Who we are
Dr Nelisha Wickremasinghe is the founding Director and lead practitioner at the Dialogue Space. Nelisha is a chartered psychologist, family therapist, writer, educator and organisational change consultant, and has worked across diverse contexts of human development for 30 years
Nelisha is a chartered member of the British Psychological Society and has postgraduate degrees in psychotherapy and family therapy, a Master’s in public sector management and a Master’s and Doctorate in organisational change. She is currently undertaking further doctoral research in clinical psychoanalytic practice. Nelisha is the author of two books, Beyond Threat and Being with Others and she is a regular contributor to Psychology Today.
In her private practice, Nelisha provides depth development for both individuals and families who wish to explore, resolve or come to terms with the recurring problems and challenges in their lives.
In her organisational practice, her work at the boundary of psychotherapy and employee development has taken her across the globe to support organisations such as Fujitsu, Thomas Cook, Amec Foster Wheeler, Nielsen, Lloyds Banking Group, Aviva and BT to develop their leaders and employees, and implement complex change. As part of her corporate practice, Nelisha is currently an Associate Fellow at Oxford University’s Saïd Business School where she facilitates sessions for business leaders on the neurobiology of personal and team resilience.
Previous to her work in the Dialogue Space Nelisha founded a successful organic food and restaurant business and, for ten years, was clinical and management lead in mental health and social care services
Our Associate Network
For fifteen years we have been building relationships with a diverse group of highly experienced independent practitioners who are working at the leading edge of coaching, education, psychotherapy, digital learning and organisational development.
Our associates run their own consultancies and work in top business schools and private clinics. All our people are compassionate, highly skilled, challenging and innovative, and work with agility, loyalty and integrity across many diverse contexts.
Here are just a few ...
Psychotherapy for adults, young people and families
Liz Straker
BA, MSc, MSc, MIPD
Liz is a qualified UKCP registered psychotherapist for adults and teenagers and runs her own private practice, Teenmatters. www.teenmatters.co.uk.
In addition to her private practice, Liz also works as a coach with senior managers and executives from a diverse range of companies including Fujitsu, BBC, British Airways, NHS, Pokemon, Mars, Thomas Cook, Virgin Media, Mind, Ealing Council, Novartis, Maersk Oil and the Innovation Unit. She has also run leadership development programmes in many of these companies, most recently a career development programme for senior managers in BP, a 9 month leadership programme for high potential leaders in Thomas Cook, a management development programme for Pokemon and a global leadership programme for Fujitsu.
Liz holds an MSc in Organisational Psychology, an MSc in Gestalt Psychotherapy, is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, is and registered with the British Psychological Society.
Coaching for life and work
Ruth Moody
Ruth is the owner and Managing Director of Farscape https://farscapedevelopment.co.uk/ and has over fifteen years experience coaching individuals and groups for performance development and personal transformation. Ruth specialises in working with emotions and behaviours at work, and is an accredited coach and member of the British Institute of Learning and Development. She has coached employees in many diverse organisations including Allianz Insurance, Airbus, Danone Waters, Hydrock, The Nielsen Company and Panasonic.
Strategic leadership, organisational change and cross sector partnerships
Lucy Shaw
Lucy Shaw is the founder and director of Cultural Associates Oxford https://www.culturalassociates.co.uk/. She is a cultural entrepreneur who specialises in strategic leadership, organisational change, workforce diversity, and inclusive engagement.
Lucy also works for the University of Oxford, where she is Programme Director for Oxford Cultural Leaders (OCL) - an international executive leadership programme for museums, heritage and the arts, which she launched in 2015 in partnership with the Saïd Business School, University of Oxford. She curates and facilitates OCL, as well as developing new content and teaching on the programme.
Lucy is also Head of Programmes and Partnerships at the University’s Gardens, Libraries and Museums Division (GLAM), where she works with the divisional office team leading on vision and strategy. She manages the GLAM Partnership and Engagement Team, which includes staff working across the ...
Lucy is currently leading a University-wide, wellbeing and social prescribing partnership with cultural sector professionals, humanities researchers, medics, scientists .
Outside of Oxford Lucy is Chair of Neon Dance, an internationally renowned company that engages a diverse and digital population of artists and people in unique experiences.
Diversity, culture and inclusive leadership
Matt Jacobs
Matt Jacobs is the founding director of Wide Open Voices https://wideopenvoices.com/ which provides coaching and training for leaders and their employees to understand, value and create truly diverse and inclusive workplaces. Matt supports organisations to develop diversity of thought, and to find solutions to the complex problems and pressures of leading inclusive companies.
Matt has worked in senior management roles in both the private and public sectors, including the strategic management of multi-million pound social regeneration programmes for Bristol City Council and the strategic management of a 100 strong Community Engagement Department for a secondary school in inner city Bristol.
Matt holds an MSc in Ethnicity and Multiculturalism, and is currently completing Phd research at Bristol University in to how race, gender and class affect social dynamics,
Academic director, online learning design and leadership development
Angela Adams
Angela works as an independent learning design consultant, specialising in digital education for the corporate and higher education sectors.
As an Associate Fellow at Said Business School, University of Oxford, she works with global corporate and public sector clients to deliver leadership experiences for personal and organizational and development.
After completing a post graduate degree in education, Angela spent fifteen years in academic publishing. At Oxford University Press she was responsible for the development of higher education textbooks in organisational behavior, leadership, business psychology and organization change.
Programme evaluation and impact research
Dr Dyedra Morrissey
Dr. Dyedra Morrissey is a consultant and academic, specialising in time management, the science of forecasting & the psychology of time perception. She is also founder and director of the consulting company DM Planning Solutions (dm-planningsolutions.co.uk). She completed her DPhil, MSc and BA in Experimental Psychology at the University of Oxford, where she is now lecturing as part of the executive MSc Major Project Management (MMPM) and the UK government’s Major Projects Leadership Academy (MPLA) at the Saïd Business School and as Lecturer in Study Skills at Pembroke College. As a consultant she advises public and private sector clients on time management and major project forecasting and schedule delay prevention/mitigation. Her work draws on her in depth-research bridging the gap between major project management and experimental psychology, specifically looking at the variables underlying "The Planning Fallacy" and “Optimism Bias”, the well-known psychological biases leading to project completion time underestimations.
For a glimpse into her research click here to see the presentation with which she won 2nd place in the University of Oxford 3 Minute Thesis (3MT) Competition and represented Oxford at the national 3MT Semi-Finals.