Team and trustees
Our team of therapists, supervisors and consultants practice a wide range of therapies and are all specially trained to work with young people and families.
We are accredited by these organisations
Our clinical team
Child & Adolescent
Psychotherapists
Ruth Glover (Clinical Director, Child & Adolescent Psychotherapist)
Helena Cowen (Co-Principal, Child & Adolescent Psychotherapist)
Victoria Hayward (Co-Principal, Child & Adolescent Psychotherapist)
Andrew Browne
Georgie Gee
Joanne Horner
Annabel Pointon
Lee Snowden
Yael Yadlin (Schools Lead)
Will Parkinson (in Doctoral Training, Tavistock Clinic)
Claire Poplawska (in Doctoral Training, IPCAPA at the British Psychotherapy Foundation)
Psychodynamic Psychotherapists
Working with Children, Young People and Families
John Reece (New Narratives Lead)
Sarah Bastianello
Ricardo Da Costa
Nicola Dunbar
Paul Mills
Psychology and Integrated Therapies Team
Alaena Torgbor (Psychology lead, CBT Therapist & Supervisor)
Helena Curran (Counselling Psychologist)
Sasha Kluvitse (Assistant Psychologist)
Drama Psychotherapist
Xavier Fontenille
School Counsellors
Woodside High School:
Yael Yadlin (Child & Adolescent Psychotherapist)
Nicola Dunbar (Psychodynamic Psychotherapist working with children, young people and families)
Sylvia Njuguna (Young People’s Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner)
Newman Catholic College:
Esther Ebbing
Jessica Burnett
Thomas Buckup Desouza
(post-graduate trainees in Psychological Therapies with Children, Young People and Families, Tavistock Clinic)
External Clinical Consultants and Supervisors
Alex Desiatnikov (Clinical Psychologist; Research Lead – Parenting Teenagers Project)
Honorary Therapists
Monelle Speed
Support Team
Sabina Ariyadasa (Intake)
Susannah Asprey (Honorary Assistant Psychotherapist)
Sue Barclay (Information Analyst)
Alicia Hunt (Finance Officer)
Manisha Mahandru (Intake)
Samantha Matassini-Buval (Clinical Administrator)
Amal Mohamud (Clinical Administrator)
Jemma Sager (Operations Manager)
Caroline Werge (Senior Clinical Administrator)
Our trustees
Karen Simmons (Chair of Trustees)
Karen has been a Trustee of Open Door since 2017 and Chair since 2020. Her background is in brand and communications planning. She was Planning Director at several large agencies, commissioning research into attitudes, motivations, and behaviour, and evaluating the effectiveness of communications strategies. Some of the research projects she was involved in explored young people’s attitudes to drinking, sexuality, and body image. In recent years, she has volunteered in a number of schools across North-Central London, providing literacy support to children with a range of academic, emotional and behavioural difficulties. She is passionate about improving access to good mental health support, having witnessed how painfully difficult the system can be to navigate, both for young people and parents.
Jacqui Tefoglou (Treasurer & Vice Chair of Trustees)
Jacqui Tefoglou is an accountant and tax specialist who worked in finance for many years, initially in the banking industry and then in the pharmaceutical industry. Since leaving work she has volunteered in several organisations including The Princes Trust, St Mary Magdalene Academy and Into University helping adolescents to achieve their potential.
Jacqui says, “I became a Trustee as I believe I can use my experience in finance to support the invaluable work that Open Door offers to young people in our community.”
Angela Alabi (Secretary)
Angela Alabi is Company Secretary for a national charity. She is an experienced governance specialist who initially worked within the education sector for a number of years before moving to the charity sector. She is a School Governor and Committee Chair for a local local primary school and was a Magistrate for twelve years. Angela recently founded a small charity which provides school exclusions advocacy services to families.
Angela says, “I am passionate about causes committed to enabling all children and young people to fulfil their potential. I am a huge supporter of Open Door and excited at being able to apply my skills to support the critical work the charity carries out in the community.”
Scarlett MccGwire
Scarlett MccGwire is a media and communications adviser to a host of organisations and prominent people, particularly politicians. She has worked with five of the last six Labour Party leaders.
Scarlett says, “Open Door is a vital service which changes young people’s lives in Haringey. I feel privileged to be associated with such an important service.”
Alex Ramos Boylan
Alex is a civil servant at HM Treasury, working in financial services regulation and has worked in other departments on data protection issuers. He is also a tutor for the Access Project, helping students from disadvantaged backgrounds to access top universities.
Judy Shuttleworth
Judy Shuttleworth is a Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist. She has worked in three CAMHS and most recently in the paediatric department of a local district hospital (Whittington Hospital). She has been a clinical teacher on one of the NHS Training Schools – The Tavistock and Portman, Chair of the Association of Child Psychotherapists, and Chair of the ACP Training Council. Following her retirement in October 2020 she continues to work as a supervisor of child psychotherapists in training.
Judy says, “I was delighted when I was invited to be a Trustee of Open Door. It’s a service I have had a lot of contact with down the years and which I very much admire. Open Door has kept a focus on the experience of young people and the difficulties faced by their families in trying to support them. In the face of many challenges Open Door has been able to maintain a balance between a prompt initial response to a young person in a crisis and the need to recognise the longstanding nature of some difficulties require longer term interventions.”
Janine Sternberg
Janine Sternberg is a Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist, who has worked for many years in the NHS, in local CAMHS services & then in more specialist services including the Tavistock Mulberry Day Unit and the Portman Clinic. She has recently retired from being the Clinical Course Director of the Independent Child & Adolescent Psychotherapy training, a doctoral programme under the auspices of UCL run by IPCAPA at the BPF and the Anna Freud Centre. She has held many positions of responsibility within the child psychotherapy profession & is now a non-executive director on the Association of Child Psychotherapist‘s Board.
Janine says, “I was keen to be part of Open Door as I have long been aware of it as an excellent service, responsive to the needs of young people. It is creative and innovative in its approach to helping individuals and their families, and a beacon within the profession in terms of its thinking about young people.”
