Previously, Rachel spent 10 years working with children and adults with learning disabilities and associated mental health difficulties, 6 of which were as an advocate in a medium secure hospital. Rachel is currently studying for a degree in child and adolescent development and slowly working her way towards completing a book. She is married with a young son and lives in Norfolk.

Donna Wade - Project Worker

Donna studied psychology at the university of Hertfordshire and now works for LCET as a therapeutic worker specialising in self-harm. This position is funded by Children in Need and involves running group programmes in secondary schools around Luton. She is passionate about seeing young people’s lives transformed and uses personal experience of self harm to inform her work. She is married and lives in Hitchin.

Jo Coleman - Moderator 

Jo recently finished her degree at the University of Sheffield reading Music. She is currently interning at LCET working for the therapeutic team alongside Donna Wade.  Alongside personal experience of self-harm, Jo set up "Behind the Myths", an art exhibition held in Sheffield to raise awareness for self-harm in December 2009.  In her spare time Jo reads a ridiculous amount of books and enjoys competitive sailing.

Advisory Group

selfharm.co.uk is supported by a a very generous and gifted Board of Advisors, all of whom donate masses of time and expertise to the project:

Alison Bagg

Alison is Head of the Maths Department at a local secondary school. In a previous career, she was Director of Commercial Services and Business Integration for a large import business. She has helped the finance team develop its budgeting and accounting procedures and heads up the Finance sub group of the Board. She is also mother to two teenagers.

Chris Curtis

CEO of LCET. Chris trained in law at the University of Bristol before moving on to work in schools as a youth worker in the early 1980's. He became the first member of staff at LCET in 1993 and, as Chief Executive, oversees the strategic development of the project. In 2001 Chris completed a Master Degree at the University of Birmingham in Educational Psychology (Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties). He writes and speaks widely on education, culture and young people. Both he and his wife Helen are registered Foster Carers and have two children of their own. 

Julia Hamilton-Crickmay

Doing a friend a favour by helping staff a residential in Wales, for vulnerable youth, made such an impact on Julia she gave up working in the travel and tourism industry to work for the Princes Trust. It was here she first came across self-harm. She became a Connexions Personal Advisor in Aylesbury working with youth who were no longer in school or were being released from prison as well as later working as a Learning Mentor. Around this time she started to work alongside the LCET schools teams and continued to gain knowledge on the subject. She was invited to be on the advisory board, after leaving her position to start a family and now, as a parent to two young boys, can now understand the desperation and fear of parents when self-harm arises within their family.

Dr Ralph Harkness

Dr Ralph Harkness works with the Mental Health Team within Children’s Services and in Private Practice in Norfolk. His qualifications include two Fellowships (Maxillofacial and Public Health), a Masters Degree (Maxillofacial Disfigurement), a Doctorate (Psychotherapy) a Post Graduate Diploma in Psychotherapy / Counselling, he is a Registered Psychotherapist and Supervisor with Counsellors and Psychotherapists in Primary Care. Ralph has a particular expertise in oral-facial prosthetic reconstruction because of cancer and trauma, self-harm, eating disorders, substance abuse, child and adolescent psychotherapy and family psychotherapy. His practice and experience includes acute hospital departments, GP practice settings, the private sector, charitable and independent sectors, universities and schools.

Angela Lockett

Angela is an extremely experienced training designer, deliverer and consultant, with a career in learning and development spanning over 20 years. Angela set up her own learning and development company in 1997, since when she has worked with a range of both national and international organizations, developing their internal and external communication skills at all levels. A strong focus of her work is on the professional development of trainers in a range of sectors including banking, insurance, retail, local authorities and the voluntary sector. Angela has worked with selfharm.co.uk since early 2009 continuing to help develop both the training strategy and range of courses.

Mimi Newbon

Mimi got involved in selfharm.co.uk having been a prolific self-harmer in the past resulting in hospitalisation and surgery. She feels it's very important that self-harmers can be supported and informed and sees this project to be both an information point and a forum for support for those battling the issues surrounding self-harm. For that reason, Mimi joined the advisory board in the hope that more people will be able to break free of the cycle of self-harming with the support of more professionals who can become better informed to deal with people who are struggling.