Team

As Director of Governance and Patient Safety, Emily Harrison combines her background as a Learning Disability Nurse with extensive governance and risk management experience across the NHS, social care, and independent healthcare sectors.

A former CQC Inspection Manager, she is dedicated to maintaining the highest standards of care. Known for her collaborative style, Emily’s focus on transparency and ethical governance strengthens The Aspen Clinic’s commitment to quality.

Operations Director Kimberley Cairns, a trained psychologist and BPS member, brings a blend of strategic insight and empathy. She champions continuous improvement and inclusivity, ensuring every team member’s voice is heard. Passionate about mental health equality, Kimberley drives transformative change with a focus on quality and compassionate care.

Ashleigh is a dedicated and highly skilled Clinic Manager with over 15 years of extensive experience in the medical field. With a strong background as a qualified person-centered counsellor, Ashleigh has spent the past 9 years in management, where she ensures that the clinic operates smoothly while embedding the clinic’s core values in every aspect of its services.

Passionate about delivering outstanding customer service, Ashleigh is committed to providing a gold-standard experience for all patients. She plays an instrumental role in guiding patients through their journeys at The Aspen Clinic, ensuring they are well-informed and supported every step of the way.

Ashleigh’s nurturing and approachable nature makes her a trusted figure for both patients and the team. She priorities patient care and safety, ensuring that every patient receives the highest level of care in a compassionate and warm environment. Her dedication to promoting health and well-being is evident in her work, making The Aspen Clinic a place where patients receive not only specialised care but also genuine support and kindness.

Dr Isabelle Shone is a Clinical Psychologist with six years of experience in the field of Psychology. Throughout her career, Dr. Shone has worked across a variety of child, adult, family mental health, and learning disability settings, including extensive experience within the NHS and third-sector organizations.

Dr Shone is deeply committed to working from a trauma-informed approach, emphasizing the impact of adverse childhood experiences on the developing brain, particularly in how these experiences shape the ways children and young people engage with the world around them. Dr Shone has developed a strong commitment to providing tailored support and interventions that promote positive outcomes for individuals experiencing neurodiversity. She has considerable expertise in conducting neuropsychological assessments related to cognitive functioning, ADHD, and autism.

She collaborates closely with families, schools, and multidisciplinary teams to design tailored strategies that support children and young people in thriving both academically and socially. Her expertise includes conducting comprehensive assessments, delivering therapeutic interventions, and facilitating training, group sessions, and consultation sessions for schools and families. Dr Shone is passionate about fostering an inclusive, supportive, and understanding environment in which neurodivergent individuals can flourish and reach their full potential.

Francesca is an assistant psychologist, supporting the child and young person pathway for the Aspen Clinic. She has a depth and breadth of experience working in neurodiversity in various settings, including community support work, education and private assessment clinics; in which, she has experience in conducting assessments, report writing, conducting crisis work and supporting individual needs. Her role as an assistant psychologist involves supporting the clinical team with administering psychometric and clinical testing, data analysis, contributing to MDT meetings, systems strategy support and supporting clinicians in interpreting data and report writing. Throughout her clinical career, Francesca has developed an embedded interest in trauma, particularly surrounding diagnoses of PTSD, EUPD and Anxiety disorders.

She has become well informed with co-morbidities in neurodiversity, including addiction, eating disorders and suicidality and she wishes to further enhance her skills to support the neurodiverse community in multiple settings.

Ellie has several years of experience working with neurodiverse individuals across various settings. She has coordinated and led therapeutic groups with neurodivergent young people and has worked with adults with acquired brain injuries, supporting the delivery of interventions aimed at improving social-emotional wellbeing and aiding integration into the wider community.

In her role as an assistant psychologist, Ellie focuses on empowering clients to take proactive steps towards their goals while offering a supportive, non-judgmental space for them to explore challenges and find personalised solutions. She also provides skills training and psychoeducation sessions to help clients better understand and manage their experiences.

Ellie will be supporting the adolescent and adult pathways at the Aspen Clinic.

Sarah is an experienced mental health nurse, qualified lecturer and writer. As a late diagnosed autistic/ ADHD person, they are passionate about neurodiversity and reducing health inequalities for neurodivergent people. Their professional interests include the intersection between neurodivergence and being LGBTQIA+ and the impact of perimenopause and menopause on neurodivergence. Outside of the Aspen Clinic, Sarah can normally be found writing, in a Pilates class or swimming in open water all year round.

Sarah will be leading physical health monitoring and Infection Prevention at the Aspen Clinic, setting up placements for student nurses and is also the self-appointed in-house stationery expert.

Dr Gursharan Johal is a Specialty Doctor with over a decade’s experience working within psychiatry. During this time frame she has also worked extensively with Health Education England, The British Medical Association, The Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, and The Royal College of Psychiatry. In 2018 she was awarded an academic clinic fellowship by The National Institute for Health and Care Research.

Currently she is a suicide prevention clinical researcher at The University of Manchester. She holds several academic publications and sits as an expert advisor in her field both nationally and internationally. She has received awards from The University of Manchester for her work in medical teaching, and was awarded North West “Core Trainee Doctor Of The Year” by The Royal College of Psychiatry.

At The Aspen Clinic, Dr Johal is the Adult ADHD Service Pathway Lead. She has extensive experience regarding diagnosing and supporting patients with ADHD, and has a special interest in psychiatric diagnostics and complexity.

Kim is a dedicated and compassionate Speech and Language Therapist with extensive experience supporting children and young people in schools and private clinics across Greater Manchester. Kim specialises in implementing universal, targeted, and specialist levels of support for individuals with language and social communication difficulties. Their work includes delivering whole school training, facilitating parent workshops, and providing individual and group therapy interventions.

With a collaborative and person-centered approach, Kim partners closely with families, educators, and other professionals to create inclusive and supportive communication environments. Their commitment to empowering individuals and fostering confidence in their communication abilities drives their practice, making a lasting positive impact on the lives of the children and young people they support.

Dr Hayley Knagg is a Highly Specialist Clinical Psychologist, who has worked in the field of Psychology for over 13 years. Dr Knagg's professional career to date has been spent working within a variety of child and family mental health and learning disability settings both in the NHS and within private or third sector organisations.

Dr Knagg has extensive experience in conducting assessments and in working therapeutically with children and young people who experience the world with a neurodivergent persepctive and is extremely passionate about offering timely access to the right support that many families need and deserve. Within CAMHS services Dr Knagg has been able to develop training packages and waiting list initiatives to help support those children and young people who are neurodivergent and living within the care system access the most appropriate support to meet their needs, whilst aiding professionals understanding of the intersectionality between the impact of the experience of trauma and neurodivergent experiences.

Dr Knagg is especially passionate about supporting the emotional wellbeing of children and young people within the school environment and is on the board of Governors within one of her local educational settings, offering leadership responsibility for the school's SEND provision and safeguarding arrangements. Dr Knagg has further training in the provision of safeguarding supervision and is an experienced clinical supervisor and line manager to other qualified and highly skilled psychologists and colleagues from different professional backgrounds.