Esther Borrett

Esther is the Founder and Director of Brimstone Psychology, an educational psychology service focused on creating meaningful, lasting change for children, young people and the education systems around them.

Esther began her career teaching Psychology in colleges and sixth forms, spending over 13 years working within post-16 education. She later trained as an Educational Psychologist and has worked in specialist roles within Local Authorities, including Youth Justice. Alongside leading Brimstone, she continues to undertake statutory Educational Psychology work as a locum EP, ensuring her leadership remains grounded in the realities of schools, families and local systems.

Brimstone Psychology was founded in 2022 with a clear purpose: to use psychology to support change, not just describe difficulty. Esther’s vision was to create a service that goes beyond assessment alone, helping schools and families understand why children are struggling and what needs to change around them for progress to be possible. This includes working with individuals, staff teams and wider systems, rather than placing responsibility solely on the child.

Under Esther’s direction, Brimstone has grown into a multidisciplinary practice and the home of RESTA (Resilience Support Teaching Assistant), an award-winning programme that supports emotional safety, motivation and engagement with learning through practical, structured approaches that schools can sustain over time.

Esther’s work focuses particularly on post-16 education, emotionally based school avoidance, adversity and system pressure. She is a published author on educational resilience and is known for explaining psychology in clear, practical ways that support confident decision-making by schools, families and professionals.

Alongside her role as Director, Esther lectures in Educational Psychology on the MSc Applied Psychology programme at the University of Suffolk and remains committed to developing thoughtful, reflective practice across the profession.

As a director, Esther is recognised for her calm, clear leadership and her ability to bring people together around shared understanding and next steps. Her work is guided by a belief that sustainable change happens when systems are supported to think differently, work differently and respond earlier.

Beth Pargeter-Takhar

Beth is our Head of Business Development at Brimstone Psychology, driving growth and new partnerships. She is also an Associate Assistant EP at Brimstone, and a Doctoral Researcher in Education at the University of Hertfordshire. She brings extensive practical psychological experience to Brimstone, as well as research expertise, through her academic background in Psychology and Neuroscience, as a Convenor for the Mental Health, Wellbeing and Education Research Group at BERA (the British Educational Research Association) and as a Review Editor for Frontiers in Education.

Beth is a former SEND Lead Practitioner, with specialism in developing bespoke programmes of support for children and young people with ASD and complex needs. She has worked in support roles in mainstream Primary and Secondary settings, as well as SEND provisions. Beth has worked as an Assistant Educational Psychologist within a large local authority EPS, where she co-ordinated large scale programmes including ELSA training within the local provision.

During her co-ordination of ELSA training, she led on the development of specialist ELSA programmes for staff in Early Years and Alternative Provision settings. More recently, she has co-ordinated a training programme focussed on developing equity, diversity and cultural competence in school communities. She takes a keen personal interest in reading around topics related to racism, critical race theory and the history of colonialism. She is particularly passionate about developing intentional and inclusive anti-racist practice in schools, and safe spaces for young people to explore issues and challenge each other. Beth has spoken at events including the British Caribbean Association Lord Pitt Lecture, the Association of Educational Psychologists Conference, and the National ELSA Conference.

Jamie Kernohan

Jamie is Head of Operations at Brimstone Psychology, with responsibility for operational governance, quality assurance, compliance and continuous improvement across the organisation.

Jamie brings over 10 years’ experience from the prison service, where he worked with young people in highly regulated environments. This role required strict adherence to national standards, robust risk management, and the consistent application of policy and procedure within complex systems.

At Brimstone, Jamie leads on the development, implementation and monitoring of operational systems aligned with recognised quality and safety standards. This includes oversight of health and safety management, risk assessment processes, incident reporting, and the maintenance of clear, auditable procedures. He holds IOSH qualifications and is responsible for ensuring that operational risks are identified, controlled and reviewed in line with best practice.

Jamie also brings extensive experience in regulated operational management through his work as a qualified Transport Manager and Fleet Supervisor. This has involved staff training, compliance monitoring, and the day-to-day management of complex operations, supporting consistency, accountability and service reliability.

In his role as Head of Operations, Jamie works closely with the Director to embed a culture of quality, safety and continuous improvement. His leadership ensures that Brimstone’s psychologically informed and values-led work is underpinned by strong governance, clear processes and effective quality assurance systems, supporting safe, consistent and sustainable service delivery as the organisation grows.

Jen Nash

Jen is an associate assistant educational psychologist. She is a former teacher and SENCO, with experience from the EYFS up to A-level, specialising in literacy skills and working with neurodiverse students.

Jen is a proven relationship-builder and is passionate about supporting access to education for vulnerable groups, particularly with the travelling community, refugees and children with SEMH needs. She works to reduce barriers to inclusion both practical and psychological. She is sensitive to complex family needs, advocating as the voice of the child with a range of agencies, collaborating effectively to secure the best outcomes for young people.

Jen is dedicated to adapting learning environments to meet sensory, emotional and learning needs for all children. As an assistant EP, she has innovated and co-produced bespoke interventions including RAW (Rhythm & Wellbeing), an evidence-based intervention supporting emotional regulation skills through music.

Working with a Mental Health Support Team, she has co-designed and delivered impactful interventions including Exam Resilience, Peer Mentoring and LGBTQIA+ group facilitation for students.

Jen brings a nurturing, playful and engaging approach to her work with children and young people. Her holistic practice includes training in yoga and mindfulness. She loves working directly with the community, raising mental health awareness through outreach campaigns. She has lead support groups for parents, engaging with schools in a range of contexts to co-produce projects that truly meet the needs of local families. She has experience in supporting schools in times of crisis as part of critical incident response. Jen has trained ELSAs and SMHLs in supporting mental health across whole school contexts and presented her work at a range of National conferences. She will be commencing her doctorate in Educational & Child Psychology at UEL in September.

Alicia Shawcross

Alicia began her career in SEND education, developing expertise in inclusive teaching and the psychology of learning. She adapts lessons to individual needs while supporting effective group learning, informed by experience with diverse learning styles and emotional needs.

Specialising in dyslexia, Alicia delivers individualised support that addresses both learning and wellbeing, helping learners build confidence and achieve their potential. Also, as a RESTA practitioner, she integrates relational and emotionally supportive approaches into her teaching and interventions. She works with children and adults one-to-one and in classrooms, while also Lecturing in Education and Psychology. A Dyslexia Guild Associate Member (ADG), Alicia provides practical guidance to teachers and practitioners, focusing on sustainable, lifelong learning outcomes.

What Alicia can offer:

• Deliver targeted dyslexia interventions (Morph Mastery, Kelly & Phillips, Dyslexia Action) learning needs individually assessed.
• Support emotional wellbeing, confidence, and self-understanding for learning.
• Advise teachers and practitioners on dyslexia-friendly teaching strategies.
• Support in bridging, research, assessment, and practical classroom application to create sustainable, lifelong learning outcomes.

Kat Fry

Kat is currently undertaking a professional doctorate in Educational Psychology and has spent 11 years working in local government across London, the eastern region, and the south of England. As an Assistant Psychologist, she gained particular experience in gathering children and young people’s’ views; undertaking a range of assessment activities; consulting with schools and families; and contributing to psychological advice with oversight from an Educational Psychologist.

Amy Allen

Rhiannon Newby

Rhiannon is both the Brimstone and RESTA business administrator. Having passed her level 2 qualification in business administration, Rhiannon is now working towards her level 3. Rhiannon has firsthand knowledge of SEN, she studied GCSE Psychology, and is the first port of call for any enquiries and manages the RESTA memberships.

Jemma Hanslip

Jessica Went

Jessie’s passion for working with children has been driven by a philosophy that centres around the belief that every child can succeed when given the right support and guidance. She trained as a teacher in the state sector and moved into the independent sector. She worked across all subjects with Key Stage 1 and 2 and together with a love for the outdoors and embracing physical challenge, she enjoyed being Head of Geography. She later ran a school Boarding House with 8-11 year olds with her Husband for 8 years and latterly taught faith, philosophy and ethics to Key Stage 3.

With a lifelong interest in psychology, child development and her own personal inner growth, Jessie went on to do a Level 3 in Counselling and Psychotherapy. She followed this up with a children’s counselling course with Place2be. She trained as a SIBS course leader – supporting children who have neurodiverse siblings and has since gone on to train as an ELSA and a RESTA. She has ambition to train as an Educational Psychologist in the future.

Pastoral care is at the heart of all Jessie does and she is a devoted mother of two. She feels driven to want to nurture children, to instill in them the skills and tools to allow them to navigate life, challenges, adversity and develop enriched meaningful relationships. She is motivated to support them to use and apply these in their day to day whilst facilitating them to learn to move and evolve through these key skills in allowing for greater freedom of heart and mind and opening up creative endeavours.

Jemima Shute

Jemima is a GCSE Psychology student who joins the team as student consultant for the RESTA project. In addition to producing all our RESTA characters and creatives, Jemima also supports the team to understand the best way to engage young people in RESTA. Having Jemima on the team brings a real collaborative element so that the focus of our intervention really considers what young people want and need.

Jemima is gaining first hand knowledge of how psychological intervention is designed. She already has a wonderful grasp of psychological theory, and her creative talents are a real asset.

In the future, once she has completed her studies, Jemima would love to go into a career in Educational Psychology.