Ethics committee

Julie Stone is medical lawyer and ethicist who has shaped national policy in professionalism and healthcare regulation for over thirty years.  As CHRE’s (now Professional Standard Authority) inaugural Deputy Director and Executive lead of its Clear Sexual Boundaries project, Julie has published, drafted guidance, and advised regulators and membership bodies on all aspects of professionalism and boundaries.  She has authored books and chapters on ethics and therapeutic relationship and produced two key reports for the General Osteopathic Council, including, in 2022, Supporting Professionals: Protecting Patients. Shifting the Narrative on Professional Boundaries.  A current reviewer for NIHR studies, and a former Board member of the Health Research Authority, Julie is an advocate of evidence-informed healthcare, and the importance of co-production with experts by experience.  Non-Executive Director of an NHS Commissioner (to 2013) and an NHS Mental Health/Community Provider Trust (to 2023), she has promoted trauma-informed practice, Freedom to Speak Up, and staff wellbeing initiatives.  She seeks to embed moral courage into professional training to help protect against burnout and moral injury.  As a Professional Conduct panel member and policy advisor her work is directed towards prevention of harm towards patients and colleagues whilst simultaneously supporting healthcare practitioners. 

Fiona is an Integrative Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist and Adult Counsellor with a background in law, and experience of supervising and training counsellors and psychotherapists.   She is the Ethics Lead for the College for Child and Adolescent Psychotherapies (CCAP). Her engagement on the Ethics Committee reflects her interest not only in our psychotherapeutic offer but also in our ethical reflexivity about how we practice and how this supports us to be with complexity and uncertainty.

Natalie is an ethicist, policy advisor and educator. She works at the Nuffield Council on Bioethics, a leading independent policy and research centre and the foremost bioethics body in the UK, leading their programme of work on ethical issues arising from developments in neuroscience and psychology. Over the course of her career to date across regulation and ethics, she has led a government-commissioned review, as well as designing and leading multiple research programmes, delivering ethics training to healthcare professionals and advising on legislation, professional standards and education policy. Natalie has a wide range of research interests - from clinical culture to political theatre - and is co-chair of the Institute of Medical Ethics’ Postgraduate Committee. In her spare time, she is a director of a small social enterprise which hosts community well-being events and provides training and employment for adults with mental health challenges.

Helen Miskin has been registered with the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapists (UKCP) since 2013. She is also an accredited member of the British Association of Counsellors and Psychotherapists (BACP), a member of EMDR Association, and the Association for Counselling and Therapy Online (ACTO). Helen works as a psychotherapist, supervisor, and tutor using person-centred, psychodynamic, EMDR, and existential analysis, often in an integration.

Helen has worked in the NHS for over 20 years in total, the last 10+ years have been as a counsellor and supervisor in the primary care sector, alongside and in NHS Talking Therapies. She has taught and managed counselling and psychotherapy training courses, delivers workshops and runs her private practice, ‘embodied understanding’.

Helen has worked with charities for nearly 15 years, in a variety of capacities including counsellor, manager, business planning and policy writing. She has worked with Marches Counselling Service, in Herefordshire, since her training, and also with a number of other charities, including a being trustee and chairperson at The Family Place Foundation.

Promoting ethical practice has been an important part of all the roles she has worked in. Applying a principle to practice, to real-life examples, is one of the most important and valuable aspects of her work.

Melanie Carter is a lawyer specialising in professional regulation and public law. She has practised in her field for over 30 years and is ranked in the Hall of Fame for professional discipline in the Legal 500. During that time, she was the Director of Standards for the General Optical Council, sat as a Judge in standards of conduct for local government councillors, sat as a legal assessor on professional conduct cases and written many codes of conduct for different professions. She has worked for many years as a lawyer for different bodies representing those in the psychotherapy and psychoanalytical fields. She has experience of different modalities as a user of the services of members of UKCP and is a strong supporter of the important role of the profession.