Shiraz Farrand

Trustee: President

Shiraz is an EMDR Consultant and accredited CBT therapist working in the NHS primary care and private practice. She is an approved EDMR Recent/Group Traumatic Episode Protocol (RTEP/GTEP) trainer and sits on the RTEP/GTEP Executive International Committee.

Her special interest is in scaling up trauma treatment and is currently involved in research projects with humanitarian organisations in Low and Middle Income countries.

Shiraz is responsible for coordinating the work of Trauma Aid UK in line with its core mission to facilitate the development of EMDR in underserved communities by providing free training and supervision.

Matthew Wilcockson

Trustee: Hon. Secretary

Matthew is an EMDR therapist, consultant and facilitator working in the National Health Service and higher education, with a specialist interest in working with non-English speakers.

He is chair of the EMDR refugee special interest group. He has been an EMDR therapist for 15 years, and also a CBT therapist. He has volunteered as a supervisor and facilitator for Trauma Aid and its predecessors for 8 years.

He occasionally conducts research, particularly related to refugees and therapeutic processes.

Michael Tidbury

Trustee: Membership; Web site; Event Registrations; News Updates

Michael retired in 2017 after twenty years as a psychotherapist.

He ‘discovered’ EMDR in 2004 when he was studying for his MA and ADIP and never looked back. He said: “If only EMDR had been discovered earlier just think of how much suffering could have been prevented”.

He first joined Trauma Aid UK as a Trustee in 2010.

Michael looks after our Web site, News Updates, Memberships, Event registrations and the VSR.

Tom Tomaszewski

Trustee: CPD Coordinator

After several years as clinical manager at Charter, an addiction clinic in London, Tom went into private practice specialising in working with clients regarded as hard to treat. Interestingly, many of these people had succeeded in demanding, high-profile careers, particularly in the media and the art world. Tom’s work encourages improvisation, collectivity and whatever else it takes not to get stuck.

He has found that EMDR offers a novel and very effective way of approaching this kind of thing. His blog, Be Somebody Else, offers thoughts to therapists and members of the public looking for ways to move on from lives caught on repeat.

His role in Trauma Aid UK is CPD, in particular, that offered to our Volunteer Supervisors in recognition of their vital commitment to supporting Trauma Aid UK trained clinicians.

Debra May

Child and Adolescent development

Debra has over thirty years’ experience of working with children and families providing a range of assessment and therapeutic services through the use of play and drama. She specialises in working with children individually, as well as with their parents/carers where there are attachment issues complicated by previous traumatic experiences for both the child and their parent.

She is an EMDR Europe Accredited Consultant, EMDR Europe Accredited Child & Adolescent Consultant, BAPT Play Therapist and Director of Child & Family Play Therapy Ltd.

She runs a busy private practice providing training workshops of how to use play therapy and EMDR together to help a child process any traumatic memories.

Her experience places her in an excellent position to promote Trauma Aid UK’s work with Children and Adolescents.

Sanja Oakley

Trustee

Sanja is an international psychotherapist and executive coach with 25 years experience working in the UK, USA and Europe. Based in London but born in Croatia, Sanja has extensive experience working in the USA for the Centre for Victims of Torture & War Trauma and in Bosnia & Herzegovina coordinating Trauma Aid UK’s training and development of local therapists.

Sanja appeared in Apple TV’s ‘The Me You Can’t See’, created and produced by Opra Winfrey and Prince Harry. In Episode 3 Sanja discusses EMDR and conducts a live session with Prince Harry.