As a medical student with a rather sheltered upbringing, Rex was terrified when he landed in a therapeutic community for his psychiatry training. But he soon learned that there is no better way to treat people in a fair and democratic way, and went on to work in and for therapeutic communities - and similar organisations - for his whole career. This has included getting together with colleagues and people with lived experience to have several new and slightly subversive ideas, including Living-Learning Experiences, Emergence, Community of Communities, STARs, Growing Better Lives, Enabling Environments and, most recently, the Relational Practice Movement. He retired from the NHS in 2022, and lives in Berkshire with his family and dysfunctional dalmatian.

Neels is a lived experience specialist and consultant in emotional and/or behaviour difficulties and an international trainer. Her areas of interest are therapeutic communities, relational care and practice, peer and mentor support, and co-producing creatively themed therapeutic spaces to include greencare, art, journaling, poetry and music. She enjoys collaborating with mental health practitioners and engages especially well with people who have been given a diagnosis of borderline personality disorder or emotional and unstable personality disorder. Neels aims to help others accept past trauma and develop safe, supportive services. To learn more, click here to visit Neels’ own website, Lotus Consulting.

Having spent several years as a mental health service user, Sam now works as a lived experience practitioner in the NHS and a director at GBL, aiming to co-produce the compassionate services and relational approach they wish they’d been offered initially. In practice, Sam is very pleased to split their time between working with Enabling Town Slough in Berkshire and a complex emotional difficulties team in Cornwall. Sam enjoys sharing in nature, building inclusive LGBTQ+ initiatives, baking (badly), and a very long commute.

As one of the original founding members Vanessa has been involved with Growing Better Lives since 2007 (with a few years off to complete her PhD!) Having spent time as a member of a therapeutic community she completed a career change from a Chartered Accountant in industry to a Chartered Psychologist. She now works mainly for the Open University and is involved in several independent research projects as well as being on the Board of Growing Better Lives. Outside of work she loves travelling with her visit to Antarctica in January 2023 the fulfilment of a life-long dream. At home she spends much of her free time with her dog, enjoying long walks in the country and by the sea.

Shama completed her MSc in Clinical Psychology in 2014 and co-founded Hank Nunn Institute together with Anando Chatterji a few months later. Shama has a keen interest in developing alternatives to conventional mental health practices by involving the larger community. She believes that one’s cultural and social systems are highly influential in the development of an individual’s personality. It is therefore necessary to address the larger community and not just the individual in isolation. Shama also believes in collaborating with the service user community in designing supportive spaces which enable their journey of self discovery.

For the past 6 years, she has been working with individuals experiencing personality difficulties in an individual and group setting using both psychodrama and group analysis. In addition, she also offers training & clinical supervision to students and young professionals. She believes in the efficacy of group processes and aims at creating safe, reflective, and therapeutic spaces for groups of people experiencing interpersonal difficulties. She is a certified Psychodrama Therapist. She is also a staff member of the International Living Learning Experience (INLLE) residential workshops. At present, she is training to qualify as a Group Analyst."