Conference Speakers & Workshop Facilitators, 2024
Dr Jamie Barker is a Reader in Applied Sport and Performance Psychology at Loughborough University, a Chartered Sport and Exercise Psychologist with the British Psychological Society and a Practitioner Psychologist with the Health and Care Professions Council.
Jamie has an international and world-leading research profile with research interests in stress, group dynamics, wellbeing, and mental health. He has secured over £1.1 million in research funding to support projects from a variety of funders (including The UK Sports Institute, The Football Association, The England and Wales Cricket Board, the Armed Forces Covenant Trust, the Economic and Social Research Council, Innovate UK, and the World Anti-Doping Agency).
Dr Barker’s areas of expertise are represented with over 85 journal publications, 6 books (including The Psychology of Cricket, The Psychology of Soccer, and The Psychology of Golf) and over 20 book chapters. Dr Barker is an Associate Editor for the Journal of Applied Sport Psychology and Mental Health Science. Dr Barker is also a registered sport and exercise psychologist and has over 25 years of applied experience working in professional and elite sport, business, and military contexts.
As an applied sport psychologist Jamie has over 20 years of experience working in business, professional sport, and the military. For example, he has consulted with Sony Europe, Sony Mobile, Lyreco, The Football Association (FA), the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club, Great Britain Rowing, Watford Football Club, and the Royal Air Force (RAF). In 2016 Jamie worked as team sport psychologist at the Rio Paralympics for the GB 7 a-side football team. Presently, Jamie consults with The FA and Leicestershire County Cricket Club.
Denise Christy MSc MAREBT Accred is the Accreditation Director/Practice Officer of the Association for Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (AREBT). She has an MSc in REBT from Goldsmiths, University of London, and a BACP Accredited Diploma in Counselling. She has a special interest in working with postnatal depression and with parents suffering from stress. Before moving into private practice, she worked for over 10 years in the NHS, first a as a counsellor in primary care and later as the Joint Clinical Lead of a South London IAPT service. She has experience of joint working with Children’s Centres to help increase access to cognitive behavioural therapy and counselling for parents of young children.
Edelweiss Collings MSc MAREBT Accred is one of the co-chairs of the AREBT and completed her MSc in RECBT at Goldsmiths University. Since completing her degree and dual accreditation with the BABCP and AREBT she has worked in IAPT as a CBT therapist, supervisor and Clinical Lead in a London service. She holds particular interest in Stress and Coping in Adulthood and Emotional Resilience and Positive Psychology. Currently, she is working closely with Kasia Steyn on developing new groups to support clients suffering emotional distress and uncertainty in the current pandemic using a trans-diagnostic blended approach to therapy.
Windy Dryden is an independent practitioner, trainer and supervisor in the field of counselling and psychotherapy. He is a Fellow of the British Psychological Society. He has authored or edited more than 275 books, including Good Practice in REBT, Routledge ,2025) and ONEplus Therapy: Help at the Point of Need (Onlinevents Publications, 2023). In addition, he edits 21 book series in counselling, psychotherapy and coaching, including the CBT Distinctive Features series (Routledge). His major interests are in rational emotive behaviour therapy, single-session therapy, the interface between counselling and coaching, pluralism in counselling and psychotherapy, writing short, accessible self-help books for the general public and demonstrating therapy live in front of an audience.
Jo Hensel: As a musician with wide experience in Arts Education, a British Psychological Society accredited degree in psychology and an ILM Level 7 Diploma in Executive Coaching, Jo has been coaching professionally for a decade. She is accredited at Master Practitioner level with the European Mentoring and Coaching Council and combines her love of coaching, psychology, and the Arts, to work with people to bridge the gap between potential and performance. Jo has extensive experience of 1:1 and group work in schools, universities, prisons, charities and many other community and corporate settings throughout the UK, Europe and beyond.
As a horn player, Jo was invited to become a member of the world-renowned chamber orchestra, the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, in 1998. She continues to perform, tour and record with the orchestra and plays an active role in its learning and participation programme.
As an Associate of Guildhall School of Music and Drama’s Coaching Faculty, Guildhall Ignite, Jo trains coaches, and works with both internal and external clients to enable them to build resilience and performance confidence. In September 2021, Jo became Guildhall’s first “Performance Confidence Associate”. Within this role, she has designed and delivers The Resilient Musician course to first year music students as they begin their conservatoire studies, and a Rational Emotive Behavioural coaching-based Performance Confidence Course to students who are on the cusp of their professional careers.
Jo is currently undertaking PhD research, looking at whether a Rational Emotive Behavioural Coaching-based intervention can reduce performance anxiety and increase psychological wellbeing in conservatoire music students.
Professor Stephen Palmer PhD FAREBT is a Chartered Scientist, Chartered Coaching Psychologist, Registered Counselling and Health Psychologist. He is a BABCP and AREBT Accredited Therapist and Albert Ellis Institute REBT Certified Supervisor.
Stephen is Co-chair and Fellow of the Association for Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy, President and Fellow of the International Society for Coaching Psychology, Vice President and Honorary Fellow of the Institute for Health Promotion and Education, former President and Honorary Fellow of both the the International Stress Management Association (UK) and Association for Coaching. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Leadership and Royal Society of Biology. He is a member of the International Association of Applied Psychology Division of Environmental Psychology. He is former Co-Editor of International Coaching Psychology Review, former editor and now Consulting Editor of the International Journal of Health Promotion & Education. He has written/edited 60 books including Stress counselling: A rational emotive behaviour approach (with Ellis, Gordon and Neenan), Counselling for Stress Problems (with Dryden), How to Deal with Stress (with Cooper), Coaching Psychology in Practice (with Green), and Handbook of Coaching Psychology (with Whybrow). His academic posts include being Professor of Practice at the Wales Academy for Professional Practice and Research, University of Wales Trinity Saint David (UWTSD), and Adjunct Professor of Coaching Psychology, Aalborg University, Denmark. Previously he has been a Director of the Coaching Psychology Unit, City University London; Honorary Director of the Coaching Psychology Unit at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Brazil, and BABCP London Branch Co-chair. He is a Director of Studies and supervisor of PhD students at UWTSD.
Dr Siobhain O’Riordan PhD CSci CPsychol FISCP MAREBT (Acad) is Chartered Scientist and Chartered Coaching Psychologist. She has full divisional membership of the British Psychological Society (BPS) Division of Academics, Researchers and Teachers in Psychology (DARTP) and is a member of the BPS Psychobiology Section. She is Course Co-Director on the stress management and coaching programmes and a trainer at the Centre for Coaching. She is an Honorary Member of the Institute for Health Promotion and Education, Fellow of the International Society for Coaching Psychology and Accredited Coaching Psychologist and Supervisor. From 2013-2015 she was Editor of the International Journal of Health Promotion & Education. Currently, she is Founder Chair of the International Society for Coaching Psychology, Editor of the International Journal of Coaching Psychology, Consulting Editor of The Coaching Psychologist and Editor of Coaching Psychology International. Her other roles include supervising doctorate students at the Wales Academy for Professional Practice and Research, University of Wales Trinity Saint David where she is a Research Fellow. She is also a Director of the International Academy for Professional Development Ltd. She has published research and practice papers and her latest book is Introduction to Coaching Psychology (2021, with Palmer).
Paul Young is a final-year PhD student at Loughborough University. His research explores mental wellbeing within organisations. Within this area, he has developed and delivered a novel intervention for employee mental wellbeing combining mindfulness and rational emotive behaviour coaching. Paul is training to become an accredited CBT therapist alongside his doctoral studies. He holds a Diploma and Advanced Diploma in REBT/CBT from the College of Cognitive Behavioural Therapies, London, an MSc in Mental Health Studies from King’s College London, and a BSc in Psychology from Exeter University. Previously, Paul spent ten years working in financial public relations, most recently as Vice President at the asset manager BlackRock, in New York and London.