Rachel Lambie (she/her)

MA, HCPC, BADth, MBACP

Chief Executive Officer

Rachel is the founder and CEO of NESSie. She is a registered Dramatherapist, Counsellor, trainer and Supervisor. She has been working with children and young people in educational settings since qualifying in 1998. She is a passionate social entrepreneur who believes that therapy should be evidence-based and accessible for all. She believes that every child and young person has a right to thrive and that families and professionals in education have the potential to be great ‘therapists’ for their children if given the right training and support. She is currently working on a Professional Doctorate at ARU researching young people’s conceptualisation of Mental Health.

She loves knitting and growing flowers.

Frankie Bridgwood (Chair)

Frankie is married with three adult children and believes passionately about young people’s mental health and well-being.

Previously her experience is in the charity sector having worked for Charity Projects (Comic Relief), Cancer Relief Macmillan Fund and seeAbility (working with people with learning disabilities, autism and sight loss) in the past.

She is a practising Acupuncturist of 12 years working in Cambridge and Duxford. She is a Supervisor and Mentor and is also trained in Humanistic Counselling skills.

Patricia Clements (Company Secretary)

Tish is married and has 4 grown up children and many animals. Having watched her children and their friends navigate their way through their school years and higher education, she is passionately interested in the wellbeing of children and young people. She spent many years volunteering with the riding for the disabled association and practised as a solicitor for several years before having her family.

Francesca Priestley

BA (Hons), BADth student member

Francesca (Cesca) is a Dramatherapy trainee currently placed with Nessie and the Cambridge EEBSA team. Cesca has always loved drama, dance and art and did a degree in Drama with a focus on Applied drama in the community. Since then, she has worked with children and young people in a variety of ways. One of Cesca’s favourite things is being outside and in the sea, she spent 4 years working at an outdoors activity centre and worked with surf therapy for children and young people with additional needs. After this she was a youth worker and enjoyed doing 1:1 mentoring in schools. Cesca has been enjoying combining her experience with the creative arts and therapeutic practice together.

.

Michaela Vaux

Michaela Vaux established Bumpkins Day Care Nursery based near Royston in 2000, when she couldn’t find the childcare she wanted for her two children Frank and Maddy. Bumpkins cares for 120 children over 2 sites and is based on a working farm.

Michaela is married to Rob (who is retired and does all the ironing!) and they have a cockapoo called Hector.

Michaela loves yoga, cooking and eating cake!