About Us

Catherine (she/her) is a neurodivergent specialist Theraplay® , Sensory and DDP Informed Therapist. Catherine's passionate about creating change through personal and professional experience which has lead to the launch of NeuroConnect CIC.

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Catherine has over 20 years of experience working with children and families and specialised in working in adoption, fostering and developmental trauma. 

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Learning and training to support families ran in parellel to supporting her family. As a parent Catherine has navigated the same challenges our parents experience in the EHCP process and alternative approaches to education. Late identification as neurodivergent and adapting life to place a central focus on wellbeing as a neurodivergent family is of central value to our team, practice and support to families. This has lead to training in neuroaffirming practice and approaches to ensure support for families impacted by neurodivergent trauma.

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As family time, Catherine enjoys live music outdoors, festivals, walks in the woods with their two dogs, cat cuddles and spending time in the garden or by the sea.​

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Gemma is a skilled and experienced childcare practitioner. She is passionate about therapeutic approaches to strengthening family relationships.

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Gemma is a highly skilled and knowledgeable childcare practitioner and social worker with over 25 years’ experience. She specialises in helping children and families strengthen connections and is passionate about therapeutic approaches to enable this.

 

Gemma’s career has spanned various roles, including working abroad with children, supervising kinship carers within a family placement team, and serving as a looked-after children’s social worker. For the past decade, she has specialised in adoption, providing support to children and families affected by developmental trauma, attachment issues and neurodiversity. Gemma is certified as a Theraplay® Foundational Practitioner, holds a BSc (Hons) in Social Work, a Diploma in Nursery Nursing (NNEB) and is trained in Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy (DDP).

 

Outside of her work, Gemma is an avid traveller and loves an adventure, whether that's hiking in nature, exploring new places, or engaging in creative activities. She believes that play is a powerful way to foster joy, whatever your age!

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​Emma (she/her) has a teaching background and offers therapeutic coaching and Theraplay® informed practice to families. Emma is also an experienced trainer in trauma informed approaches and integrates her lived experience into her practice. 

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Emma has always believed passionately that everyone has the right to fulfil their potential in a healthy and supported way. She is a qualified therapist, Theraplay® informed practitioner, and has extensive experience in working with complex trauma and PTSD.

 

In her work as a therapist and trainer for NeuroConnect, Emma draws on her hugely varied work background (roles ranging from Music Lead in a Primary School to Higher Education Manager) and her lived experiences of navigating infertility, adoptive parenting and advocating for her children’s SEN.

 

Emma is mum to two wonderful children with additional support needs and a lively cockapoo. She loves music and is a season ticket holder at a local football club.

Sarah (she/her) has a teaching background and is training as a Play Therapist alongside offering Theraplay ® informed practice and group work to families and organisations. 

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Sarah’s background is in education, having worked as a primary school teacher for fourteen years. Sarah has a passion for enabling children to realise their full potential, which attracted her to working therapeutically with children and their families. She is a qualified practitioner in therapeutic play and is training to become a play therapist with Play Therapy UK.

 

Sarah is delighted to bring together all her skills and experience to support young people and their families. Her role with NeuroConnect involves using Theraplay® informed practice for groups within a school setting.

 

In her spare time Sarah is a Beaver Scout Leader and enjoys Pilates and baking, as well as spending time with her young family and dog. As a parent, Sarah is navigating supporting a neurodivergent child in their early years of school.

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Jo (she/her) is a neurodivergent wellbeing support and listening mentor and one of NeuroConnect’s training specialists. She loves equipping parents, professionals and community groups to support neurodivergent children

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Jo has a wealth of experience in a wide range of social care and education settings and has worked with children of all ages, as well as parents and even pensioners. She has worked with local community groups for over 15 years, and has a bachelor's degree in the sciences and a master's in public health.

 

Jo loves to use her skills in training and communication to equip parents and volunteers, to help them better understand their neurodivergent children. Her own lived experience of parenting two neurodivergent children has given her hard-won wisdom into how to help families with additional needs to thrive. She has trained in Group Theraplay® and enjoys using this knowledge in her work supporting families.

 

In her free time, Jo enjoys sewing, knitting and open-water swimming.

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Harriet (she/they)

Harriet is an experienced youth worker, play worker and community development practitioner, with expertise in LGBTQ+ inclusion, trauma and mentoring.

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Harriet has worked in the charity sector for the past twelve years, with children, young people and families. She is a qualified youth worker, play worker and community development practitioner, and specialises in LGBTQ+ inclusion, ED&I, trauma, and youth involvement and participation.

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Harriet's previous roles include project leads for LGBTQ+ youth projects, family support and play worker, and Public Engagement Lead for the University of Bath mental health research group. Harriet has been with NeuroConnect since nearly the start and sits on the board of directors, as well as delivering neurodiversity and trauma training, LGBTQ+ workshops and one-to-one youth mentoring.

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In their spare time, Harriet loves to take part in lots of nervous-system-regulating activities, including playing basketball, ecstatic dance, cold swims and looking after foster pets! 

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Sharon (she/her) is a certified Theraplay® practitioner (foundation level), qualified counsellor and wellbeing coach. Her passion is to empower parents to meet their children’s needs. 

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Sharon is a qualified counsellor and wellbeing coach and has extensive experience of working with children and families. Her passion is supporting and empowering parents, giving them confidence in their own skills, especially at times when this feels really tough.

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Sharon has foundational Theraplay ® certification and uses this to provide Theraplay informed practice on a 1:1 basis with children and parents, through NeuroConnect.

 

Sharon is a mum to two grown up children. In her spare time, she enjoys dog agility, with her dog, Luna, and spending as much time as possible out in nature.

 

We have a Therapeutic Life Story Work trained Theraplay® informed practitioner in our team.

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Therapeutic Life Story work provides a narrative to the child about their life story. The support allows the child with their parent or carer to understand and explore their feelings about their history. 

 

We have a team of parents with lived experience who support others.

 

The shared sense and values within our team are the importance of giving back to others after living through challenging times.