Our team

Helen Savage

Helen is the CEO of Southampton Family Trust.

Helen started her career as a family lawyer. She changed path to work as a family mediator in 2010 as she felt that co-operation between separated couples was a better way of resolving conflicts than the court system. Helen designed and ran the Changing Lives course which was funded by the Department for Work and Pensions. The course aimed to help parents reduce the impact of separation on their children.

Helen has been involved with SFT for many years as a volunteer and on the Board of Trustees. She took over from the previous CEO, John Deagle, in 2015. Helen does most of the couple support work with John.

Helen is an Incredible Years practitioner and has facilitated Time out from Anger, Feelings Affect Behaviour, All Change and Make the Most of your Relationships.

Helen is married with 2 boys, a dog and a cat. She loves spending time with family and friends and drinking coffee.

Janet Ferguson

Janet has worked at SFT since 2013 and does the administration for all our parenting work.

Prior to this, she worked for many years in the civil service and at Hampshire County Council administering the under 8’s forum in Winchester, and for the Pre-School Learning Alliance as the parent and toddler group co-ordinator. She has also spent time as a Secondary School teacher.

She is married with two grown up boys. She enjoys painting, printing and producing textiles. She exhibits her work across Hampshire. In her spare time, she works at SFT!

John Deagle

John has worked with couples for many years – providing pre-marriage preparation, relationship enrichment and supporting couples experiencing difficulties.

He is the former CEO of Southampton Family Trust. Previously John developed workforce planning training initiatives, and supported the implementation of best practice into the NHS. John also worked for many years as a British Gas manager with experience in Marketing Research and Planning, HR Planning and Systems.

Kate Gardener

Kate has been working with SFT since 2014. She is married with two young children and together the family is involved in respite foster care for babies. Kate works as a community nurse in Southampton. She is an accredited trainer in Emotional First Aid and has also delivered courses on Helping Your Child Do Well and Feelings Affect Behaviour. Kate is a facilitator for Prepare Enrich.

In her spare time, Kate enjoys working on the allotment and singing with the Rock Choir.

Kathy Neal

Kathy has been facilitating courses for Southampton Family Trust for 7 years and loves the opportunity it gives her to encourage parents and couples during the joys, and also the lows, of family life. It is great to watch how those attending the courses learn from and support each other.

Kathy has been married for 32 years and has two children now in their early twenties. For several years she worked as a dentist, mainly caring for those who found dentistry difficult. During a career break for having children, she trained and then worked as a voluntary breastfeeding counsellor for National Childbirth Trust for 6 years. During the last few years Kathy’s focus has been in supporting couples and families through voluntary work at her church and with facilitating courses for SFT. She really enjoys spending time with family and friends, walking and playing badminton.

Maggie Orchard

Maggie worked with children for many years as a Primary School teacher. She now facilitates parenting courses and helped design our successful FAB course (Feelings Affect Behaviour). She is an accredited Incredible Years and Positive Parenting practitioner. Maggie has two daughters and one granddaughter.

Kari Roberts

Experienced, qualified parenting specialist, trainer of facilitators, mentor and coach with over eleven years of experience. Delivering training to professionals and parents, using both evidenced based practise and a wealth of practical experience. Kari is passionate about supporting families to develop a positive relationship and have fun together.

Anna Springett

Anna is a chartered occupational psychologist who specialises in psychological profiling, design and delivery of training programmes based on well-researched psychological principles, professional outplacement and career coaching, and personal counselling (using a primarily person-centred approach).

She regularly facilitates courses for SFT, including FAB, Time out from Anger and All Change.

Anna and David Wright

Anna and David Wright own and run a group of children’s nurseries in the city. They both have many years’ experience in parenting and child development training and support. Their eldest 2 (twin) children were very premature and their youngest is adopted. They also understand loss, sadly, having had personal experience. David is an advocate for fathers and for men working with young children. In 2015, they started their own charity Families First Southampton which works to support dads in the city.

Amanda Dance

Amanda works for SFT facilitating GroBrain and supporting Strengthening Families courses. She also works for No Limits, a charity which offers free and confidential information, advice, counselling, support and advocacy for children and young people under 26 who live in Southampton and Hampshire.

Dr Graham Salmon – chair

Graham is married with 3 grown up children and 1 grandson.

After several years working as a doctor in hospitals, Graham went into General Practice preferring to work with the whole person in their family context. Now retired, he was a Southampton GP from 1974 to 2004. Graham has also been involved in churches (with marriage and parenting courses) and counselling over many years.

Graham helped set up the Firgrove Family Trust (Pregnancy Counselling Service, Post abortion Counselling) in Southampton.

Graham’s interests include art and music, gardening and spending time with family and friends.

Alison Sweeney

Alison is an accredited counsellor, specialising in Couples Therapy and the treatment of Post- Traumatic Stress Disorder. She is also responsible for developing and delivering counselling courses in these fields. Alison is passionate about relationship enrichment as a means of strengthening couples and preventing relationship difficulties. She runs relationship enrichment courses with her husband, Jon. Alison’s employment background is in Social Services children’s residential care.

Jon Sweeney

Jon is a trained counsellor and specialises in working with men’s issues and Couples Therapy. He is passionate about raising awareness of the effects of pornography and internet use on individuals, couples and families. Jon has been a businessman for thirty-five years and uses his warm relational style to compliment his business acumen. Jon has been instrumental in developing a charity which has built and runs a vocational school in Rwanda.

Alison and Jon are parents of three grown up sons and their heart is to support families through the various life challenges, stages, changes, difficulties and joys that family life inevitably brings.

Paul Finn

Paul has been an ordained church minister for 42 years. He has a Masters Degree in Theology and is also an accredited counsellor specialising in marriage working alongside his wife Janice. Paul has been married to Janice for 46 years; they have four children and 11 grandchildren. Paul and Janice are passionate about family and believe that wholesome families are the cornerstone of healthy communities.  He was involved in co-founding SFT over 15 years ago.

Janice Finn

Janice Finn has been a church minister’s wife and church leader for the past 42 years. She is an accredited counsellor who specialises in the area of marriage relationships and has a Diploma in Theology. She has a heart and a passion to see broken relationships healed and restored. Janice and Paul travel extensively in the UK holding Marriage Enrichment seminars and teaching on the Marriage Course. She was involved in co-founding SFT over 15 years ago.