Lesley Simpson-Gray

Lesley is an experienced Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist. After a successful career in marketing, she explored a long-held passion for music and the creative arts which led to her completing her psychotherapy training at the Institute for Arts in Therapy and Education.

Lesley is also dedicated to raising the profile of neurodiversity, especially amongst ethnic minorities, and upholding the rights of care-experienced young people. For several years she worked for a national UK charity as a young people’s advocate and independent mental health advocate.

She has run her private practice since 2017, supporting children, young people, and parents and she has worked completely online as a cyber-psychotherapist from a virtual playroom since 2020. Her work is focussed on the impact of trauma and developmental deficit on emotional wellbeing and her framework combines neuroscience, digital creative arts, and a blend of the physical and virtual worlds to deliver playful, immersive interventions.

Lesley is a qualified and experienced speaker and trainer, and she designs and delivers her own range of cyber-creativity workshops and training programmes. Her goal is to help mental health professionals to gain IT skills and confidence for online creative arts therapy.