Our Team
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Professor Rachel Tribe, Head of Group (Portal)
Rachel is Professor of Applied Psychological Practice at the School of Psychology, University of East London. In 2014 she was awarded the British Psychological Society Award for Challenging Social Inequalities in Psychology. She is a Fellow of the British Psychological Society and an HCPC registered psychologist. She has over 30 years' experience of developing clinical services and conducting research both in the UK and abroad. She is active in national and international consultancy and training work. She has experience of working in the private, public, charity and academic sectors. She has worked clinically with a range of diverse communities.
She has published widely on migration and mental health, refugees and asylum seekers, community psychology, critical psychology, social justice, professional and ethical practice, ageing and trauma. She was a member of the Royal College of Psychiatrists' expert panel on Improving Services for Refugees and Asylum-Seekers and the World Psychiatric Association's Task Force on Migration and Mental Health. She is currently a member of the BPS Presidential Task Force on Refugees and Asylum Seekers. She co-wrote the BPS guidelines with Dr Kate Thompson on Working with Interpreters in Health Settings. Professor Tribe also co-edited a book on Working with Interpreters in Mental Health with Dr Hitesh Raval, re-issued in 2014. In 2011 with Dr Pauline Lane she produced a DVD and guidance notes on Working with Interpreters in Mental Health for the Department of Health. Her latest book co-edited with Jean Morrissey is the 2nd edition of The Handbook of Professional and Ethical Practice for Psychologists, Psychotherapists and Counsellors.
Email: r.tribe@uel.ac.uk
Dr Farkhondeh Farsimadan, CPsychol, AFBPsS (Portal's Researcher & Content Developer)
Farkhondeh (Farah) is a Chartered Counselling Psychologist, an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society and an HCPC registered psychologist.
Farah obtained her BSc (Hons) in Psychology and a Postgraduate Diploma in Psychological Counselling in the 90s. She then embarked on further studies and whilst studying for her PsychD in Psychotherapeutic & Counselling Psychology at Surrey University, Guildford (2000-2003), she conducted a number of research on the migrant population which was followed by further research and publications in the field which she has continued to date. Farah has a special interest in and written on topics including therapy and therapeutic considerations when working with refugee and asylum seeking population from a traditional culture and on refugee and ethnic minority clients’ experiences in therapy and the effects of ethnicity on process and outcomes of therapy.
Farah has extensive experience working with refugees, asylum seekers and migrant communities in secondary and tertiary settings in the NHS including CMHRCs, Psychotherapy, Assertive Outreach, Acute Inpatient and Psychiatric Intensive Care units at West London Mental Health NHS Trust. She had a key role in setting up Ealing Assertive Outreach service in 2003 at WLMHT. She was also the Trust's training coordinator and clinical supervisor for doctoral trainee counselling psychologists studying at University of East London and City University for a number of years.
Though retired, Farah remains passionate about refugee-related causes and in 2016 researched and developed the entire content of the Resource Centre on the Refugee Mental Health & Wellbeing Portal which she updates annually, on a voluntary basis. As a member of the BPS's Presidential Taskforce on Refugees and Asylum Seekers, Farah contributed to the development of the 'Guidelines for psychologists working with refugees and asylum seekers in the UK' published by the Taskforce in 2018.
The BPS Division of Counselling Psychology 2019 award for diversity in practice was jointly awarded to Professor Tribe and Dr Farsimadan in recognition of their contributions to the field including the development of UEL Refugee Mental Health and Wellbeing Portal.
In 2021, Farah contributed a chapter entitled ‘Therapy and Therapeutic Considerations with Refugees and Asylum Seekers’ to an internationally edited book by Moussaoui D., Bhugra D., Tribe R., & Ventriglio A., ‘Mental Health, Mental Illness and Migration’. This is a book in the Mental Health and Illness Worldwide series which offers the reader a broader perspective and deeper insight into mental health and illness worldwide and across cultures.
Farah is co-editing a special issue on Forced Migration and Mental Health in the International Review of Psychiatry, (Tribe, R., Farsimadan, F., & Marshall, C., 2022 - in press) as well as co-editing a special issue on Forced Migration: Psychosocial Services and Interventions including the Role of Education in the Displaced Voices. A journal of Archives, Migration and Cultural heritage (Marshall, C., Farsimadan, F. & Tribe, R., 2022 - in press).
Email: farahfarsimadan@yahoo.co.uk
Publications
Paul Dudman
Paul is the archivist based at the University of East London. Paul has been responsible for the UEL Archives including the Refugee Council Archive and British Olympic Association Archive at UEL since 2002 and has over a decade's experience working within higher education archives. Paul is involved in a number of projects including being a co-convenor of the IASFM (International Association for the Study of Forced Migration) Working Group on the Archiving and Documentation of the History of Forced Migration and also the Oral History Society Special Interest Group on Migration. Paul is also responsible for Web and Strategy at the Migration and Asylum Network and has worked with the Campaign for Voluntary Sector Archives and manages the Living Refugee Archive website.
Email: p.v.dudman@uel.ac.uk
Dr Patricia Smith (Community Liaison)
Patricia is a Senior Lecturer in Physiotherapy in the School of Health, Sport and Bioscience and a registered member of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapist (CSP). She has worked in Jamaica as a physiotherapist both in the clinical and community setting before embarking on a career in teaching and research at UEL. She is actively involved in research in the area of Community Based Rehabilitation, Cultural Competency and Disability in Newham and in Jamaica and has a special interest in qualitative research methodologies. Her doctoral thesis "A Cultural Approach to Community Based Rehabilitation: A Jamaican Case Study" outlines the issues around culture and disability.
She is an active member of the Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) Network of the CSP and also serves on the ADAPT Special Interest Group for Physiotherapist working internationally and in crisis zones. In her role as community liaison for the team, Patricia works tirelessly to establish links with community groups in Newham through which she provides exercise and relaxation resources for refugees and asylum seekers in Newham.
Email: p.a.smith@uel.ac.uk
Dr Lucia Berdondini PhD
Lucia is a Lecturer and Programme Leader of BSc (Hons) Counselling and Psychotherapy at the School of Psychology, University of East London. She is also a BACP registered Gestalt psychotherapist and has been practising for the past 15 years with individuals and groups running a small private practice. She is particularly interested in Psychology of Disasters and Humanitarian Projects and has focused her professional activity on developing counselling training courses in countries in war and post conflict, such as Afghanistan, India and Angola.
Email: l.berdondini@uel.ac.uk
Elaahe Farsimadan
Elaahe obtained her Bachelor of Law (LLB Hons) from the University of Surrey, Guildford, and completed her Legal Practice Course, (LPC) and Master of Laws (LLM) at BPP Law School in London with merit.
Elaahe has been managing the Portal's Facebook and Twitter pages as well as assisting at various presentations and running stalls introducing the Portal to attendees at the BPS Annual Conferences, UEL, and a number of charity organisations and services working with refugees and asylum seekers.
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