United Kingdom & Republic of Ireland Chapter Election - Candidate Information

Joseph Lavelle

Bio: As a lecturer and researcher in psychology at Dublin Business School (DBS; and previously at University College Dublin), I've been engaged in Contextual Behavioural Science (CBS) and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) research for over a decade, and have been a member of ACBS & the UK and Ireland Chapter since 2018. Since 2024, I have served as a member-at-large on the UK & Ireland Chapter board and supported the running of two chapter conferences during that time.

I am committed to enhancing access to CBS and ACT-informed interventions, particularly for individuals with health and developmental conditions that have been underexplored in the literature. As such, my research focuses on investigating the efficacy of ACT for individuals with conditions such as Inflammatory Bowel Disease and neurodevelopmental conditions like Spina Bifida. In my outreach work, I co-founded the "FEELING better project," a free workshop series in collaboration with the UCD CBS Lab, aimed at providing free and accessible CBS & ACT interventions to students. Additionally, I co-founded the "Escape Procrasti-nation" YouTube series with Dr. Alison Stapleton, further expanding avenues for free access to these interventions.

Outside of academia, I enjoy experimenting with coffee gadgets, consuming media related to the RMS Titanic (the last conference in Liverpool was additionally enjoyable for me), and supporting the Mayo Gaelic football team—a pursuit that continually gives me opportunities to practice my acceptance skills.

Platform Statement: The UK and ROI ACBS community is one I am both delighted and proud to be part of. I have always been struck by the genuineness, warmth, and, particularly, generosity of this community. If successful in being re-elected as a member-at-large, I hope to continue to extend this warmth and generosity to new and existing members of our community. I also hope to serve this chapter by facilitating its continued growth, supporting delivery of chapter events and conferences, and ensuring that these continue to meet members’ needs, interests, and expectations.

Laura Neal

Bio: I came to contextual behavioural science later in my career. I originally trained and worked as a social worker and psychological therapist, supporting care-experienced children whose lives had been shaped by complex developmental trauma. I was searching for a framework that helped me truly understand behaviour. Discovering behavioural analysis and later ACT and broader contextual behavioural approaches, fundamentally changed how I worked. 

I am now a UKBA(cert) and have been the founder and Clinical Director of a trauma-informed care organisation employing over 20 behaviour analysts and therapists for the last eight years. Our work integrates behavioural principles with trauma-informed and developmental approaches to support children and young people in residential care, foster care, and multidisciplinary systems. My passion lies in translating contextual behavioural science into real-world trauma informed environments where complexity is high and flexibility is essential. 

For the past year, I have served as Co-Chair of the ACBS Trauma Special Interest Group. In this role, I have helped facilitate dialogue, collaboration, and knowledge-sharing among practitioners and researchers working at the intersection of trauma and contextual behavioural science. This experience has deepened my appreciation for ACBS as a global community committed to rigorous science, openness, and innovation. 

I am particularly committed to bridging disciplines, connecting behaviour analysis, ACT, attachment-informed thinking, and frontline child welfare practice. Psychological flexibility is not just a clinical construct for me; it guides how I lead, collaborate, and design systems of care. I am passionate about expanding the reach of contextual behavioural science within trauma-impacted child and family systems and contributing meaningfully to the continued growth of ACBS.

Platform Statement: I wish to serve ACBS as Member at Large because I believe deeply in the power of contextual behavioural science to improve lives, particularly within complex, trauma-impacted systems where its voice is still emerging. 

ACBS represents a unique global community that values scientific integrity, compassion, diversity, and innovation. My professional journey includes behaviour analysis, social work, and trauma-informed therapeutic practice. Through leading a multidisciplinary organisation, I have worked to integrate ACT and broader CBS principles into real-world child welfare and care systems, contexts where contextual behavioural approaches are not yet consistently accepted, understood or embedded. 

If I was to become a Member at large, I would aim to strengthen three areas: 
1. Bridging research and frontline systems: Supporting translation of CBS principles into child welfare, residential care, and multidisciplinary settings. 
2. Trauma-informed contextual practice: Contributing to dialogue on how ACT and CBS approaches can thoughtfully integrate developmental and relational trauma perspectives. 
3. Accessibility and engagement: Using my experience in leadership, communication, and dissemination to help ACBS expand reach and accessibility across sectors beyond traditional therapy settings. I bring experience in organisational leadership, strategic growth, supervision, and cross-disciplinary collaboration. I also bring the perspective of someone who entered CBS from outside psychology which allows me to advocate for contextual behavioural science in systems that may not yet recognise its value. 
 

Serving as a Member at Large would be an opportunity to contribute to the ACBS continued evolution as a collaborative, innovative, and inclusive scientific community.

Aiveen Smith

Bio: I am a Chartered and Registered (Forensic Psychologist) HCPC and BPS. I have been working as a qualified/practitioner psychologist since 2012. Between 2007 and 2024 I was employed by the MOJ/HMPPS working across the High Security/regional and latterly Women's Estate Psychology Service (WEPS). In my final 7 years this was within Senior Leadership Roles. In 2024 I left the Prison Service to set up a small psychology practice; Systemisk Psychology with my business partner. We offer a variety of services but focusing primarily on a therapeutic offer and additional assessment, consultancy and training services. I am skilled in delivering psychological assessments, individualised therapy offers and providing project management/strategic support to organisations from a psychological perspective. 

My background is working with High risk, high complexity populations and I have been delivering group and individual 'interventions' (HMPPS name for therapy) since 2007. HMPPS primarily adopts a CBT focus to therapeutic offers and until recently ACT was not a core part of the offer. I discovered ACT in 2019 (I wish it had been earlier!) and it was the first approach that completely resonated with me and provided a way forward for some of my most complex cases. In my final four years in HMPPS I was instrumental in sharing my developing knowledge of ACT into the Prison Service and by the time I left it was significantly more embedded as part of the therapeutic offer particularly within WEPS. 

In private practice I have a broader case load (retaining some of my high complexity case load but also now working in an early intervention capacity) and ACT is integral to my practice. I have a strong interest in employee well-being and supporting people to thrive in difficult work environments. ACT has also played a significant role in how I have developed this offer.

Platform Statement: It is hard to put into words the impact that ACT has had on my professional and personal life. I found ACBS about a year into my ACT journey and became a member shortly after. I have gradually increased my involvement in ACBS by attending the last two conferences and some of the ACBS online events. I have found both my clinical supervisors (Richard Bennett and Natalie Savage) via ACBS and have learnt so much from their expertise. In an employed role it would probably not have been viable to increase my involvement in ACBS and so I am appreciating the freedom private practice has given me to submit this application. 

In terms of what I can bring to the board perhaps most importantly, a strong desire to serve and increase the reach of ACBS across the UK. It saddens and slightly frustrates me that most people I know who use ACT have not heard of ACBS. This may be a skewed perspective (as mentioned the Prison Service has only started to integrate ACT recently) but I've started to find similar in community practice. I would like to be part of changing this. My skill set- years of working in high pressure, under resourced services means I'm organised, effective in communication, strategic and focused. It would be a privilege to be a bigger part of ACBS.

Arianna Prudenzi

Bio: I am a Lecturer in Psychology interested in advancing ACT and contextual behavioural science through research focused on work-related stress, burnout, and mental health across education and workplace settings. My work sits at the intersection of ACT/CBS, occupational health, and implementation - how we design, adapt, and evaluate interventions that are feasible, acceptable, and scalable in real-world settings. I am based at the University of Sheffield, where I contribute to research, teaching, and supervision across undergraduate, postgraduate, and clinical psychology programmes. 

A core part of my work is collaborative: I regularly work with organisations of different types and sizes, including charities, public sector partners, and SMEs. I enjoy bringing people together across disciplines and professional backgrounds - creating shared language, building trust, and translating evidence into practice. I value co-produced approaches that keep CBS grounded in lived experience and responsive to the communities we serve. 

I also bring an international perspective shaped by working and training across different countries, contexts, languages, and systems. This has strengthened my commitment to equity, cultural humility, and accessibility - thinking carefully about how professional communities can widen participation, support high-quality training and supervision, and help members connect across regions, roles, and career stages. 

I am motivated by impact beyond academia: building partnerships, strengthening professional networks, and supporting the growth of CBS in ways that are ethical, inclusive, and practically useful.

Platform Statement: I am standing for the Board because ACBS UK&ROI is an important professional home for CBS practitioners, researchers, trainers, and students, and I want to contribute to a Chapter that is connected, inclusive, and practically valuable to members. I am especially motivated by work that strengthens member engagement, supports high-quality training and supervision, and broadens access to CBS across settings. 

If elected, I would bring four things. First, bridge-building and partnership experience: through working with a range of organisations (including SMEs, charities, and public sector partners), I’m used to connecting people with different priorities and creating collaborations that lead to tangible outcomes - events, resources, projects, and shared learning. Second, an international perspective and lived experience of working across contexts, which I would use to support culturally responsive, accessible Chapter activities and to amplify a wide range of voices within our community. Third, a commitment to elevating the voices of early-career researchers, academics, and practitioners. ACBS is at its strongest when people at different career stages can contribute, learn, and shape the community. If elected, I would support simple, practical ways to ensure these voices are listened to - such as dedicated listening sessions, feedback surveys that translate suggestions into visible actions, and events specifically designed to support the development of early-career researchers and practitioners. Fourth, a practical, delivery-oriented approach: I enjoy workstreams where ideas become concrete outputs - supporting accessible events (online/hybrid), improving communication and feedback (e.g., short member surveys), and contributing to strategy around training, supervision, and inclusion. 

To conclude, I want to help ACBS UK&ROI continue to grow as a welcoming, connected community that shares CBS with integrity, supports members’ development, and strengthens our collective impact.

Rhian Thorne

Bio: Hi! My name is Rhian (she/her) and I am a Behaviour Analyst working for Skybound Therapies supporting individuals with additional needs. I had an interest and passion for supporting individuals with additional learning needs from an early age as my younger brother has Down's Syndrome, and discovered the field of Applied Behaviour Analysis as a way of doing this in 2009. I embarked on my RFT/ACT journey while I was completing my MSc in ABA and attended an ACT Bootcamp for Behaviour Analysts in Reno, Nevada in 2018. I had since been applying RFT and ACT into my practise as a Behaviour Analyst, from teaching students to derive relations, to using acceptance and values based activities with parents; from using language interventions based on the DNA-V with adolescents to being involved in organising company wide ACT interventions for colleagues.

Platform Statement: I have served on the board as a Member at Large over the past 2 years and have loved becoming more involved with the ACBS community, and I would be honoured to continue in this role. ACBS provides a professional “home” and community that feels like the right fit. From the first conference I attended I felt so welcome and a sense of connection with those around me. As a member of the board I’d love to continue to pay that forward, and especially keep welcoming more and more Behaviour Analysts into this space. 

As a UKBA and BCBA I am passionate about the dissemination of RFT and ACT to the behaviour analytic community, and discussing the science of ABA with ACT practitioners. The introduction to ACT and the ACBS community has been life changing for me both personally and professionally, and look forward to an opportunity to grow further while sharing my experiences with others. 

I’m someone who loves connection, adventure, discovering new things and new places. & sometimes, just loves the comfort of old favourites like a ‘cwtch’ with the cat or listening to the birds in the back garden (while trying to keep said cat away from those birds….!)