Neil Booth - Hospital Manager

Neil has worked in Mental health for the past 28 years and is a qualified mental health nurse. He has worked across multiple service lines as a nurse including male mental health, male learning disabilities, female mental health and personality disorder services and community Mental health services and forensics. Neil has most recently managed a specialised Older Males unit before coming into Female services.

Neil has operational responsibility for the hospital and is the registered CQC manger.

Mike McKenning - Head of Care

Mike’s interest in Mental Health began when studying a BA Hons Criminology degree in 2006. He began working in the mental health sector in 2008, gaining a breadth of experience as an Occupational Therapy Assistant and Team Leader HCA in the Mental Health Rehabilitation Sector. Mike returned to study, qualifying as an RMN after gaining a PGDip in Mental Health Nursing, completing his training with NHS South West Yorkshire Foundation Trust in Acute Male services. He gained further experience as a Staff Nurse and Senior Nurse within Cygnet before accepting the Head of Care role at Aspen Clinic in 2020.

Mike’s key areas of interest include Safeguarding Adults, Staff Development and Service Innovations.

Caroline Lovelock - Consultant Clinical Psychologist

Caroline is registered as both a clinical and forensic psychologist. Although relatively new to Cygnet, she has worked as a qualified Psychologist for over 35 years in both the NHS and the independent sector. She has worked with both survivors and perpetrators of complex abuse throughout her career. One of her specialisms is working with women with mental health problems; in a variety of settings. She has a post-graduate diploma in Women’s Studies (Applied).

Caroline was a founder member of the multi-disciplinary team who developed the first dedicated women only medium secure unit in the UK, and she was subsequently selected as a trainer for the national DoH Gender Training Initiative. In 2020 Caroline qualified in Forensic Psychodynamic Psychotherapy at the Tavistock and Portman clinic, London.

Amy Cantwell - Counselling Psychologist

Amy is a HCPC Registered and Chartered Counselling Psychologist. She qualified in October 2024, and prior to that had around 8 years of experience of working with women with abuse histories and neurodiversity (which was often late diagnosed). Before this Amy worked with learning disabilities. After completing her doctorate in Counselling Psychology she worked in the NHS in a community mental health team for adults with varying difficulties including trauma histories, complex PTSD, complex grief and depression and anxiety. She came back to Aspen Clinic a year and a half later as her passion is working with and helping women to feel more empowered which Amy believes is a major part of their healing journey.

Amy is trained in the humanistic approach which puts women patients at the centre and allows them to discuss in therapy what is important to them. She is also trained in Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT), and her favourite module of this is interpersonal effectiveness as this teaches assertiveness skills which can be actively practised at Aspen Clinic with professionals in the MDT. Amy is trained in Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) which is one form of trauma therapy. She is passionate about in-depth assessment as in her experience, women patients have often been misdiagnosed. Amy is also trained in both Autism and ADHD assessment, which for women patients, neurodiversity is often missed. She uses a trauma informed and neuro-inclusive approach to therapy and assessment.