Emily Fox, Chair
is a Consultant Clinical Psychologist for a charity, St. Andrew’s Healthcare, Northampton. Since qualifying as a psychologist, Emily has worked in a number of inpatient settings including learning disability, eating disorders, acute admissions, and adolescents. Since 2003 she has worked in women’s inpatient units (locked rehabilitation and low secure settings) delivering a comprehensive DBT programmes. Emily completed her DBT Intensive Training in 2004 in Northampton, USA. She is programme lead for the DBT service, Lead Psychologist for the Women’s Mental Health Pathway at St. Andrew’s and Head of Psychology at St Andrew’s. In 2009 she undertook supervision with Heidi Heard, PhD. She joined the BiDBT training team in 2010. She is lead author on a paper in Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy entitled ‘Service Evaluation of a 1-Year Dialectical Behaviour Therapy Programme for Women with Borderline Personality Disorder in a Low Secure Unit.’ (Fox, E., Krawczyk, K., Staniford, J., & Dickens, G. L. 2015).
Christine Dunkley, Past Chair and Vice Chair, SfDBT Fellow, Honarary Treasurer
Consultant Psychotherapist is the co-founder of SfDBT and was the first Chair from 2012 to 2016. She is an international trainer, author and researcher. She was awarded a Fellowship of the Society for her contributions in 2016.
Stephen Palmer, Hon Vice President, SfDBT Fellow
is a Counselling, Coaching and Health Psychologist. He is a BABCP Accredited Therapist and AREBT Accredited Therapist, Trainer and Supervisor. He is Founder Director of the Centre for Stress Management which was launched in 1987. He is Professor of Practice at the Wales Academy for Professional Practice and Applied Research, University of Wales Trinity Saint David, and Adjunct Professor at Aalborg University, Denmark.
He is Honorary President and Fellow of the International Society for Coaching Psychology, Honorary Fellow and former President of the International Stress Management Association, a Fellow and Co-Chair of the Association for Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy, and a Fellow of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy. He is Honorary Vice President, Fellow and former Director of the Society for Dialectical Behaviour Therapy.
He was an Academic Consultant for the Surrey Police Deepcut Investigation Final Report and was a Specialist Advisor to the House of Commons Defence Select Committee on the Duty of Care Inquiry 2004-2005. In his 2004 BBC 1 television series, The Stress Test, he demonstrated cognitive coaching and cognitive therapy. He has written/edited over 50 books including Handbook of Counselling (with McMahon, Routledge, 1997), Suicide: Strategies and Interventions for Reduction and Prevention (Routledge, 2007), Handbook of Coaching Psychology (with Whybrow, Routledge, 2007; 2019), The Beginner’s Guide to Counselling & Psychotherapy (Sage, 2015), and Brief Cognitive Behaviour Therapy 2nd edition (with Curwen and Ruddell, Sage, 2018).
He received the British Psychological Society (BPS) Division of Counselling Psychology Annual Counselling Psychology Award for ‘Outstanding professional and scientific contribution to Counselling Psychology in Britain for 2000’. The Institute of Health Promotion and Education (IHPE) awarded him an Honorary Fellowship for his ‘Outstanding contribution to the theory and practice of health promotion and health education’ and in 2023 he was awarded the IHPE Diamond Fellow Award. In 2004 he received an Achievement Award from the Association for Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy. In 2008 the BPS Special Group in Coaching Psychology gave him the ‘Lifetime Achievement Award in Recognition of Distinguished contribution to coaching psychology’.
Maggie Stanton, Chair of Board of Accreditation
is a Consultant Clinical Psychologist. In over thirty years of mental health clinical work she has seen clients with a broad spectrum of difficulties, supervised and managed a range of mental health practitioners and been involved in research projects including being Clinical Lead for the Hampshire site of the RCT for RO DBT. In 2002 she trained in DBT. She carried out adherence training and set up a system for training and supporting teams across her trust. She recently retired from being Psychological Therapies Lead heading a team of psychologists and psychological therapists in a large NHS Foundation Trust to focus on consultancy, training and supervision internationally and in the UK. She is a consultant and trainer for Stanton Psychological Services Ltd and a Senior Trainer in the British Isles DBT Training Team. She is an honorary lecturer at Bangor University. Her most recent publications include the co-authored book ‘Using Mindfulness Skills in Everyday Life’ (Dunkley & Stanton) published by Routledge in 2017, a paper on ‘DBT: A dialectical approach to effective treatment for people with complex problems’ (The Psychotherapist, 66, 2017) and a co-authored chapter on ‘Teaching Mindfulness Skills in DBT’ in the: Oxford Handbook of Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (Edited by Michaela Swales; Oxford University Press; 2017).
Amy Gaglia, Secretary
first trained in DBT at New York Hospital in 2003. She was a founding member and team manager of the Newham DBT Team between 2003-2008. Together with that team she was intensively trained in DBT 2004 in Northampton, USA. Amy then spent a year in 2008-2009 establishing a DBT informed transitional living programme for people with severe and enduring mental illness in Philadelphia, PA. She returned to the UK and continued to work with the Newham DBT team and trained as a DBT adherence rater in 2010. She worked with the Newham DBT team complete its RCT on DBT versus Treatment As Usual for Self Harm published in October 2012. She then went on to establish a DBT team in Hackney and is working as a DBT adherence rater on the Radical Openness DBT a multi-centred RCT. She worked as DBT Therapist in the SLaM Foundation Trust as well as working as an adherence rater and supervisor and is a member of the National DBT Training Team. She now lives in Vienna
Pamela Henderson, Membership Secretary
is a Consultant Clinical Forensic Psychologist and Head of Psychological Services at Priory MSG. Within her applied practice Pamela has gained extensive experience within forensic and in-patient psychiatric services, providing specialist treatment for males and females with a range of mental disorders. She is an assessor for the British Psychological Society’s Diploma in Forensic Psychology, initially undertaking this role in 2004. Pamela is the Clinical Lead for DBT at Priory MSG, specializing in working with individuals with BPD and PTSD.
Daniel Flynn
is a Clinical Psychologist and Principal Psychology Manager co-ordinating Adult and Child/Adolescent Mental Health Services in Cork County, Ireland. Daniel graduated from the PSI Diploma in Professional Clinical Psychology in 2001, and worked initially in Carlow/Kilkenny Adult Mental Health Services before moving to Cork in 2005. Daniel was appointed to his manager role in 2012 having spent 7 years as a Senior Clinical Psychologist in North Lee Adult Mental Health Services, Cork. Daniel trained in Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) in 2010/11. While in North Lee AMHS, Daniel led the development of the “Endeavour Programme” incorporating DBT for people with a diagnosis of borderline personality disorder and Family Connections, a related programme for family members. These programmes piloted in North Lee in 2010 and 2011 and continue to be delivered. In 2012, both programmes were expanded to cover Cork County with the support of funding from the National Office for Suicide Prevention (NOSP), Ireland. Research on both the DBT and Family Connections programmes are ongoing in Cork at present. In 2013, Daniel successfully secured funding from NOSP to roll out a National DBT Implementation Project. The project has led to the training of 23 DBT teams in Adult and Child/Adolescent Mental Health Services in Ireland in and up to 2016. The project incorporates a research evaluation on the implementation of DBT, focusing on quality, quantity and economic costs.