Clare Knight
Chair of Trustees
Clare’s background is nursing. She worked as an adult and children’s nurse in London before training as a health visitor, working in London and Surrey.
Clare has many years’ experience in direct work with children, young people and their families, supporting emotional well-being as well as physical and developmental issues.
More recently she worked as a senior manager in children’s community health services, working closely with partner agencies to address inequalities and improve outcomes in both the immediate and the wider determinants of health. During this time Clare gained knowledge and experience in transforming services whilst continuing to reflect on the impact of change for families and practitioners, to ensure such changes were positive for all involved. She has a wide breadth of knowledge including supervision, teaching, governance, Human Resources and finance management. Clare hopes to utilise these skills to support Counselling Plus.
In 2019 Clare moved to Hastings and returned to her roots as a health visitor, currently working in and around Hailsham -she is slowly finding her way around all the villages between Hastings and Hailsham.
Clare has been a scout leader for many years and is also a School Governor. She enjoys walking and gardening and is becoming better at sewing although crochet is beyond her at the moment! Clare enjoys a challenge and is currently steeling herself for cold-water swimming.
Sue Manwaring
Vice Chair
Sue Manwaring is a qualified youth and community worker with many years’ experience setting up and running a range of projects and interventions for young people.
Sue currently is lead Trustee at Xtrax Young People’s Centre. She works supporting learners undertaking relevant qualifications to enhance their careers and practice for East Sussex County Council as well as delivering programmes of professional development as a freelance trainer for various organisations across Sussex.
Sue’s work had given her an in depth understanding of the mental health issues faced by young people and families and recently become a trustee for Counselling Plus to make a contribution to the much-needed local service. Sue also has a wide experience of volunteering and as a paid worker with charities in areas as diverse as mental health, training and HIV and AIDS support.
Sue has lived in Hastings for many years and loves being part of the local community. She has raised a family here which consists of 4 daughters and 9 grandchildren.
Angelica McMillan
Treasurer
Angelica is a qualified Integrative Counsellor, who lives in Hastings with her family and 2 dogs.
When Angelica was a counsellor in training in 2011, she took her first placement at Counselling Plus Community, where she worked for 6 years as a voluntary counsellor. She was also the coordinator for TLG (Transforming Lives for Good) in Hastings, which provided support for children who were at risk of being permanently excluded from school.
Angelica worked with children and young people in schools across Hastings, Bexhill and Eastbourne as a School Counsellor. She then left to manage one of the Counselling services that supported the Grenfell Tower survivors, where she then became Manager to a cluster of counselling services for Place2Be, a charity working with children, young people and their families in schools. Angelica then went to work as a Service Manager for Place2Be within the areas of Kent and East Sussex. She has been a spokesperson on a variety of platforms including Sky News and BBC Radio, promoting the importance of counselling, and raising awareness of mental health importance.
Angelica has also worked as a Clinical Lead for Kooth Plc, as part of the Governance Team and with a focus in participation and Service User’s voice, further promoting the importance of therapeutic interventions. Most recently, she has been supporting Clinical services in the Midlands for Place2Be. Angelica is passionate about the work that Counselling Plus Community undertakes supporting the Hastings and Rother communities and feels extremely grateful for the opportunity of supporting Counselling Plus Community as a trustee.
Shauna McCusker
Shauna McCusker is the Director of Criminal Justice at Canterbury Christ Church University, where she also teaches forensic investigation and psychology of crime to students.
She is also an NLP master coach and is in the final stages of training as a transactional analysis psychotherapist at the Link Centre in Sussex and has a particular interest in psychology in education and the psychology of trauma, particularly in emergency services staff.
Shauna uses her psychological background to provide support to students and staff at Canterbury Christ Church University, and prides herself in empowering and encouraging psychological growth in those she works with. In addition to this role, she is a student psychotherapist who works with clients In the Community Counselling Service in Canterbury and runs training courses on a range of subjects.
The combination of teaching experience and psychotherapy training allows Shauna to provide support to Counselling Plus as a trustee, educational professional and psychotherapist.