Board of Trustees
President
Dr Stirling Moorey
Stirling has been a BABCP member since 1986 and became an Honorary Fellow in 2023. He recently retired as a Consultant Psychiatrist specialising in CBT at the South London and Maudsley NHS Trust where he was professional head of psychotherapy. He continues to be actively involved with supervision and teaching and has many years experience teaching mental health professionals from different backgrounds through the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience CBT course. Stirling’s main interests have been in the application of CBT to cancer, coping with adversity, and the therapeutic relationship in CBT.
President Elect
Professor Claire Lomax
Claire has extensive experience working within psychological training, having led clinical psychology, NHS Talking Therapies Low-Intensity and High-Intensity training programmes at Newcastle University, and currently is clinical psychology programme director at King’s College London. Claire works clinically and undertakes research into OCD and Hoarding Disorder. At Newcastle, Claire led an on-site campus clinic offering CBT to their students. As the first UK University to offer this service, students were treated for anxiety, trauma or depression, providing an early intervention to enable students to return to activities including education.
Honorary Secretary
Pete Elliott
Pete joined the Board in 2020, and has been a member of BABCP for 50 years. He is a retired Chartered Clinical and Health Psychologist whose last post was as Director of the Doctoral Programme in Clinical Psychology at the University of Southampton. In his honorary NHS post he provided services to men with traumatised childhoods. Since retiring Pete has become involved as a Trustee with three charities on the Isle of Wight where he lives. One provides clinical, wellbeing and support services for children and young people (part funded by the NHS), the other two providing school and post-19 support for children with speech, language and communication difficulties. He has actively supported these charities over the last seven years, so has gained charity governance and Board experience through these roles.
Honorary Treasurer
Colin Blowers
Colin is a Consultant CBT Psychotherapist. He is first and foremost a clinician and has been a BABCP member BABCP since 1980. He has previously served as a Board member from 2016 to 2022, and was Co-Chair of the Scientific Committee, and therefore he brings a wealth of experience to the Board. His first role in the NHS was in 1972 when he worked as a porter, then graduating as a Psychiatric Nurse in 1976, a General Nurse in 1979 and a Nurse Therapist in 1981. He has been working full-time in the Private sector since 1988.
Elected Members
Dr Craig Chigwedere
Craig has extensive experience both clinically and academically in CBT. He has worked in both the NHS within high intensity services and abroad in the independent sector and in academia. His last NHS role was within the medically unexplained disorders service of the Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, where he was also involved in CBT training at Kings College London. Clinically, Craig is currently a cognitive behavioural Psychotherapist at St Patrick’s Mental Health Services. Academically, he is an Associate Professor in CBT and the director the CBT training courses of the Department of Psychiatry in the School of Medicine at Trinity College Dublin. Craig is involved in research into therapist self-practice/self-reflection and intolerance of uncertainty.
Lizzie Gray
Lizzie is currently completing a Level 2 BABCP accredited course in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and has been a practicing Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner for over 13 years. In that time, she has held supervision and leadership roles including Senior PWP, PWP Team Lead, and Service Manager, as well as supporting PWP training courses, co-chairing the National PWP Leads Network, and co-chairing the Psychological Professions Network South East Psychological Practitioner Community of Practice. She is an active advocate for all CBT related professions and speaks regularly on the topics of practitioner wellbeing and development. She also brings her own lived experience of being neurodivergent, disabled, and a recipient of psychotherapies including CBT.
Harjinder Kaur-Aujla
Harj is a BABCP-accredited psychotherapist, specialising in grief and complex trauma, having worked in various mental health services for over 25 years. She has worked in many strategic roles and has good relationships with South Asian communities throughout the UK. She chaired/co-chaired the BABCP Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Committee between 2022-2024 and presented a workshop at the 2024 BABCP Annual Conference on “Speaking Truth to Power” with BABCP colleagues, which was well received. She has led a large trade union branch within Higher Education (HE) and has lectured for 13 years. She is now completing research to understand the mental health of survivors of DVA from Sikh heritage. She has made several media appearances and was awarded Sikh Woman of Substance 2024 by a grassroots Sikh women’s organisation (Sikh Women’s Alliance based in London). She was previously awarded a Keele Excellence Award for Equalities work in 2018 within HE. Harj has been part of a grant award in India and co-investigator of Gender Based violence in slum-dwelling in 2022-2023.
Dr Fiona Kennedy
Fiona is a Consultant Clinical Psychologist with 25 years’ experience in working in NHS settings as a clinician and service developer and leader, and since 2008 established and run GreenWood Mentors Ltd, providing therapy for the public, training and supervision for therapists and organisational interventions for businesses. GreenWood has nine Associate Therapists providing these services, including a private DBT service. Fiona has developed a CBT model for dissociation, and written on this topic as well as integrating CBT and Third Wave therapies, and volunteers in India each year working to develop NGO services for children in adversity.
Beth Owen
Beth gained a wealth of knowledge working as qualified healthcare professional in the NHS in Scotland, initially as a General Nurse then in District Nursing, before moving to work in the field of mental health for the last 16 years, qualifying as a CBT Therapist in 2015, gaining full BABCP accreditation in 2016, and has been an active member of the BABCP, with an organisational role as treasurer of the Scotland branch. Beth gained extensive experience working as a therapist in both low intensity and high intensity posts, and has recently left the NHS to concentrate on work in the private sector. Beth’s commitment to CBT is reinforced through wide professional experience and aspiring to contribute towards highlighting and promoting the future of BABCP.
Mark Smith
Mark began working in health and social care after completing a BA in Art & Philosophy in 2000, starting out as a care worker before moving into mental health support. In 2010, he gained an MSc in Occupational Therapy and went on to work across a range of front-line services, including psychiatric intensive care (PICU), rehabilitation, the prison service, and community teams. These roles gave him extensive experience in assessment, treatment planning, and multidisciplinary practice. In 2018, Mark completed a Postgraduate Diploma in CBT in London. Since then, he has worked in both public and private sectors, including as a hospital department manager, before founding his own private practice in Berlin.
His current clinical focus is men’s mental health, particularly sexual dysfunction and porn addiction. He is committed to developing effective, evidence-based interventions in these often-neglected areas and bringing clarity and rigour to sensitive clinical debates.
Lay Directors
Mohammed Gharbawi
Mohammed joined the Board as a Lay Director in September 2025. He is a senior advisor at the Bank of England, where he leads work on artificial intelligence and emerging technologies. He also serves on the steering committee of the Alan Turing Institute’s Project FAIR, focused on responsible AI in financial services. Before joining the Bank, he worked in various roles across the alternative assets industry, including 12 years at the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority. Mohammed has a long-standing interest in financial inclusion, ethical governance, and mentoring.
Greg Hughes
Greg joined the Board as a Lay Director in July 2025. He is an experienced regulatory lawyer who qualified into the Government Legal Department in 1995. He then had a lengthy stint in-house in the telecoms sector, specialising in consumer law, privacy, human rights and security law, before starting his own consultancy company. Now semi-retired, Greg is also a trustee of a hospital charity and has a keen interest in AI and the ethical issues it poses.
Senior Staff
Chief Executive Officer
Tommy McIlravey
Tommy joined BABCP as CEO in June 2023. He has extensive experience as a charity CEO, with five years at Lancashire Mind, and previously at Sahir House, an award-winning charity providing services around HIV and sexual health across Merseyside and North Cheshire. He was Founder of the Liverpool Pride festival and has nearly 25 years’ experience as a charity trustee and non-executive director. This included several years serving as a Lay Trustee on the board of the Royal College of Pathologists.
Head of Operations
Michelle Harwood
Michelle joined BABCP in January 2020 as Finance and IT Manager. Michelle started her career twenty years ago in Accountancy working in private practice and studied Association of Chartered Certified Accountants training at BPP before moving into more commercial accounting roles. In the last 8 years Michelle has worked in the not-for-profit sector combining Finance and IT projects-based work. Michelle has completed MSP (Managing Successful Programmes), PRINCEII and PROSCI Business change management.
Head of Membership Services
Michelle Livesey
Michelle joined BABCP in 2017 as Head of Membership Services. She has an extensive experience in Charity and Higher Education management; working at a senior leadership level in a membership organisation for over 15 years, in addition to also managing commercial enterprises. She values the opportunity to work for organisations which make a difference to enhance the lives of others and is keen to ensure that those in her team feel valued in their role.
Senior Clinical Advisor
Helen Macdonald
Helen joined the senior management team in February 2020, after 11 years as Course Accreditation Registrar. After graduating in Psychology and qualifying as a Mental Health Nurse, she trained in CBT in 1991 at the Institute of Psychiatry and later gained a Masters Degree in CBT. She has developed CBT services in secondary care settings and in pain management, as well as teaching and supervising in CBT since the mid-1990s. She is a Senate Award Fellow of the University of Sheffield and a Fellow of BABCP. She has been elected to the Board of the European Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies.
Chief Accreditation Officer & Registrar
Rebecca Light
Rebecca joined BABCP as an Accreditation Liaison Officer in 2021, and then took on the role of Accreditation Liaison Manager in 2022 before joining the senior management team in September 2023. Rebecca graduated in Psychology in 2002 and later gained a Masters Degree in Clinical Effectiveness in Child & Adolescent Mental Health at Cambridge University and a further Post Graduate Diploma in CBT in 2011. Rebecca has worked in a range of voluntary services, and child and youth mental health services within the NHS for the past 20 years and continues to work in private practice offering CBT for Children and Young People, as well as providing supervision. Rebecca is passionate about developing CBT career pathways to promote high quality services for all.
Head of External Affairs
Patricia Canedo
Patricia joined BABCP in August 2025 as Head of External Affairs. She graduated in Spanish and English Philology in 2013 and later gained a Masters Degree in International Studies and Diplomacy at SOAS, University of London. Patricia has extensive experience in policy, media and public affairs within membership organisations such as the British Veterinary Association and Medical Protection Society. Throughout her career, she has led advocacy campaigns and strengthened sector relationships with policy makers, successfully influencing legislation.
