Meet The Team
Meet The Team:
Professor Jon Bisson (BM FRCPsych, DM, Dip Clin Psychother) is Director of Traumatic Stress Wales. He is a practising psychiatrist and Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Cardiff University and Director of Health for Health Professionals, a national initiative to support staff working in NHS Wales. He is Deputy Director of the National Centre for Mental Health and leads its intervention development workstream. He has conducted many research studies that have shaped research and practice in the traumatic stress field. He was co-chair of the UK’s first PTSD NICE Guideline Development Group and chairs the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies’ Treatment Guidelines Committee. He developed and was the first director of NHS Veterans' Wales and Health and Care Research Wales.
Dr Annette Leponis (BSc (HONS), PhD, DClinPsy) is the Deputy Director of Traumatic Stress Wales and Consultant Clinical Psychologist. Annette started her career as a university tutor whilst completing her PhD in eating disorders. She then trained as a Clinical Psychologist, working in Adult Mental Health Services throughout her career, providing and developing Psychology Services within Community Mental Health Teams, most recently designing and developing a psychology service for NHS staff. For many years, Annette has worked with people who have experienced trauma, developing a special interest working with those who have experienced severe and complex trauma. Annette is an Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) Consultant, accredited Cognitive Analytic Therapy (CAT) Practitioner, and Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) practitioner. Her core values are that of compassion and kindness
Dr Thomas Hoare (BSc, MSc, D.Clin.Psy) is a Clinical Psychologist and Psychological Therapies Lead for the Children and Young Person’s and Refugee and Asylum Seeker workstreams with Traumatic Stress Wales. Having trained in London and Wales, Thomas has clinical and research experience in the NHS (working in forensic and child and family mental health services), as well as the third sector, including spending a number of years working in humanitarian crisis situations assessing mental health needs and developing psychosocial support services across Africa and the Middle East. He has a written a number of academic papers and medico-legal reports in the area of refugee and asylum seeker mental health, and is passionate about supporting the development of services for people affected by trauma.
Dr Dave Williams (BM, MSc, FRCPsych) is the independent Adviser for Child & Adolescent Mental Health to the Welsh Government. He is also the Chair of Children in Wales and a member of the UK Trauma Council. Dave is a Consultant Child & Adolescent Psychiatrist in the Child & Adolescent Learning Disability team in South East Wales. He has developed integrated multiagency services with local authority, education and 3rd and voluntary sectors in SE Wales. His publications include a 30 year follow up of the Aberfan disaster survivors.
Lilith Gough (BA hons, MFA, MA, PGDip supervision, PGDip counselling CYP, CET, MA art psychotherapy) is the Advanced Clinical Practitioner for Children & Young People and Refugees and Asylum seekers at the hub for Traumatic Stress Wales. She is an art psychotherapist registered under the HCPC. She further trained in counselling children and young people through her masters at USW. She has ten years of experience working with survivors of rape and sexual abuse and has worked in the third sector during this time. She is a clinical supervisor. She is trained in EMDR, NET, TF-CBT, CATT and is also trained in somatic trauma therapy. She has published a book to help support younger children affected by trauma through an illustrated story called ‘Helping the Hare Who Hurts’. Lilith is passionate about coproduction, collaborating and co-creating and has worked on creating trauma stabilisation packages with service users and co-delivered with service users as well. She is also a printmaker and in her own time makes large scale woodcuts.
Dr Mathew D Hoskins (MBBCh MSc MRCPsych) is the Lead TSW Consultant Psychiatrist for adults. He also works as a Psychiatric Intensive Care Consultant and has experience using Trauma Focussed Psychological Therapies. He has published several systematic reviews and meta-analyses on pharmacological therapies for PTSD, with his latest work forming the Practice Guidelines from the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies. He is currently the Principal Investigator for an upcoming Phase II study of MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD in Cardiff.