Meet the PPA

The PPA Executive Committee

Joint Chair:

Rachel Stovell

Rachel is currently combining work with travel, succeeding more at the latter. She was the lead physiotherapist in the Facial Pain Team at the Eastman Dental Hospital and an Advanced Practitioner Physiotherapist at University College London Hospital Pain Management Centre. 

Qualifying in 1993 from Manchester Rachel specialised in MSK working in the NHS, industry – Occupational Health and the private sector, including having her own private practice. The recurring challenge of persistent pain led her search many sources and attend numerous courses before undertaking an MSc Pain Science and Society at King’s College London. It was following this that she moved to specialist NHS pain services. 

Rachel maintains a particular interest in facial pain, the role of movement in pain experiences, as well the neuroscience of pain. She is committed to furthering the work of the PPA in research, the dissemination of knowledge and in supporting physiotherapists, other healthcare professionals, those living with persistent pain and the wider population with the complexities and challenges that come with pain.

Joint Chair:

Clair Jacobs

Clair.jacobs@gstt.nhs.uk

Clair Jacobs is the Lead Physiotherapist at INPUT Pain Management Centre, Guys and Thomas’ NHS Trust. She specialises in the delivery, teaching and management of complex chronic pain conditions; helping patients increase function and manage the impact of the pain using an Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) approach.

Working within pain management for over 15 years, Clair has used the ACT approach for the last 8 years running ACT-Pain management related workshops ‘Using psychology in my everyday clinical practice’ and 'The Open Aware and Engaged Therapist - Exposure - A Practical approach’ including to the British Pain Society and Hong Kong Pain Society. Clair has a clinical role specialising in multidisciplinary group-based pain management programmes, combined pain management and intervention programmes and individual work. Clair has published papers on topics including; ‘Applying the Psychological flexibility model for physiotherapy training’ and ‘Utility of physical performance measures in PMP’s’.

Clair is interested in training and development in this field and in exploring practical applications of movement to enhance well-being.

Twitter/X: @Clairjacobs15

Secretary:

Alice Morgan

Alice.morgan10@nhs.net

Alice is the Clinical Lead Physiotherapist at the Pain Management Centre, The National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trusts. She graduated from Brighton University and completed her MSc in Pain Management from Cardiff University in 2018. She has experience of working with patients individually and on pain management programmes, both online and in person. Her interests include pelvic pain and supporting women who experience persistent pain after pelvic mesh insertion. She is passionate about promoting and improving links and care across various healthcare settings, including community and hospital.

Treasurer and British Pain Society Liaison Officer:

Elsje de Villiers

elsje.devilliers@nhs.net

Elsje DEVILLIERS,

Elsje is team lead physiotherapist for for the Pain Service at Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. She specialises in pain management for people living with persistent pain - both individually and in pain management programmes - using psychologically informed practice.  

Elsje has an MPhil and has been involved in clinical research on virtual reality for the management of chronic pain, and is developing a clinical research career with focus on management for people living with fibromyalgia.

Research Officers:

 

Dr Selina Johnson

Selina Johnson

selina.johnson@nhs.net

Dr Selina Johnson works as a clinical research fellow at the University of Liverpool, with 60% clinical work based within the pain department at the Walton Centre NHS Trust, Liverpool. As part of her clinical role, she works on the various pain management programmes provided at the Walton Centre and provides individual physiotherapy support for chronic conditions including CRPS, and pelvic pain within the pain clinics. Within her research role she is exploring biopsychosocial approaches for the management of persistent pelvic pain and early management of wrist fractures to prevent persistent pain and CRPS. Within the role of research executive for the PPA she is keen to promote and support the research curious, research naive and further research into pain research and the role of physiotherapy.

Twitter: @sillyeena

LH Small

Leila Heelas

Leila.Heelas@ouh.nhs.uk

Leila, MSc, BSc, PG Cert, is the Consultant Physiotherapist in the Optimise Pain Rehabilitation Unit and also contributes to the Physiotherapy Research Unit at the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre.  The Optimise service offers a number of group programmes including, a pain management programme and a Compassion-Focused group for persistent pain.  Psychologically-informed physiotherapy is used across the service. Leila has a personal interest in offering treatment to people who may have psychological barriers to group work. 

Leila holds an MSc in Pain Management and has studied the graduate certificate in Psychology. She is interested in how to promote the benefits of pain management as a specialism and as such is the Research Officer of the Physiotherapy Pain Association and has recently commenced a part-time PhD with UCL Social Biobehavioural group.  

Leila has published articles and presented at conferences, including The British Pain Society Scientific meeting. She is an honorary lecturer at Brookes University and has received training in Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy as part of an Oxford University trial and has undertaken training delivered by psychologists in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Compassion Focussed Therapy, Motivational interviewing and CBT for pain. 

Equality, Diversity & Belonging Officer:

Salma Hassan

salma.hassan1@nhs.net

Salma graduated from Coventry University and has a MSc in Pain (Kings College, London). She works at the Pain Management Centre (PMC), The National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trusts. She works delivering both online and face to face pain management programmes. Salma is interested in working with patients to improve pain management programmes by making them more accessible and inclusive.
Salma took on the role of Equality, Diversity and Belonging officer for the PPA in late 2021 and is keen to hear from and engage with PPA members.

Public Relations and Website Officer:

 

Jamie Watson

Jamie Watson 

ppapro1994@gmail.com

Dr Jamie Watson works as Lead Pain Physiotherapist at North Tees and Hartlepool NHS FT. He is part of the leadership team for their multidisciplinary Integrated Musculoskeletal Service and leads their Community Pain Management Service. The pain service offers multidisciplinary ACT based Live Well with Pain Programmes, 1-1 physiotherapy and psychology. Jamie has a keen interest in pain science education, psychologically informed rehabilitation, research, health coaching, acceptance and commitment therapy, and leadership.

Jamie completed his Ph.D. titled The effectiveness and experiences of pain science education for adults with chronic musculoskeletal pain at Teesside University. He has published multiple articles in the field of pain and presented at the CSP annual conference. Jamie is also a member of an EFIC-endorsed, international, interdisciplinary, team of Pain Science Education researchers known as PETAL (Pain Education Team Aspiring Better Learning).

Please email Jamie for general PPA queries, if you would like to write a blog for the PPA, or have any website suggestions. Please direct all matters related to education/CPD to the education officers.

Twitter @ThePainGuide

ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5653-3872

Journal / Newsletter Editors:
Chris S

Chris Seenan

Chris.Seenan@gcu.ac.uk

Chris Seenan holds the position of Senior Lecturer at Glasgow Caledonian University. He came to GCU in 2010 as a Lecturer in Physiotherapy after completing his PhD at Queen Margaret University and was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2017.

Over the past 13 years, Chris's research has been dedicated to exploring the lived experiences of individuals with long-term conditions, with a particular focus on Peripheral Arterial Disease (PAD), Intermittent Claudication (IC), Diabetes, and Chronic Pain. His work has resulted in the development,
evaluation, and implementation of complex interventions aimed at promoting optimal lifestyle management in non-communicable diseases. His research has extended to include participatory methods, exploring how they can be used to collaboratively create, adapt, evaluate, and implement new healthcare interventions for individuals with long-term conditions. This work has led to over 30 research papers in internationally recognised journals.


Chris’s current doctoral supervision includes projects on co-creating behaviour change interventions to support lifestyle modification in people with PAD and IC, investigating the feasibility of TENS and motivational interviewing to increase physical activity in PAD and IC, exploring acceptance of chronic pain, and developing public health educational resources to support lifestyle management in people undergoing screening for abdominal aortic aneurysm.


Chris has been a member of the PPA (North) and PPA committees since 2012 in Education and Research Officers roles. Since 2017, he has been Co-Editor in Chief of the PPA Journal- Pain and Rehabilitation.

 

Michael Mansfield

Michael Mansfield

m.mansfield@bham.ac.uk

Michael is employed as an Assistant Professor in Musculoskeletal Physiotherapy in the School of Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation Sciences at the University of Birmingham.  He is co-editor in chief of the Pain and Rehabilitation journal. His research interests include the detection, interpretation and assessment of nociception and pain, through psychophysics and evidence synthesis methodologies, and how this may influence or interact with function, disability and prognosis across a range of patient populations and diseases.  

Twitter:@MM_Physio

Research profile: https://research.birmingham.ac.uk/en/persons/michael-mansfield

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4258-8247

Education Officers:

 

Claire Campbell

Claire Campbell 

ppa.education2@gmail.com

Claire is a lead advanced practice physiotherapist in the NHS Fife Pain Management Service. She has sought opportunities to support people to engage in meaningful activities through voluntary and professional posts. She has worked clinically in a range of acute and community services including a regional cancer centre, critical care, neurological rehabilitation, and a crisis response team which focused on prevention of inappropriate admission to hospital and end of life care in people’s homes.

Claire is passionate about inclusive healthcare and supporting healthcare professionals across specialities to develop skills in person centred care. 

Twitter @ClaireC_PT

 

Clair Jacobs

ppa.education2@gmail.com

Twitter @Clairjacobs15

Student & Early career physiotherapy representatives:

Charlotte Hayers

charlottehayers@hotmail.com

Charlotte qualified as a Physiotherapist in 2020 from the University of Brighton. She completed rotations on Medical and Stroke wards and in the Community and is now an MSK Physiotherapist working in the NHS for Sussex Community Foundation Trust. Charlotte has a keen interest in spinal pain and supporting people throughout their journey with pain management. She searches for new and creative ways to help facilitate people to live well with pain so they can have the best quality of life. She also taken on new roles including the Wellbeing Champion and CSP steward as these roles will aim to help her meet her other passion for supporting new Band 5's and colleagues within the workplace. Charlotte aims to work with the Pain Association to help raise awareness and engage with students and Band 5's so they have the best support at the start of their careers. 

 

 

Carl Wong

Carl Wong 

carl.wong1@nhs.net

Carl qualified as a physiotherapist from the University of East Anglia in 2021 with a MSc in Physiotherapy and have been working as a musculoskeletal physiotherapist since then. He is currently a band 6 senior musculoskeletal physiotherapist at the Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust in a secondary care setting. Previously, he worked in primary care outpatient setting in East Norfolk and East London. Carl has a strong clinical and research interest in the assessment and management of musculoskeletal conditions, especially in chronic low back pain. He is aspired to become the bridge between junior physiotherapist and specialist pain physiotherapist to encourage, promote and facilitate interchange of thoughts and ideas. He is motivated to pursue a clinical academic career and develop standards of practice and support research relevant to the assessment, intervention and outcome of the physiotherapy management of painful conditions.

Patient Representatives:

Christine P

Christine has lived with persistent pain for over 10 years following a back injury.  She lives with neuropathic pain and some back pain. 

Christine has been a patient representative for her local CCG Independent Patient Treatment Panel (IPTR) and an Expert by Experience undertaking CQC inspections. 

She identifies herself as having a ‘hidden’ disability and is keen to support others with the extra difficulties this ‘hidden’ aspect often causes.  Since her injury in 2008, Christine has received a number of episodes of physiotherapy care.   She is a strong proponent of physiotherapy having received a physiotherapy episode of care that she believes considerably improved her ability to live well with pain. 

Recently, Christine started to write, blog and talk about her experiences of Living Well with Pain.  Her blogsite is at livingwellpain.net  Christine hopes her writing can ultimately help support people with persistent pain.

 

Louise Trewern

Louise has lived with pain of varying degrees since childhood, but didn’t get a diagnosis of Fibromyalgia until she was in her thirties. The pain worsened over time and she was prescribed opioid pain medication. Louise took this medication for 13 years and over this time, her condition deteriorated further and she was also diagnosed with Osteoarthritis. She believed the Fibromyalgia was getting worse but discovered that she was experiencing side effects of long term use of opioids.

Due to the impact of opiod side effects, Louise was admitted to hospital for rapid tapering and and since that time her life has been transformed. Some of the best advice she received during her recovery was from Physiotherapists and she attributes much of her ongoing improvement to that advice! Lousie is now volunteering with the NHS Pain Service that helped her, as a patient expert and Chair of the Involve Giving Something Back Committee. 

Louise is a member of Live Well With Pain, chair of the Footsteps Festival, and was previously Vice Chair of the British Pain Society’s Patient Voice Committee. She is passionate about helping others find ways to live well with their pain. Louise has featured in a short film detailing her experience of stopping opiods and she has also blogged about her experience through the COVID-19 Lockdown.

Executive Committee Members:

 

 

Jen Ford

Jen Ford

jennifer.ford2@nhs.net

Jen is an Advanced Practice Physiotherapist and Therapy Lead for the Bath Centre for Pain Services & the Bristol Paediatric Pain Clinic. The Bath Centre for Pain Services has a international reputation for providing treatment to people of all ages with complex pain associated disability and associated mental health difficulties; this includes children, adults and their families. She works within an interdisciplinary team delivering a range of specialist interventions aimed to encourage patient participation and behavioural change towards a more values led and age appropriate lifestyle. She is passionate about promoting the importance of Physiotherapy in Chronic pain rehabilitation and supporting all health care professionals working in this challenging field.

 

Hannah Wilson

Membership Secretary: 

 

Emma Withers

ppaonlnadmn@gmail.com

Chair of PPA North:

Claire Campbell

claire.campbell10@nhs.scot

PPA North Committee Members:  

 Chris Seenan

Chris.Seenan@gcu.ac.uk

Find Out More