Alanah Garrard

Alanah will be leading the weekly Process group for the young people.

Alanah Garrard is a UKCP registered existential psychotherapist.  She originally trained in 2000 as a drama and movement therapist and went on to do an MA in integrative therapy and an Advanced Diploma in Existential therapy at Regents College. She has a diploma for supervision from the Gestalt Centre. Her main areas of work have included addiction, adolescents and young adults and bereavement as well as supervising other therapists.  She teaches on an MA therapy training course for a London University and researches and writes on intersubjectivity and perception.  She is currently focusing her research on affect within the therapeutic relationship.

Philip Andrews

Philip willl be running a group focused on Behaviours exploring concepts such as safety, risk taking, how behaviours impact others.

Philip is an experienced Psychotherapist and uses primarily a Cognitive Behavioural approach for helping clients. He is also an experienced EMDR practitioner and supervising EMDR Europe Consultant. Philip has worked extensively in the NHS as a clinical nurse specialist and has been in private practice in London and Canterbury for 19 years. He is the chair of the Kent Regional EMDR Committee. Philip is a consultant for a national trauma, personal injury and pain service and worked at Charter Harley Street outpatient addiction centre for some time as their trauma specialist and ran a specialist Trauma, Dissociation and Recovery group. Philip is also an EMDR trauma therapist at a children’s therapeutic community in Kent.

Philip has provided specialist training to Independent Fostering Agencies and Local Authorities on subjects as varied as Attachment Trauma, Addiction and Eating Disorder, Manging Stress and Anxiety, Child Development and helping sexually and emotionally abused children recover.

Philip works with adults, adolescents and children. He believes that a collaborative approach, together with psycho-education around why clients have the symptoms they are presenting, is extremely helpful in forming a strong therapeutic alliance to maximise the effects of therapy. 

Philip Trenchard

Philip will be running a group for young people focused on Building positive relationships with their family.

Philip has been in practice in Psychotherapy and Systemic Family Therapy for 25 years, developing a working style which is warm, approachable and based on integrating different models of therapy, according to the needs of the client. He has worked in the private sector, voluntary sector and the NHS, and has built up a reputation in the field for his ability to form strong working alliances with his clients, even those who have previously been resistant to the idea of therapy.

He also has contracts with Gloucestershire County Council which involve delivering training, supervision and practice development of family support workers, foster carers and adoption support. This adds a broad breadth of experience to Philip’s resourcefulness.
Philip has an MSc in Family Therapy/Systemic Practice and has worked on a professional doctorate in Family Therapy and Systemic Practice at the Tavistock Clinic in London.

During his career he has been the registered manager of a care home, clinical lead of a family service, a part-time lecturer at Bristol University and the Tavistock and Portman University in London, as well as a trainer for Gloucestershire’s Safeguarding Board.

He is registered with the UKCP (United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy) and is a member of the Association of Family Therapists. Philip has designed, developed and delivered a multi-faceted family programme for Addiction and Substance Misuse in the Family. Philip has also had work published in specialist journals.

Heli Sarin-Yates

Heli will be leading the Dialectical Behaviour Therapy skills group for the young people.

Heli’s background is in mental health nursing and she is registered as an RGN with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC). She has worked within child and adolescent mental health for 20 years. 

She trained as a DBT therapist in 2007 and has worked as a therapist in conjunction with her career as a nurse manager. She completed her Master’s degree in Health Promotion in 2008.

Heli joined Bear Project in 2014 as a service manager helping to set up the service. She is our DBT lead and a member of the Society for DBT (SfDBT).  

Heli is highly respected in the field and has many successes with young people who were described as very difficult to engage. She is described as very caring and empathic. 

Adrianna Irvine

Adrianna will be conducting the Parents discussion forum.

Adrianna began her career in the music and entertainment industry in the late 70s, where she guided the careers of some of the world's most celebrated musicians. Negotiating a move from the music and film industry in 1998 Adrianna obtained a Masters Degree in Integrative psychotherapy in 2004 and is an accredited member of the BACP.  She has worked at HMP Wormwood Scrubs and Holloway, and additionally at Lifeworks and Charter Harley Street in the UK, as well as running her own private practice.

Adrianna now combines all her experience in music and film with her clinical expertise and has returned after 5 years working as a primary and relationship therapist at Caron Ocean Drive in the USA.

Adrianna is a London based psychotherapist, specialising in relationships and all the addictions, as well as depression, anxiety, and grief. Adrianna has an international practice working with clients in the United States, Europe, the United Arab Emirates and Asia. Adrianna speaks English, French and some Italian.

Hannah Soning

Hannah is the clinical manager and coordinator of the programme. She will carry out the initial meetings with young people to discuss their suitability and wish to take part in the programme. Hannah will welcome the young people on each of their attendances. She will be the point of contact for families and young people.

Hannah originally qualified and practised as a solicitor for several years but gave it up to spend time with her family. When returning to work she took up a voluntary position in a therapy centre as a counsellor and mentor supporting both adults and young people, and from this point progressed to becoming clinical manager. She has undertaken some clinical trainings and workshops over the years, including a year of systemic family therapy at the Institute of family therapy, an introductory year of psychotherapy at the Tavistock and a year of an addiction psychology MSC.

Using this combination of legal, clinical and managerial experience she co-founded the Bear Project in 2013 which she continues to lead today.