Aroa team
Dr Leanne Short
Senior Educational Psychologist and Director
Leanne worked as an Educational Psychologist for Liverpool City Council for 5 years after completing her Doctorate at Newcastle University. Prior to this, Leanne completed a Masters Degree in Mental Health Practice at Manchester University and worked with Wigan Specialist Eating Disorders Clinic.
During her three-year undergraduate degree in Psychology at the University of Liverpool, Leanne worked with families home educating their children and young people with a diagnosis of Autistic Spectrum Condition and co-morbid difficulties.
Leanne has worked as an Independent Educational Psychologist since 2015 supporting families and schools across the North West of England. Having built a reputation amongst many SEND communities, Leanne founded Aroa in July 2022, forming a team of EPs to provide exceptional psychological services across England and North Wales.
Dr Louise Jones
Senior Educational Psychologist
Louise has worked as a Specialist and Senior Educational Psychologist within Local Authority services since completing her Doctorate in Educational and Child Psychology at the University of Manchester in 2020. Throughout her career, Louise has led and contributed to a range of projects focused on improving outcomes for children and young people, including initiatives to enhance transitions in the early years and post-16 phases, develop motivational interviewing approaches within schools, support early intervention in the early years, and promote literacy development. She has also played a key role in wider service development, including the supervision and support of Assistant Educational Psychologists and Trainee Educational Psychologists.
Prior to qualifying as an Educational Psychologist, Louise worked across primary, secondary, post-16, independent, maintained, and specialist educational settings as a SEND Teaching Assistant. Drawing on her background in psychology, education, and research, developed during her Psychology degree at the University of St Andrews, she gained extensive experience supporting children and young people with a diverse range of needs. This breadth of experience continues to inform her collaborative, evidence-based, and child-centred approach to practice.
Miss Olivia Warwick-Bower
Senior Assistant Educational Psychologist and Therapeutic Specialist
Olivia achieved a Bachelor of Science (BSc) degree with honours in Educational Psychology from Manchester Metropolitan University in 2022. During this time, she worked closely within a team of SEND Coordinators (SENDCo) in schools and in Early Years settings, before working as a Learning Support Assistant in a Special Secondary School. Along with her experience across all age-ranges and school provisions, Olivia has training in safeguarding that specialises in indicators of abuse, statistics, and domestic abuse, as well as training in literacy difficulties, Autism, Pathological Demand Avoidance and emotions as an alternative to diagnosis.
As of 2023, Olivia has worked with Aroa as an Assistant Educational Psychologist to support schools across the North West of England. Since joining the team, Olivia has developed a trusting and reputable relationship with schools across the district and is now the designated Educational Psychologist for one of the largest Multi-Academy Trusts (MATs) across Wirral.
Olivia specialises in mental health and therapeutic interventions.
Brooke Dewhurst
Assistant Educational Psychologist and Specialist in EBSA
Brooke achieved a Bachelor of Science (BSc) degree with honours in Education and Psychology from Manchester Metropolitan University in 2021. She went on to complete a Masters in Psychology, deepening her understanding of cognitive development, learning, and behaviour in children and young people.
Alongside her studies, Brooke worked within primary school settings, providing one-to-one support for children and young people with autism, ADHD, and a range of learning difficulties. This hands-on experience sparked a strong interest in inclusive education and early intervention.
Following her postgraduate studies, Brooke worked as a Learning Support Mentor in an Alternative Provision, supporting young people who were not attending school full time due to complex needs, including anxiety, autism, and ADHD. Her role focused on building trusted relationships, promoting engagement with education, and helping pupils develop emotional regulation skills in preparation for reintegration into school or further education. This experience developed Brooke’s specialist interest in supporting children and young people experiencing Emotional-Based School Non-Attendance and those educated via EOTIS/C.
Brooke’s role within Aroa focuses on supporting children/young people, families and schools with early interventions and support relating to EBSA.
Mrs Charlotte Hill
Specialist Educational Occupational Therapist and Practitioner in Sensory Integration
Charlotte has over fifteen years of experience in specialist schools, colleges and residential services. Her profession has focused on supporting individuals with autism and interrelated complex needs, working across a wide range of developmental and educational stages. Charlotte is passionate in her role to work closely with children/young people, families and schools to understand each child and young person’s unique sensory profile and provide tailored support that helps them thrive.
Charlotte holds a Master’s degree in Occupational Therapy and a Postgraduate Certificate from the Sensory Integration Network, qualifying her as a Sensory Integration Practitioner. Charlotte is also currently completing a second Master’s degree in Children’s Autism.
Mr Chris England
Creative Director for Aroa SEND and Inclusion Consultancy
Chris England NPQH is an experienced school leader and SEND specialist with over 18 years’ experience as a SENDCo and more than 10 years in senior leadership.
Having served as Head of School at Knotty Ash Primary School, he holds the National Professional Qualification for Headship (NPQH) and has extensive expertise in inclusion, safeguarding, school improvement, curriculum development and supporting children and young people with complex SEND needs.
Chris is passionate about helping schools develop inclusive practices that enable every child and young person to thrive and achieve.
Sophie Duxbury
Neurodivergent Specialist and Team Manager of Aroa STET
Sophie is an experienced educator, Team Manager, Neurodiversity Specialist and Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) at Aroa STET, with a strong background in supporting children and young people with diverse special educational needs and disabilities.
Her work sits at the intersection of neurodiversity, trauma informed practice, safeguarding, education and therapeutic mentoring, with a particular focus on understanding each child or young person holistically and creating environments where they feel safe, valued and able to re-engage with learning.
For the first six years of her career, Sophie worked in a generic specialist school, supporting children and young people with a wide range of needs, including SLD, PMLD, SLCN, Autism and SEMH. During this time, she worked closely with families and multidisciplinary professionals to develop personalised approaches and achieve meaningful outcomes for each individual.
Sophie then transitioned to an independent specialist school supporting autistic children and young people with complex learning needs, including pathological demand avoidance (PDA) and anxiety. In this setting, she developed particular expertise in supporting young people with histories of placement breakdown, school-based trauma, burnout and Education Other Than At School (EOTAS). Her work focused on rebuilding trust, emotional safety and engagement, while working collaboratively with families and professionals to support successful reintegration into education.
In her current role at Aroa STET, Sophie leads a team of mentors working with children and young people who may have experienced exclusion, repeated placement breakdown, emotionally based school avoidance, unmet neurodivergent needs or negative experiences within traditional education settings. She supports an individualised, trauma informed approach that prioritises relationships, emotional safety, trust and meaningful engagement.
As a Designated Safeguarding Lead, Sophie is committed to keeping children and young people at the heart of safeguarding practice, ensuring their voices, wellbeing and individual needs remain central to decision making. She is particularly passionate about neurodiversity affirming practice, school-based trauma and creating alternative educational pathways for children and young people who have struggled within traditional settings.
Sophie believes that every child and young person deserves to experience education as a place where they feel safe, understood and valued. She is passionate about recognising that sometimes it is the environment that needs to change, rather than expecting the child or young person to change to fit the environment.
Mrs Lindsey Davies
Executive Operations Manager
Lindsey spent 21 years in the airline industry before moving into medical administration, initially within a private hospital setting prior to her current role. The airline industry provided a great background for developing a number of core and complementary skills that now complement the work Lindsey does as the Operations Manager for the Aroa group.
Front and centre of these are strong interpersonal skills. An ability to deal with complex and multiple situations with an empathetic understanding enable Lindsey to deliver care and service that put Aroa as a best-in-class provider. As a first point of contact for many, Lindsey understands and represents the business in a way that creates a level of comfort and understanding that all needs will be dealt with to the highest of standards.
Mrs Elizabeth Snell
Executive Assistant
Liz was a CIPD qualified HR Adviser for 10 years after gaining an International Business Management degree at Northumbria University. After returning to education to complete an A-Level in Creative Writing, Liz has worked as a freelance Copywriter and Editor for Yorkshire based magazines and charities.
Liz works as part of the Business team for Aroa supporting the EPs with administration tasks, training programmes, meeting minutes and diary management.
