About us

We help children, families, couples and individuals overcome barriers to emotional wellbeing, bring meaningful improvements to daily life, and build resilient, connected families and futures.

Our story

The Bridge Foundation was founded in 1983 by Sally Box, a psychoanalytic psychotherapist trained at the Tavistock Clinic who had the vision of applying a psychoanalytic approach to understanding issues of everyday life, groups, and organisations.

Today, our focus is on providing high quality psychodynamic therapy to children and their families to make a difference at the earlier stages of life.

We provide our services in two main ways:

Bridge in Schools – Embedding highly qualified therapists in local schools in areas of deprivation to provide support to vulnerable and at-risk children
Bridge Psychotherapy Service – Providing a not for profit 1:1 therapy service for children, adolescents, families and individuals

In 2021-22, our multi-disciplinary team provided therapy to over 300 children and adults each month.

The Bridge are leaders in child and family mental health

Our work

Since 1983 we have worked with over 10,000 individuals, providing expert in-depth psychotherapy, counselling and expert mental health support in Bristol and the Southwest for nearly 40 years.

Get in touch to find out more

Our team

At The Bridge we believe everyone deserves to feel secure and supported in their mental health.

Our team is dedicated to supporting life-long improvements to mental health for individuals who are suffering difficulties and challenges. Our highly trained therapists are here to provide a safe space to support children, families, couples and adults through one-to-one therapy sessions tailored to individual needs.

Our clinical team is complemented by a passionate team of individuals who support the operational and administrative aspects of the organisation:

Joint Leadership Team

Georgina Taylor

Clinical Director and Lead for Bridge Psychotherapy Service

Matthew Jenkins

Clinical Director and Lead for Bridge in Schools

Annabelle Patel

Operations and Finance Director

Support staff

Christine Lowe

Referrals Co-ordinator

Thesliya Latheef

Finance and Administrative Assistant

Eva Triantafyllidou

Evaluation and Monitoring Data Analyst

Jessica King

Fundraising and Communications Manager

Esme H

Social Media Assistant

Our trustees

Cathy Benjamin, Chair

Cathy has worked within the voluntary, education and public sectors in management and leadership roles, much of this being with children, young people and families in community settings. She brings extensive strategic and financial management experience. Psychotherapy in particular interests her due to personal experience of the ups and downs of life when mental illness and distress are present within the family.

Treasurer

Under appointment currently.

Laura Vickers-Rendall

Laura has worked at Bristol University Press since graduating with a BA (hons) in Sociology in 2009. She is currently a Commissioning Editor for the Press’s Policy Press imprint commissioning academic books across a number of subject areas including its flagship Social Policy list as well as titles in Ageing & Gerontology and Health & Social Care. Laura became a trustee after growing up with a younger brother who lived with a range of mental health issues and knowing how important the services provided by The Bridge are to young people and their families.

Martin McColl

Martin McColl retired recently as a consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist in a Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS). Over his career, his work with children, young people and their families has also involved teaching and training for doctors and other professionals, and work with schools, social care, the voluntary sector, the courts and other services. He brings this wide experience to his role as trustee with The Bridge.

Jess Miles

Jess Miles has worked in publishing for over 20 years and is currently Digital Marketing Manager at Bristol University Press, looking after campaign planning, websites, content creation, social media and e-marketing. Jess specialises in communications and engagement and has a particular interest in strategy and leadership in not-for-profit organisations.

Lindy Wootton

Lindy Wootton brings over 35 years of experience as a practitioner, manager and project leader within the voluntary and public sectors. Most of her experience has been within the fields of mental health, restorative justice and children and families social work (adoption). She brings understanding of the mental health challenges that children, young people and their families face and how psychotherapeutic approaches can help, as well as experience of strategic management in the voluntary sector.

Caroline Harris

Caroline has built a successful career in PR and Marketing and has run her own award-winning Bristol-based PR consultancy for the past 20 years. She has worked for a range of children's and health-related charities including St Mungos, Brandon Trust, Bristol Charities, Milestones Trust and Public Health Action. Her work has been instrumental in helping to raise over £50 million for Bristol Children's Hospital. She combines her knowledge of communication and brand-building with a thorough understanding of the city and region.

Kristian Cox

Kristian is Chief People Officer and board member for a fintech. He has extensive global HR experience; having lived, worked and studied in the UK, US, Europe, South Africa and Australia. He brings multi-cultural insights and a keen interest in work that enables people to reach their full potential. Also, a member of the Finance Committee, he brings skills in strategy, people, organisational development, culture, transformation and Diversity Equity & Inclusion (DE&I).

Itamar Cohen

Itamar Cohen is a Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist with over 20 years experience in working with children with mental health challenges. He has spent the last 11 years in Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) settings and currently leads the looked after team. He has had experience working in education, social care, and mental health sectors as both a clinician and manager. He also trains mental health professionals, doctors and supervises students.

Megan Yakeley

Megan Yakeley is an integrative psychodynamic Child & Adolescent Psychotherapist specialising in autism in children and young people who do not live with birth families. She works in private practice and the NHS where she is the autism lead in Thinking Allowed, the specialist Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) for Bristol children who are looked after or adopted. Megan is also a Psychotherapeutic Counsellor for adults, and registered clinical supervisor.

Itamar Cohen

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About us

We help children, families, couples and individuals overcome barriers to emotional wellbeing, bring meaningful improvements to daily life, and build resilient, connected families and futures.

Our story

We provide our services in two main ways:

The Bridge are leaders in child and family mental health