Case Examples
The examples below illustrate the range and nature of KCGA's work across different contexts and at different levels. They include sustained long-term engagements and briefer pieces of work; individual leadership consultation and multi-level systemic intervention. All examples have been anonymised or described in general terms where appropriate.
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Consulting to a humanitarian organisation under extreme pressure Multi-level consultation to a trauma-exposed system, Lesvos, Greece, 2019–2021
A charity providing psychosocial support to unaccompanied asylum-seeking children across six shelters in Lesvos was operating under extreme pressure — high burnout, significant turnover, and the consequences of working in a context of intense political hostility. A consulting structure was developed that worked simultaneously at the level of individual staff experience, team dynamics, and organisational functioning. Over time, turnover decreased and issues that had been disavowed under pressure — including child sexual exploitation — became thinkable, and the organisation more able to act on safeguarding concerns with considered agency.
Leadership consultation — team and organisational consultation — trauma-exposed system — safeguarding under pressure — ethical complexity
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Building reflective professional culture in a post-conflict context International group analytic training and institutional development, Rwamagana, Rwanda, 2023–2027
Since 2023, Krisna Catsaras (KCGA’s principal consultant) has been part of a small team delivering a sustained group analytic training programme in Rwanda, in partnership with a Rwandan-led British-based charity and more local, survivor-led organisations and stakeholders. The students are health professionals whose daily practice brings them into contact with the consequences of the genocide and its intergenerational aftermath. The programme works at multiple levels simultaneously — personal, clinical, and institutional — with the longer-term aim of developing a locally-led training institute with full authority and ownership transferred to Rwandan professionals.
Institutional capacity building — group analytic training — post-conflict context — intercultural complexity — organisational transition
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Consulting to a school: service development, pastoral systems, and leadership Multi-level consultation within a large secondary school, London, UK, 2020–2022
A large faith secondary school in London required both a significant overhaul of its counselling provision and sustained consultation at multiple levels of its structure. Alongside restructuring the clinical service, regular consultation was offered to pastoral leads, the head of discipline, and — over several years — the headteacher himself. That leadership consultation attended to the full complexity of leading a major institution through a period of considerable external pressure, including questions of faith and authority, and the school's relationship to contemporary social movements.
Leadership consultation — service development — pastoral systems — institutional identity — faith and values in organisational life
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Developing a clinical seminar on difference and identity within a psychoanalytic training institution Institutional development from within, London, UK, 2016–2021
Working from within the Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust as a tutor on both master's and doctoral programmes, a new clinical seminar was designed and established to address the gap between the presence of questions of race, culture, gender, and identity in clinical work and their absence from the training itself. The seminar ran for several years, consistently among the most valued elements of the training, and has since become a core and compulsory component of both programmes.
Institutional development — difference and identity — professional formation — clinical training
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Consulting to the co-founder of a mental health charity Leadership development, succession, and organisational transition
A co-founder of a successful mental health charity approached this work at a moment of significant personal and organisational transition. Her identity and sense of purpose were deeply bound up with what she had built, and the process of separating — allowing others to take up authority while she moved towards a new venture — required thinking through at both practical and personal levels. Over the course of the work, a capable leader was appointed and the organisation moved towards a more sustainable footing.
Leadership development — founder dynamics — organisational transition — succession and governance
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Developing outreach mental health provision across a cluster of schools Service development, multi-level consultation, and capacity building
Working as part of a London CAMHS team, an outreach mental health service was developed and established across seven schools, creating provision that had not previously existed in those settings. The work included direct clinical work, consultation to teachers and senior staff, and sustained leadership consultation with a newly appointed deputy headteacher navigating unexpected pressure from the parent body. A consistent developmental model emerged across the schools: building capacity and then transferring it, leaving each school with something that belonged to it.
Service development — multi-level school consultation — leadership support — capacity building
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Consulting to the leadership of a professional organisation Authority, difference, and institutional responsibility
A professional membership organisation approached this work during a period of significant internal difficulty, with members from minoritised backgrounds experiencing distress and placing pressure on the organisation's leadership. A discreet series of reflective consultations was offered to the chair and chief executive jointly — attending to the presenting difficulties while remaining alert to the tensions between the two roles, and to the broader institutional question of how a professional organisation takes genuine collective ownership of issues around difference and inclusion.
Leadership consultation — authority and difference — institutional responsibility