Our trainers

Dr. Roxane Agnew-Davies - C.Psychol, AFBPsS

Roxane is a Chartered Psychologist, a full member of the Division of Clinical Psychology and an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society. She qualified over twenty years ago and for over ten years worked in various settings for the NHS, ending as a Principal Grade Clinical Psychologist. She is a clinician specialising in trauma and experiential therapy and has particular expertise in helping practitioners develop skills and techniques that can further improve their practice. Roxane is currently the Mental Health Advisor to AVA and an independent consultant, trainer and therapist. She is a Cardiff University accredited expert witness and Director of Domestic Violence Training Ltd. Between 2000-2004, she was Head of Psychological Services for Women at Refuge, responsible for the design and management of psychological services for women experiencing domestic violence.

Karen Bailey

Karen is currently the Deputy Director at AVA. From December 2005 until September 2010 she was the  Stella Project Coordinator and has worked with numerous drug, alcohol and domestic violence agencies across London and further afield to support integrated working and changes to practice. She also has several years experience working as a sessional group worker for the Domestic Violence Intervention Project (DVIP), a community based perpetrator programme in London.  Previous to this role, Karen has worked in a range of frontline, policy and strategic roles in the areas of domestic violence, education, and young people's development initiatives both at a local level and internationally.  Karen holds an MA in Human Rights from the University of Essex specialising in the human rights of women.

Sara Burns

Sara is a founding Director of Triangle Consulting Social Enterprise Ltd, whose cutting edge work on outcomes includes the development of the family of Outcomes Stars - tried and tested tools for both supporting and measuring change, already widely used within many sectors. Sara is co-author of the Empowerment Star which was developed by Triangle in collaboration with Eaves Housing and other service providers.

Fiona Coughlan

Fiona Coughlan is volunteer trainer, currently working  as a Strategy advisor in the Home Office Ministerial Strategy Unit. Prior to this, she has spent two years working in the EU at the UK Permanent Representation in Brussels. Her responsibilities included negotiations on Culture, Education, Youth, Sport and Audiovisual matters. Fiona has previously worked as a policy advisor in the Home Office on knife crime, following a six month secondment to the Prince's Trust. Her first civil service role was in the International team of the UK Border Agency (IND), where she worked on EU and wider European matters in relation to border and visa policy.

Thangam Debbonaire

Thangam works with statutory, voluntary and governmental agencies across the UK and internationally on intimate partner violence and other forms of violence against women.  She designs and delivers training courses, carries out research and evaluation, creates resources and provides other services to improve public and professional recognition of and responses to violence against women and prevention work including programmes in schools and youth work. From 1991 to 1998 Thangam was National Children's Officer for Women's Aid England. She has an M.Sc from Bristol University in management, development and social responsibility. She currently works part time as Research Manager for Respect, with responsibility managing for the multi site research into the outcomes of participation in domestic violence perpetrator programmes and is also a facilitator with a perpetrator programme.

Linda Finn

Linda is a qualified Nurse and Health visitor. She has worked for some years within the London Borough of Sutton where she also worked as a Therapist in a community based children's Sleep and Behaviour clinic. She has been a Senior Health Visitor for child protection and also worked within child mental health services, offering social skills training, to children who were diagnosed with ADHD and/or Aspergers Syndrome.  She was seconded to Social Services in 2000 to implement parenting programmes and the project won a runner-up prize for innovative practice in the London Modernisation Awards in 2003. She has been co-ordinator for a community group programme for children exposed to domestic abuse since 2003. This project won the LGC award for innovation in 2006. She has developed an anger management programme for children aged 5 -11 years, some of whom will also have experienced domestic abuse. She is also Chairperson for Sutton Women's Aid.

Colin Fitzgerald

Colin was formerly the Service Manager for the Domestic Violence Intervention Project (DVIP) where he also delivered perpetrator programmes in group settings and trainings for over four years. He wrote risk assessment reports for agencies such as social services in relation to domestic violence. Previously he worked for Camden and Islington Mental Health Trust, delivering groups in a community day hospital before working for Barnet social services as a project co-ordinator within a community mental health setting and facilitating groups which included psycho-dynamic work with men and cognitive behavioural therapy based interventions. He has over 12 years experience of working in therapeutic group settings and currently works for Respect as their London Development Officer supporting member organisations to achieve the Respect Accreditation Standard.

Shannon Harvey

Shannon is AVA's Stella Project London Coordinator, coordinating a programme of training and consultancy to support agencies across London to respond to the overlapping issues of problematic substance use and domestic violence. She also coordinates the Young Women's Initiative, in partnership with Middlesex University, investigating young women's experiences of substance use and domestic and sexual violence. Shannon has a background of several years' research and policy work in the violence against women, international development and early childhood sectors in the UK and Australia. Prior to working at AVA, she worked in Eaves' Research & Development team with a focus on sexual violence and prostitution. She has an Award in Preparing to Teach in the Lifelong Learning Sector, a BA (Political Science; Anthropology) and an M.Litt (Peace & Conflict Studies).

Jennifer Holly

Jennifer coordinates the Stella Project's Mental Health Initiative, having spent the past eight years working with vulnerable women. From 2004 to 2010 Jennifer worked for Women's Aid in frontline, policy and strategic roles. During this time she acquired extensive knowledge and experience of developing and delivering a range of services to victims of domestic violence and their children. Before this, she spent two years in Central Europe coordinating HIV prevention activities with young people and supporting the delivery of harm reduction services to women involved in prostitution. Jennifer has an Award in Preparing to Teach in the Lifelong Learning Sector, MSc in Gender and Social Policy from the London School of Economics.

Alison Hoskins

Alison is an EU strategy adviser in the International Directorate of the Home Office. In this role, her first in the civil service, Alison is involved in establishing and delivering the Government's justice and home affairs policy and negotiating objectives in Europe, and in maintaining and expanding UK influence in the EU. Prior to joining the Home Office, Alison was a primary and secondary school French teacher for 5 years. She has an MA in International Relations and is a volunteer trainer for AVA on European Union affairs.

Davina James-Hanman

Davina  is the Director of AVA ,which she took up following five years at L.B. Islington as the first local authority Domestic Violence Co-ordinator in the UK. From 2000-08, she had responsibility for developing and implementing the London Domestic Violence Strategy for the Mayor of London. She has worked in the field of violence against women for over two decades in a variety of capacities encompassing volunteer, front-line work, policy and strategy roles. She has published innumerable articles and two book chapters and formerly acted as the Dept. of Health policy lead on domestic violence as well as being an Associate Tutor at the national police college. She is also a Lay Inspector for HMCPSI, acted as the Specialist Adviser to the Home Affairs Select Committee Inquiry into domestic violence (2007/08) and Chairs the Accreditation Panel for Respect. In 2009 she assisted the Home Office in the writing of the national violence against women strategy.

Amanda Middleton

Amanda has been delivering Stella Project training for the last five years. Initially trained as a psychologist in dual diagnosis in Australia she has been working alongside young people, substance users and women for the last ten years. She delivers individual and group therapeutic work as well as numerous training courses for practitioners. She delivers training on substance misuse, domestic violence and safeguarding children, as well as supporting agencies to develop ways of working which do not pathologise or minimise either issue and allow for holistic joint working. She is particularly passionate about social justice, narrative therapy and sexual diversity.

Anjum Mouj

Anjum is the Trainer and Information Officer at Imkaan and is responsible for training, development and support for member groups. Examples of recent work include CPD training on Honour-based crimes, Immigration and Sharia Law, contributions towards government policies and legislation related to Forced Marriage, Supporting People and the Domestic Violence Bill. Anjum was a previous Director of Newham Asian Women's Project (NAWP).  NAWP is a frontline agency which runs a plethora of services including refuge, outreach, counselling, advice, training and youth-work. In her role as Director, Anjum commissioned research examining the issues and needs of young Asian women who self harm.  At NAWP she was instrumental in establishing services for young women, survivors of sexual abuse and women with mental health needs.  She is now the chair of NAWP's management committee.  Anjum has also developed a high-quality portfolio of community-based education, training and advice services. She has been extensively involved with the voluntary sector for over 20 years with a particular commitment to supporting black and Asian communities. She is also a Trainer and Consultant to community organisations and statutory bodies on funding, equalities, resource management and strategic development.

Dr. Chris Newman

Chris has a research background in developmental and forensic psychology, including research investigating emotional and cognitive deficits in psychopathic criminals, as well as the effect of drugs on emotional perception. He has 14 years of experience doing individual work and group work with men around their violence and abuse to partners and has also facilitated the 'Caring Dads' fathering programme. He also carries out risk assessment reports and acts as an expert witness in private law child contact cases and public law child protection cases. He has co-authored  and piloted a training in Risk Assessment for the Family Courts for CAFCASS, as well as  a programme for working with DV on an individual basis for the National Offender Management Service. He currently acts as a consultant and treatment manager for a range of organisations across the UK.

Frances Potter

Frances worked in the substance misuse field for some 17 years and has written and contributed to a wide range of national guidance and policy documents relating to young people, schools, the police and youth services, as well as local policy, planning and strategy. She has published articles and spoken at national and local conferences.  During that time she designed and delivered both formal and informal training to professionals and others, including young people on the streets, in the classroom, and in a range of informal settings. She held the role as the commissioner for young people's substance misuse in Westminster, delivering the changing national agenda whilst setting local targets in partnership with the relevant stakeholders in the borough. Frances is part of the Women's support services at the Domestic Violence Intervention Project (DVIP) and is also an independent consultant working across both the drug and domestic violence fields.

Phil Price

Phil has been involved with the Stella Project since its inception in 2002. He has experience in both the substance misuse and domestic violence sectors, having worked for Rugby House for four years before working for a violence prevention programme. He has worked for Domestic Violence Intervention Project (DVIP) for approximately nine years and is currently the Project Manager of DVIP's perpetrator programme in East London. Phil also has substantial experience in the substance misuse sector, working in both tier two and tier three treatment settings.

Foziha Raja

Foziha has been delivering the Domestic Violence, Problematic Substance Use and BAMER communities training for the Stella Project for the past three years. Trained as a Counsellor she has worked with EACH Specialist Counselling and Support Service for four years, counselling and supporting women from the Black, Asian Minority Ethnic and Refugee communities experiencing violence and abuse. Foziha has an MA in Counselling & Psychotherapy and is particularly interested in the experiences of women from BAMER communities.

Jo Sharpen

Jo is a qualified youth worker with person centred counselling training and holds an Award in Preparing to Teach in the Lifelong Learning Sector, BSc (hons) in Psychology and an MA in Women and Child Abuse. She works for AVA as the Children and Young People's Project Coordinator. Prior to working at AVA she worked for Women's Aid for several years. She has written the Improving Safety, Reducing Harm national toolkit on children and domestic violence for practitioners, published by the Department of Health in 2009. She has also written numerous training packages on these issues and is currently writing a book on domestic violence in teenage relationships.

Monica Tuohy

Monica is a Chartered MCIPD and has been involved in domestic violence work for fifteen years and was the Director at Camden Women's Aid between 1996 and 2003. Since 2003, Monica has worked as an independent trainer and consultant working with a range of local authorities and organisations including London Borough of Islington, London Borough of Waltham Forest, AVA, London Civic Forum, the British Council, Islington Women's Aid, WOMANKIND and Jewish Women's Aid. Monica's main areas of work include domestic violence, Supporting People, HR and interim management.

Andrea Williams

Andrea has been working in the rape crisis movement since 1992, and currently works for South Essex Rape and Incest Crisis Centre as well as having a small private practice. She has also worked in drug and alcohol treatment agencies. She is a solution focused practioner and uses sensorimotor psychotherapy, based on mindfulness, in counselling survivors of all forms of sexual violence.