Meet the Team
Our team brings together lived experience, professional expertise and a shared commitment to trauma-informed, community-led change that strengthens people and places from the inside out.
Founder
Amanda Jayne Jones
Amanda is the founder of Cultures in Unity and a strategic consultant with over 25 years’ experience in community development, trauma-informed practice and cross-sector collaboration. She is passionate about empowering communities, bridging systemic gaps and co-creating practical, compassionate solutions alongside people with lived experience, believing that resilient communities are built when power, knowledge and opportunity are shared.
Director
Caroline Tasker
Caroline Tasker is a Director for Cultures in Unity (CIU), and she oversees our strong legal and governance frameworks to support ethical practice and sustainable growth. She ensures transparency, accountability, and organisational integrity across all areas of CIU’s work.
A champion of inclusive practice, Caroline embeds governance that is inclusive and respects neurodiversity and lived experience. She ensures CIU’s policies and procedures uphold dignity, accessibility, and equitable participation.
With a background in legal consultancy, strategic negotiation, and case management, Caroline has successfully represented vulnerable clients in complex regulatory and financial disputes. Her skill in risk management and partnership oversight ensures that CIU’s growth remains principled, secure, and community centred.
Digital Director
Tom Norton
Tom is a senior digital and technology leader who volunteers his time Digital Director for Cultures in Unity, supporting the organisation’s mission through inclusive, ethical, and practical use of technology.
With 20 years’ experience leading digital, IT, and transformation programmes, Tom has worked across a wide range of sectors including health and social care, finance and insurance, aviation, manufacturing, and media. He brings a hands-on, collaborative approach, helping organisations translate strategy into delivery and ensuring that change delivers real, measurable benefits for the people it is intended to support.
Tom has extensive experience working at board and executive level, managing complex stakeholder environments, and leading large, multi-disciplinary teams. He is known for his pragmatic and people-centred style, focusing on clear communication, sustainability, and outcomes rather than technology for its own sake.
A significant part of Tom’s career has been dedicated to the NHS and wider health system, where he has held board-level accountability for digital and transformation portfolios. This experience has given him a strong understanding of governance, accessibility, and the importance of designing services that work for diverse communities.
Alongside his voluntary role, Tom is CIO at Seagry, where he has led the development of responsible AI and automation capabilities, combining Microsoft technologies with open-source tools. This experience supports his work with Cultures in Unity, helping the organisation explore how digital tools can be used safely, ethically, and inclusively to support communities.
Therapeutic lead
Louise Chapman
Louise Chapman is an experienced Systemic Family Psychotherapist and Art Psychotherapist based in Shrewsbury, England, with over 15 years’ experience working across NHS and private practice settings.
Louise currently works as a Systemic Family Psychotherapist at Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust, where she supports children, young people, and families facing complex emotional, relational, and mental health challenges. Alongside her NHS role, she runs a private psychotherapy practice at Parkview Clinic, offering thoughtful, relational, and creative therapeutic work tailored to individual and family needs.
Louise’s clinical background is grounded in both systemic psychotherapy and art psychotherapy, allowing her to work flexibly with verbal and non-verbal forms of expression. She has extensive experience across a wide range of services, including child and adolescent mental health, eating disorders, family services, elderly services, and secure and residential care settings. Her earlier roles include working as an Art Psychotherapist with Midlands Partnership NHS Foundation Trust and Bryn Melyn Care, as well as trainee and sessional positions within Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust and St Andrew’s Healthcare.
Her academic training reflects a strong commitment to integrative and relational practice. Louise holds an MSc in Systemic Psychotherapy, Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy from the University of Birmingham, an MA in Art Therapy from the University of Hertfordshire, and a Postgraduate Diploma and Certificate in Child-Focused Systemic Therapy from the Institute of Family Therapy, London. She has also completed CYP-IAPT Systemic Practitioner Training in the eating disorders pathway through Manchester Metropolitan University, and holds a BA in Fine Art as a Social Practice from the University of Wolverhampton.
Louise is known for her calm, compassionate presence and her ability to hold complexity with sensitivity and clarity. Her work is deeply informed by systemic thinking, creativity, and an understanding of the wider social and relational contexts that shape people’s lives. She is passionate about supporting meaningful change, resilience, and connection — for individuals, families, and the systems around them.
Facilitation Lead
Vikki Heath
Vikki Heath has dedicated her life to helping people feel their best — physically, emotionally, and spiritually — no matter the challenges they are facing. Her work is rooted in a deep belief that the body is a powerful gateway to healing, confidence, and personal transformation.
Her journey began in 1989 when she took on a pioneering role as an Exercise Development Officer for Coventry City Council. At the time, the post was new and innovative, and Vikki was responsible for designing and delivering inclusive exercise programmes across the city. With sensitivity to age, gender, culture, and religious preferences, she helped establish over 100 classes per week, supported by a team of ten teachers. What emerged was far more than fitness — it was a vibrant, emotionally supportive community filled with connection, joy, and shared purpose. It was here that Vikki truly understood the profound link between movement and mindset.
Three years later, seeking to balance professional life with family, Vikki launched her own highly successful wellness business while completing a 12-month Sports Massage and Rehabilitation qualification at Warwickshire College. After relocating to Shrewsbury in 1998, she became deeply involved in the development of major health clubs including Fitness First and later Cannons Health Club in Telford, playing key roles in their setup, membership growth, and community culture — and forming friendships that have lasted a lifetime.
Driven by her own transformative experiences, Vikki trained as a Clinical Hypnotherapist, qualifying in 2004 and opening a therapy practice in Shrewsbury. Her work expanded to support people with anxiety, confidence, and emotional resilience, blending scientific understanding with spiritual insight.
In 2009, Vikki realised a long-held vision with the opening of Ruralspace Wellness Centre on Pimhill Organic Farm — one of her proudest achievements. The centre offers classes, workshops, holistic therapies, and a unique Dry Flotation experience, alongside her hypnotherapy practice. She has since developed her own signature programme to help people overcome anxiety and reclaim their personal power, achieving powerful results with clients of all ages.
Despite the challenges of Covid, Ruralspace survived and evolved. Post-lockdown, the addition of a community café — run by her husband — has further deepened the sense of belonging that defines the space. Today, Ruralspace is not just a centre, but a family.
Vikki brings to Cultures in Unity a wealth of experience, compassion, and embodied wisdom. She is known for her warmth, authenticity, and unwavering belief in human potential. With qualifications spanning Exercise to Music, Hypnotherapy, Sports Therapy, Pilates, Trigger Points, Past Life Regression, and more, she continues to expand her practice and embrace new challenges.
Vikki firmly believes that ageing is not a time to slow down — but a time to step into greater vitality, purpose, and contribution. Her leadership invites others to do the same.
Advisor
Dr Shailendra Allen (MRCGP, MBBS)
Dr Shailendra Allen (MRCGP, MBBS), is a General Practitioner with over 25 years of extensive clinical experience across primary care, acute medicine, orthopaedics, and emergency medicine. Alongside his NHS roles, he has developed a strong portfolio in medicolegal reporting and expert witness services. His broad clinical background – including roles as GP Principal, Clinical Director, and CCG Board Member – gives him insight and knowledge that will underpin the work of Cultures in Unity to ensure we are working at the highest levels.
As well as all of these exceptional credentials, Shailendra is also a is a qualified life coach, a professional mentor, a Vedanta teacher, he teaches breath science, chakra meditation and kundalini yoga.
During commissioning days, he helped set up the adult ADHD services in Telford and Shropshire.
His approach is guided by clarity, impartiality, and professionalism, but with a strong relationship to spiritual development, Shailendra is the perfect well-balanced advisor for Cultures in Unity.
Dr Shailendra shares our passion for humanity and our positive vision for the future.
Lived Experience Lead
Amy Faye
I am Amy-Faye, and I work in retail. Have a late diagnosis of autism, and I have a passion for helping neuro divergent people come together for Mutual support.
I enjoy taking my high needs dog for calming walks in nature
Growing up, I always felt different and struggled to fit into the world around me. School was challenging, social interactions felt overwhelming, and I was often bullied for being myself. For a long time, I didn’t understand who I was or why life felt more difficult for me than it seemed for others.
In my 30s, I began asking myself why I never quite fit into society. A friend suggested I might be autistic, and the more I researched, the more it described me perfectly. Seeking a diagnosis wasn’t easy, but when I finally received it, everything changed. It empowered me, helped me understand myself, and allowed me to see autism as a positive part of who I am rather than a limitation.
After my diagnosis, I realised just how little support was available — I felt completely on my own. That experience led me to start a group for neurodivergent people, creating a safe space where individuals could better understand themselves and access help and advice based on lived experience.
When Amanda approached me and offered to collaborate, to grow this work into something bigger, it was a big ‘yes’ from me, if it meant we could reach and support many more people.
My goal is to challenge the stigma surrounding autism, provide meaningful support and guidance, and help give a voice to those who need it. No one should feel lost or alone after discovering who they are.
Advisor
Charlotte Hill
Growing up, Charlotte did everything right. Highly successful in school, went to university, consistently promoted within her career until she was leading teams and earning a big salary doing it. Married in her 20s, living in a “nice” area with two kids - one boy, one girl. But as she approached her 40th birthday she realised she was miserable. Doing things the way you are supposed to had not delivered the happiness she had expected, something had to change. She divorced her husband, moved into a less nice area, spent a lot of money on self-development and had another baby.
What she learned was that there is no one path through life and so often we get in our own way as we try to conform to what the world around us tells us is the right way to do things. So now, she is a trained life coach specialising in supporting other people, predominantly women, to live their lives without imposing limits on themselves. It is this view that led her to Cultures In Unity and why she is passionate about making small changes to the community around her that will one day grow a world where people are celebrated for their diversity and access to services is fair and equitable.
Advisor
Emma Linney
Emma is another leader and visionary who is director or Seeds of change an organisation that helps promote growth and change to both individuals and organisations. She has operated in the educational and SEND landscape for over 25 years. Her passion is to help people find their voice and empower themselves to make the changes and transition needed for shaping their own future. This has been demonstrated through the service of mentoring, careers guidance, training and developing personal development programmes as well as through song writing workshops.
Emma loves being creative and resourceful and uses this both in her singing snd songwriting but in business, making connections, finding solutions to challenges and coming up with creative ways of doing things.
Over the last 5 years she has co-founded different projects and services and continues to put her energy and enthusiasm to making a difference. She values authenticity and creating spaces where people can be their true selves. Over the last 5 years her organisation has worked with hundreds of young people and adults. Beyond her professional role, she is also a skilled singer-songwriter, runs music, meditation and mindfulness workshops, is deeply committed to her spiritual development and is the perfect addition to the CIU advisors team .