing ongoing support to the CEO and strategic management team. This includes maintaining finance systems and financial forecasts and also maintaining and developing the company’s current HR functions. 

Name: Amy 

Role: Enhanced Evidence Based Practitioner

Worked at The Link since: January 2019

 

Favourite Food: Pizza and BBQ dip

Superpower of choice: Flying!

Favourite TV show/ Film: Game of thrones (but not the ending...)

 

A day in your role...

Every day is different and always rewarding. My role as an enhanced evidence based practitioner can range between supporting young people and their families with things such as anger, friendship difficulties, emotional regulation, to difficulties with anxiety and low mood. I work with children between primary and secondary schools ages and feed into the service level agreements we have with schools.



Name: Jess 

Role: CBT Practitioner & trainee supervisor

Worked at The Link since: September 2017

 

Favourite Food: Pizza

Superpower of choice: The ability to manipulate time

Favourite TV show/ Film: Friends

A day in your role...

A typical day for me involves providing 1:1 sessions to young people struggling with anxiety and low mood. I am also training to be a supervisor, so part of my job role involves having supervisions with other practitioners to help them with anything they might be struggling with.

Name: Jon

Role: Emotional Wellbeing Practitioner (EWP)

Worked at The Link since: September 2020

 

Favourite Food: Fish n Chips at the coast and out of newspaper

Superpower of choice: To be able to fly

Favourite TV show/ Film: Two and a Half Men (Charlie Sheen era)

 

A day in your role...

My typical day involved going into schools to carry out supportive work with children and young people between the ages of 4 - 18 and develop/deliver training to external stakeholders. I carry out Psychoeducation to parents in parent-led work to give parents the tools to therapeutically support their own children. I also collaborate with partner agencies in supporting Management plans and strategies that best suit the needs of children and families. 



Name: Ellie

Role: Children's psychological well-being practitioner

Worked at The Link since: February 2021

 

Favourite Food: Cheesy beans on toast

Superpower of choice: Telepathic

Favourite TV show/ Film: Matilda

 

A day in your role...

A typical day in my role would involve me providing 1-1 sessions to young people based on their individual needs. The sessions help promote resilience, build on skills and knowledge which enables the young people to manage their struggles in a more positive way.

Name: Chloe

Role: Low Intensity CBT Practitioner & Outreach

Worked at The Link since: July 2019 

 

Favourite Food: Mushroom Pizza

Superpower of choice: Teleportation

Favourite TV show/ Film: Friends

 

A day in your role...

My day typically starts at a Redcar or Middlesbrough based school at 9am, providing therapeutic support to a child or young person usually experiencing anxiety or low mood. From here, I will drive to another school (and do this three or four times throughout the day) before going back to the office to complete my paper work for the interventions I have facilitated. I usually eat lunch between appointments, or back at my desk while I chat to the lovely people I share a room with.



Name: Ellen

Role: Enhanced Evidence Based Practitioner

Worked at The Link since: February 2021

 

Favourite Food: Seafood Linguine.

Superpower of choice: Telepathy.

Favourite TV show/ Film: Wizard of Oz

 

A day in your role...

I work with children and young people on a daily basis offering Low-Intensity Cognitive Behaviour Therapy for various mental health presentations. I plan and carry out sessions with children and young people to help them feels happier and more able to cope with lifes challenges.

Name: Esther

Role: Therapeutic Social Worker/Art Therapist

Worked at The Link since: August 2020

 

Favourite Food: Curry

Superpower of choice: To be able to fly like a bird!

Favourite TV show: The Joy of Painting with Bob Ross

 

A day in your role…

My role has a lot of variety. I am a social worker so I do some work from different social care settings, this can include working therapeutically with children who have a social worker and being a Practice Teacher for student social workers who come to the Link for their first or second placements.

I am also a qualified art therapist which I love. I work with children and young people here at the Link, or in schools, on a one to one basis using art to help them understand and express themselves and their feelings. I love this part of my role as sometimes it can be difficult to explain to others how we are feeling and art therapy can be a bit like the voice that says things for us.

A day in my role will involve me checking I have my art materials ready before I see someone and that it is the right materials for them.  I need to make sure I have lots of different types of art materials like glitter, glue sticks, play-doh, coloured felt pens, pencils and paper because every art therapy session is different and children use different things.



Name: Jessica Williams

Role: Emotional Wellbeing Practitioner

Worked at The Link since: May 2021

 

Favourite Food: Pizza

Superpower of choice: Invisibility

Favourite TV show/ Film: The Office

 

A day in your role...

A typical day in the role of an Emotional Practitioner is to work in collaboration to support children, young people and families in the self-management of presenting difficulties. This is achieved by developing effective treatment plans and agreed outcomes using evaluation tools and evidence-based practice.

Name: Rosina Collins

Role: Administration Assistant for the Mental Health Support Team

Worked at The Link since: 24th September 2021

 

Favourite Food: London Pizza

Superpower of choice: Healing

Favourite TV show/Film: Film - Harry Potter, TV Show - Castle

 

A day in my role....

Is supporting the Mental Health Support Team by inputting data onto the system and booking appointments. Along with scanning & uploading documents and sending out letters.



Name: Alison Kirby

Role: Emotional Wellbeing Practitioner

Worked at The Link since: October 2021

 

Favourite Food: Greek Gyros wrap

Superpower of choice: Be able to teleport (to a hot beach!)

Favourite TV show/ Film: Game of Thrones

 

A day in your role...

A typical day in the role of an Emotional Wellbeing Practitioner involves working with young people and their families to deliver high quality, evidence-based interventions with the aim of improving emotional wellbeing. This includes supporting young people with developing strategies to build resilience, self-confidence and to lead a healthy lifestyle.