Our team
Professor Rachel Tribe, Head of Group (Portal)
Rachel is Professor of Applied Psychological Practice at the School of Psychology, University of East London. In 2014 she was awarded the British Psychological Society Award for Challenging Social Inequalities in Psychology. She is a Fellow of the British Psychological Society and an HCPC registered psychologist. She has over 30 years’ experience of developing clinical services and conducting research both in the UK and abroad. She is active in national and international consultancy and training work. She has experience of working in the private, public, charity and academic sectors. She has worked clinically with a range of diverse communities.
She has published widely on migration and mental health, refugees and asylum seekers, community psychology, critical psychology, social justice, professional and ethical practice, ageing and trauma. She was a member of the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ expert panel on Improving Services for Refugees and Asylum-Seekers and the World Psychiatric Association’s Task Force on Migration and Mental Health. She is currently a member of the BPS Presidential Task Force on Refugees and Asylum Seekers. She co-wrote the BPS guidelines with Dr Kate Thompson on Working with Interpreters in Health Settings. Professor Tribe also co-edited a book on Working with Interpreters in Mental Health with Dr Hitesh Raval, re-issued in 2014. In 2011 with Dr Pauline Lane she produced a DVD and guidance notes on Working with Interpreters in Mental Health for the Department of Health. Her latest book co-edited with Jean Morrissey is the 2nd edition of The Handbook of Professional and Ethical Practice for Psychologists, Psychotherapists and Counsellors.
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Email: r.tribe@uel.ac.uk
Dr Farkhondeh Farsimadan, CPsychol, AFBPsS (Portal’s Researcher & Content
Developer)
Farkhondeh (Farah) is a Chartered Counselling Psychologist, an Associate Fellow
of the British Psychological Society and an HCPC registered psychologist.
Farah obtained her BSc (Hons) in Psychology and a Post-Graduate
Diploma in Psychological Counselling in 90s. She then embarked on further
studies and Whilst studying for her PsychD in Psychotherapeutic &
Counselling Psychology at Surrey University, Guildford (2000-2003), she
conducted a number of research on migrant population which was followed by
further research and publications in the field which she has continued to date.
Farah has a special interest in and written on topics including therapy and
therapeutic considerations when working with refugee and asylum seeking
population from a traditional culture and on refugee and ethnic minority
clients’ experiences in therapy and the effects of ethnicity on process and
outcomes of therapy.
Farah has extensive
experience working with refugees, asylum seekers and migrant communities in
secondary and tertiary settings in the NHS including CMHRCs, Psychotherapy,
Assertive Outreach, Acute Inpatient and Psychiatric Intensive Care units at
West London Mental Health NHS Trust. She had a key role in setting up
Ealing Assertive Outreach service in 2003 at WLMHT. She was also the Trust’s
training coordinator and clinical supervisor for doctoral trainee counselling
psychologists studying at University of East London and City University for a
number of years.
Though retired, Farah
remains passionate about refugee-related
causes and in 2016 researched and developed the entire content of the Resource
Centre on the Refugee Mental Health & Wellbeing Portal which she updates
annually, on a voluntary basis. As a member of the BPS’s Presidential Taskforce
on Refugees and Asylum Seekers, Farah contributed to the development of the ‘Guidelines for psychologists working with
refugees and asylum seekers in the UK’ published by the Taskforce in 2018.
The BPS Division of
Counselling Psychology 2019 award for diversity in practice was jointly awarded
to Professor Tribe and Dr Farsimadan in recognition of their contributions to
the field including the development of UEL Refugee Mental Health and Wellbeing
Portal.
Email: farahfarsimadan@yahoo.co.uk
Paul is the Archivist based at the University of East London. Paul has been responsible for the UEL Archives including the Refugee Council Archive and British Olympic Association Archive at UEL since 2002 and has over a decade’s experience working within higher education archives. Paul is involved in a number of projects including being a Co-convenor of the IASFM (International Association for the Study of Forced Migration) Working Group on the Archiving and Documentation of the History of Forced Migration and also the Oral History Society Special Interest Group on Migration. Paul is also responsible for Web and Strategy at the Migration and Asylum Network and has worked with the Campaign for Voluntary Sector Archives and manages the Living Refugee Archive website.
Email: p.v.dudman@uel.ac.uk
Patricia is a Senior lecturer in Physiotherapy in the School of Health, Sport and Bioscience and a registered member of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapist (CSP). She has worked in Jamaica as a physiotherapist both in the clinical and community setting before embarking on a career in teaching and research at UEL. She is actively involved in research in the area of Community Based Rehabilitation, Cultural Competency and Disability in Newham and in Jamaica and has a special interest in qualitative research methodologies. Her doctoral thesis "A Cultural Approach to Community Based Rehabilitation: A Jamaican Case Study" outlines the issues around culture and disability.
She is an active member of the Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) Network of the CSP and also serves on the ADAPT Special Interest Group for Physiotherapist working internationally and in crisis zones. In her role as community liaison for the team, Patricia works tirelessly to establish links with community groups in Newham through which she provides exercise and relaxation resources for refugees and asylum seekers in Newham.
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Email: p.a.smith@uel.ac.uk
Dr Lucia Berdondini PhD
Lucia is a Lecturer and Programme Leader of BSc (Hons) Counselling and Psychotherapy at the School of Psychology, University of East London. She is also a BACP registered Gestalt psychotherapist and has been practicing for the past 15 years with individuals and groups running a small private practice. She is particularly interested in Psychology of Disasters and Humanitarian Projects and has focused her professional activity on developing counselling training courses in countries in war and post conflict, such as Afghanistan, India and Angola.
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Email: l.berdondini@uel.ac.uk
Elaahe Farsimadan
Elaahe obtained her Bachelor of Law (LLB Hons) from the University of Surrey, Guildford, and completed her Legal Practice Course, (LPC, Solicitors) and Master of Law (LLM) at BPP Law School in London with merit.Elaahe has been managing the Portal’s Facebook and Twitter pages as well as assisting at various presentations and running stalls introducing the Portal to attendees at the BPS Annual Conferences, UEL, and a number of charity organisations and services working with refugees and asylum seekers.