Therapies
Our direct therapeutic services for families are tailored to meet the unique needs of each family. We provide individualised therapy that focuses on reconnecting family members, overcoming harmful and self destructive behaviours, and building a supportive and resilient family environment.
Kerry Shoesmith
Pioneering Therapeutic Leader in High-Risk and Complex Care
Hello, I’m Kerry Shoesmith. With over 20 years of experience in working with children and families.
At Connective Strength, I focus on Non-Violent Resistance (NVR) family preservation and professional training.
My additional services include:
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Individual Therapy
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Life Coaching
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Leadership and Management Coaching
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Therapeutic Consultation for Organisations and Children’s Homes:
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Bespoke Training
My extensive background as a therapist, supervisor, trainer, and residential childcare operational director enables me to deliver effective therapeutic interventions and clinical supervision. I am committed to helping vulnerable adolescents, adults and teams achieve change, experience personal and professional growth, overcome trauma, increase their mental and emotional well-being, and improve relationships.
Dr Peter Jakob
UK leader in Non Violent Resistance Therapy and Practice
With a social work background and over 40 years of experience in clinical psychology and family therapy, I draw mainly from solution-focused and narrative ways of working to facilitate change in a timely manner.
Specific trauma-focused methods, such as EMDR, trauma-focused CBT and Re-Attach, are all interwoven with these approaches to best address a client’s needs and, where working in NVR, increase its efficacy for individuals and families who are facing multiple challenges. Having developed a trauma-informed and child-focused approach within NVR, I also work with a wide variety of psychological difficulties in private practice.
I strongly believe that helping to actualise people’s own internal and interpersonal resources, appreciating how they themselves are able to take steps in bringing about change in their own lives, while being a compassionate witness to the suffering they have experienced is one of the most respectful, and at the same time effective, way of working in therapy.
Cheryl Priscott
Accredited NVR Practitioner, Therapeutic Life Story Work Practitioner, Systemic Practitioner
Cheryl has worked professionally and therapeutically with young people, families and carers since 2004. She holds a BA (Hons) in Childhood and Youth Studies and a Post Graduate Diploma in Therapeutic Life Story Work.
Cheryl has over 20 years experience supporting fostered and adopted children and their carers, Cheryl has been a Life Story Worker since 2010 and qualified as a Therapeutic Life Story Work Practitioner in 2015.
She is a Level 3 accredited NVR practitioner and has completed training in SPACE (Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions).
Cheryl trained as a Systemic Child-Focused Practitioner in 2023 and gained her Diploma in ReAttach in 2022. She works directly with young people and families, and in partnership with schools.
Lucy Wright
Accredited NVR Practitioner, Therapeutic Children's Home Manager
Lucy studied Law at university before choosing to pursue a career that would allow her to work directly with vulnerable young people and families. She began her career working in a children’s home, supporting young people with complex emotional and behavioural needs. Over time, she progressed into leadership roles and now manages a children’s home, where her focus is on creating safe, therapeutic environments that support stability, growth and positive change.
Alongside her management role, she has developed her therapeutic skills. She holds the NVR Foundation, Advanced and Accredited qualifications, and is also trained in ReAttach Therapy. In addition to managing a children’s home, she offers therapeutic NVR support to families, helping parents rebuild connection, strengthen relationships and respond to challenging behaviour with clarity, confidence and compassion.
Marie Luise Schreiter
Scientific Advisor and Academic Assessor
Marie Luise Schreiter is a neuroscientist, psychologist, and science communicator based at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Tübingen, Germany. She specializes in translating basic brain research into accessible knowledge and fostering dialogue between neuroscience and other disciplines.
She earned her BSc and MSc at the University of Sussex (UK) and completed her PhD on emotional–cognitive brain interactions. During her doctoral work at University Hospital Dresden, she worked clinically with children diagnosed with ADHD, autism, Alzheimer’s disease, and PTSD.
Trained in Nonviolent Resistance (NVR) in the UK, she is particularly interested in how therapeutic strategies shape expectations of clients and therapists, and how therapeutic outcomes can be scientifically measured and validated.