JAY PERKINS
JAY PERKINS
ABOUT
IN PRACTICE
CONTACT
I’M JAY PERKINS
I’ve spent over two decades working at the intersection of therapy, community, and systems change; as a youth worker, a psychotherapist, changemaker, senior leader, and the founder of Partisan; a Black-led organisation that spent five and a half years designing alternative help systems alongside Black and minoritised communities across South London and beyond.
I’M JAY PERKINS
My work is rooted in Black communities and shaped by a commitment to social and racial justice, however I work with anyone who is willing to start from a place of exploration and wanting to do the real work, regardless of race, heritage, cultural background, class, gender, sexual orientation, faith, neurodivergence, immigration status, or other intersecting identities. I look to create spaces to understand who you are and what you carry.
I show up as an upstander and an accomplice, not just witnessing what needs to change, but actively joining communities in the work of changing it.
I’ve spent over two decades working at the intersection of therapy, community, and systems change; as a youth worker, a psychotherapist, changemaker, senior leader, and the founder of Partisan; a Black-led organisation that spent five and a half years designing alternative help systems alongside Black and minoritised communities across South London and beyond.
I’M JAY PERKINS
My work is rooted in Black communities and shaped by a commitment to social and racial justice, however I work with anyone who is willing to start from a place of exploration and wanting to do the real work, regardless of race, heritage, cultural background, class, gender, sexual orientation, faith, neurodivergence, immigration status, or other intersecting identities. I look to create spaces to understand who you are and what you carry.
I’ve spent over two decades working at the intersection of therapy, community, and systems change; as a youth worker, a psychotherapist, changemaker, senior leader, and the founder of Partisan; a Black-led organisation that spent five and a half years designing alternative help systems alongside Black and minoritised communities across South London and beyond.
I’M JAY PERKINS
You can’t read a book from the end, you always have to start from the beginning, and so I can’t talk about my work without talking about my socialisation.
You can’t read a book from the end, you always have to start from the beginning, and so I can’t talk about my work without talking about my socialisation.
You can’t read a book from the end, you always have to start from the beginning, and so I can’t talk about my work without talking about my socialisation.
In 2020 I founded Partisan; a Black-led organisation that spent five and a half years designing alternative help systems alongside Black and minoritised communities across South London and beyond. In 2026, Partisan closed its doors, which was painful, and still weighs heavy. That chapter taught me about what it means to hold people well, about the courage it takes to build something outside the mainstream, about the cost of that work, the importance of rest and restoration, and mourning and recovering from the loss.
Alongside Partisan, I served as co-chair of the Black Mental Health Collective; bringing together Black leaders and activists, working at the intersection of Black wellbeing and systemic change. And I was one of the founding members of the Black Mental Health & Wellbeing Alliance, supporting with the Black Mental Health Manifesto; which calls for the structural reform needed to close the inequality gap for Black people in mental health services in England.
I believe care is political. That healing and justice are inseparable. That the systems around us (health, education, criminal justice, welfare etc.) were not designed for all of us equally, and that the people who suffer most from that are rarely the ones who get to define what help looks like. That belief didn’t come from a textbook. It came from everything you’ve just read.
I am a person constantly in transition; working in the emergence, continually testing, learning and adapting. I now offer my clinical, organisational and deeply personal experience in a more intimate and flexible form.
In 2020 I founded Partisan; a Black-led organisation that spent five and a half years designing alternative help systems alongside Black and minoritised communities across South London and beyond. In 2026, Partisan closed its doors, which was painful, and still weighs heavy. That chapter taught me about what it means to hold people well, about the courage it takes to build something outside the mainstream, about the cost of that work, the importance of rest and restoration, and mourning and recovering from the loss.
Alongside Partisan, I served as co-chair of the Black Mental Health Collective; bringing together Black leaders and activists, working at the intersection of Black wellbeing and systemic change. And I was one of the founding members of the Black Mental Health & Wellbeing Alliance, supporting with the Black Mental Health Manifesto; which calls for the structural reform needed to close the inequality gap for Black people in mental health services in England.
I believe care is political. That healing and justice are inseparable. That the systems around us (health, education, criminal justice, welfare etc.) were not designed for all of us equally, and that the people who suffer most from that are rarely the ones who get to define what help looks like. That belief didn’t come from a textbook. It came from everything you’ve just read.
I am a person constantly in transition; working in the emergence, continually testing, learning and adapting. I now offer my clinical, organisational and deeply personal experience in a more intimate and flexible form.
“If you have come here to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.”
— LILA WATSON
“If you have come here to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.”
— LILA WATSON
[ READ THE FULL STORY ]
[ READ THE FULL STORY ]
[ READ THE FULL STORY ]
[ ABOUT ]
[ ABOUT ]
[ ABOUT ]
[ ABOUT ]
I believe care is political. That healing and justice are inseparable. That the systems around us (health, education, criminal justice, welfare etc.) were not designed for all of us equally, and that the people who suffer most from that are rarely the ones who get to define what help looks like. That belief didn’t come from a textbook, it came from my socialisation.
I am a person constantly in transition; working in the emergence, continually testing, learning and adapting. I now offer my clinical, organisational and deeply personal experience in a more intimate and flexible form.
I believe care is political. That healing and justice are inseparable. That the systems around us (health, education, criminal justice, welfare etc.) were not designed for all of us equally, and that the people who suffer most from that are rarely the ones who get to define what help looks like. That belief didn’t come from a textbook, it came from my socialisation.
I am a person constantly in transition; working in the emergence, continually testing, learning and adapting. I now offer my clinical, organisational and deeply personal experience in a more intimate and flexible form.
I’M JAY PERKINS
I’ve spent over two decades working at the intersection of therapy, community, and systems change; as a youth worker, a psychotherapist, changemaker, senior leader, and the founder of Partisan; a Black-led organisation that spent five and a half years designing alternative help systems alongside Black and minoritised communities across South London and beyond.
I’M JAY PERKINS
My work is rooted in Black communities and shaped by a commitment to social and racial justice, however I work with anyone who is willing to start from a place of exploration and wanting to do the real work, regardless of race, heritage, cultural background, class, gender, sexual orientation, faith, neurodivergence, immigration status, or other intersecting identities. I look to create spaces to understand who you are and what you carry.
I show up as an upstander and an accomplice, not just witnessing what needs to change, but actively joining communities in the work of changing it.
I’ve spent over two decades working at the intersection of therapy, community, and systems change; as a youth worker, a psychotherapist, changemaker, senior leader, and the founder of Partisan; a Black-led organisation that spent five and a half years designing alternative help systems alongside Black and minoritised communities across South London and beyond.
I’M JAY PERKINS
My work is rooted in Black communities and shaped by a commitment to social and racial justice, however I work with anyone who is willing to start from a place of exploration and wanting to do the real work, regardless of race, heritage, cultural background, class, gender, sexual orientation, faith, neurodivergence, immigration status, or other intersecting identities. I look to create spaces to understand who you are and what you carry.
I’ve spent over two decades working at the intersection of therapy, community, and systems change; as a youth worker, a psychotherapist, changemaker, senior leader, and the founder of Partisan; a Black-led organisation that spent five and a half years designing alternative help systems alongside Black and minoritised communities across South London and beyond.
I’M JAY PERKINS
Rarely, if ever, are any of us healed in isolation.
Healing is an act of communion.
— BELL HOOKS
Rarely, if ever, are any of us healed in isolation.
Healing is an act of communion.
— BELL HOOKS
If you have come here to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.
— LILLA WATSON
If you have come here to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.
— LILLA WATSON
In 2020 I founded Partisan; a Black-led organisation that spent five and a half years designing alternative help systems alongside Black and minoritised communities across South London and beyond. In 2026, Partisan closed its doors, which was painful, and still weighs heavy. That chapter taught me about what it means to hold people well, about the courage it takes to build something outside the mainstream, about the cost of that work, the importance of rest and restoration, and mourning and recovering from the loss.
Alongside Partisan, I served as co-chair of the Black Mental Health Collective; bringing together Black leaders and activists, working at the intersection of Black wellbeing and systemic change. And I was one of the founding members of the Black Mental Health & Wellbeing Alliance, supporting with the Black Mental Health Manifesto; which calls for the structural reform needed to close the inequality gap for Black people in mental health services in England.
I believe care is political. That healing and justice are inseparable. That the systems around us (health, education, criminal justice, welfare etc.) were not designed for all of us equally, and that the people who suffer most from that are rarely the ones who get to define what help looks like. That belief didn’t come from a textbook. It came from everything you’ve just read.
I am a person constantly in transition; working in the emergence, continually testing, learning and adapting. I now offer my clinical, organisational and deeply personal experience in a more intimate and flexible form.
In 2020 I founded Partisan; a Black-led organisation that spent five and a half years designing alternative help systems alongside Black and minoritised communities across South London and beyond. In 2026, Partisan closed its doors, which was painful, and still weighs heavy. That chapter taught me about what it means to hold people well, about the courage it takes to build something outside the mainstream, about the cost of that work, the importance of rest and restoration, and mourning and recovering from the loss.
Alongside Partisan, I served as co-chair of the Black Mental Health Collective; bringing together Black leaders and activists, working at the intersection of Black wellbeing and systemic change. And I was one of the founding members of the Black Mental Health & Wellbeing Alliance, supporting with the Black Mental Health Manifesto; which calls for the structural reform needed to close the inequality gap for Black people in mental health services in England.
I believe care is political. That healing and justice are inseparable. That the systems around us (health, education, criminal justice, welfare etc.) were not designed for all of us equally, and that the people who suffer most from that are rarely the ones who get to define what help looks like. That belief didn’t come from a textbook. It came from everything you’ve just read.
I am a person constantly in transition; working in the emergence, continually testing, learning and adapting. I now offer my clinical, organisational and deeply personal experience in a more intimate and flexible form.
Rarely, if ever, are any of us healed in isolation.
Healing is an act of communion.
— BELL HOOKS
“If you have come here to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.”
— LILA WATSON
“If you have come here to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.”
— LILA WATSON
If you have come here to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.
— LILLA WATSON
The mental health system as it currently exists was not designed for Black and minoritised communities. That is not an oversight, it is a design feature. The models, the institutions, the language, the definitions of what is 'normal' and what is pathological, all of it has been shaped by a worldview that has historically excluded, misdiagnosed, and harmed Black people.
My practice starts from that premise. But it also holds a tension I’ve sat with throughout my career between meeting people in the here and now, in their pain and on their healing journeys, whilst refusing to accept that the pain was inevitable and pushing for change in the world. Both matter; the individual in front of me matters, and so does the world that shaped them.
[ ROOTED PRACTICE ]
[ GO DEEPER ]
The mental health system as it currently exists was not designed for Black and minoritised communities. That is not an oversight, it is a design feature. The models, the institutions, the language, the definitions of what is 'normal' and what is pathological, all of it has been shaped by a worldview that has historically excluded, misdiagnosed, and harmed Black people.
My practice starts from that premise. But it also holds a tension I’ve sat with throughout my career between meeting people in the here and now, in their pain and on their healing journeys, whilst refusing to accept that the pain was inevitable and pushing for change in the world. Both matter; the individual in front of me matters, and so does the world that shaped them.
[ ROOTED PRACTICE ]
[ GO DEEPER ]
The mental health system as it currently exists was not designed for Black and minoritised communities. That is not an oversight, it is a design feature. The models, the institutions, the language, the definitions of what is 'normal' and what is pathological, all of it has been shaped by a worldview that has historically excluded, misdiagnosed, and harmed Black people.
My practice starts from that premise. But it also holds a tension I’ve sat with throughout my career between meeting people in the here and now, in their pain and on their healing journeys, whilst refusing to accept that the pain was inevitable and pushing for change in the world. Both matter; the individual in front of me matters, and so does the world that shaped them.
[ ROOTED PRACTICE ]
[ GO DEEPER ]
The mental health system as it currently exists was not designed for Black and minoritised communities. That is not an oversight, it is a design feature. The models, the institutions, the language, the definitions of what is 'normal' and what is pathological, all of it has been shaped by a worldview that has historically excluded, misdiagnosed, and harmed Black people.
My practice starts from that premise. But it also holds a tension I’ve sat with throughout my career between meeting people in the here and now, in their pain and on their healing journeys, whilst refusing to accept that the pain was inevitable and pushing for change in the world. Both matter; the individual in front of me matters, and so does the world that shaped them.
[ ROOTED PRACTICE ]
[ GO DEEPER ]
I draw on Psychodynamic approaches, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), and adopt a community psychology frame. This allows me to work at multiple levels simultaneously, from the individual to the system.
I take a non-pathologizing view of mental health, recognising that people’s realities can only be understood in the context of the complex systems they are part of. I seek to co-create the conditions for collective healing, systemic and structural repair.
I take an ecological approach to mental health; recognising that it cannot be separated from the wider inequalities in health, social and environmental justice. Mental health is not just an individual concern, it is shaped by the communities, institutions, and systems people are embedded in.
I draw on the Ghanaian principle of Sankofa; the understanding that we must go back to acknowledge and learn from what has been done, building on ancestral and cultural wisdom to create change that can be sustained.
I hold all of this within a broader commitment to healing justice: the understanding that individual healing and collective liberation are inseparable. That the conditions which harm people must be named and challenged, not just managed. That care is political. That rest is not a luxury but an act of resistance, particularly for Black people in a world that has historically demanded so much and given so little back.
[ MY APPROACH ]
[ MY APPROACH ]
I draw on Psychodynamic approaches, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), and adopt a community psychology frame. This allows me to work at multiple levels simultaneously, from the individual to the system.
I take a non-pathologizing view of mental health, recognising that people’s realities can only be understood in the context of the complex systems they are part of. I seek to co-create the conditions for collective healing, systemic and structural repair.
I take an ecological approach to mental health; recognising that it cannot be separated from the wider inequalities in health, social and environmental justice. Mental health is not just an individual concern, it is shaped by the communities, institutions, and systems people are embedded in.
I draw on the Ghanaian principle of Sankofa; the understanding that we must go back to acknowledge and learn from what has been done, building on ancestral and cultural wisdom to create change that can be sustained.
I hold all of this within a broader commitment to healing justice: the understanding that individual healing and collective liberation are inseparable. That the conditions which harm people must be named and challenged, not just managed. That care is political. That rest is not a luxury but an act of resistance, particularly for Black people in a world that has historically demanded so much and given so little back.
[ MY APPROACH ]
I draw on Psychodynamic approaches, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), and adopt a community psychology frame. This allows me to work at multiple levels simultaneously, from the individual to the system.
I take a non-pathologizing view of mental health, recognising that people’s realities can only be understood in the context of the complex systems they are part of. I seek to co-create the conditions for collective healing, systemic and structural repair.
I take an ecological approach to mental health; recognising that it cannot be separated from the wider inequalities in health, social and environmental justice. Mental health is not just an individual concern, it is shaped by the communities, institutions, and systems people are embedded in.
I draw on the Ghanaian principle of Sankofa; the understanding that we must go back to acknowledge and learn from what has been done, building on ancestral and cultural wisdom to create change that can be sustained.
I hold all of this within a broader commitment to healing justice: the understanding that individual healing and collective liberation are inseparable. That the conditions which harm people must be named and challenged, not just managed. That care is political. That rest is not a luxury but an act of resistance, particularly for Black people in a world that has historically demanded so much and given so little back.
[ MY APPROACH ]
[ TRAINING & REGISTRATION ]
[ TRAINING & REGISTRATION ]
I am a qualified Psychodynamic Psychotherapist and EMDR therapist, registered with the British Psychoanalytic Council (BPC), the Tavistock Society of Psychotherapists (TSP), the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP), and the Black, African and Asian Therapy Network (BAATN).
I am a qualified Psychodynamic Psychotherapist and EMDR therapist, registered with the British Psychoanalytic Council (BPC), the Tavistock Society of Psychotherapists (TSP), the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP), and the Black, African and Asian Therapy Network (BAATN).
I am a qualified Psychodynamic Psychotherapist and EMDR therapist, registered with the British Psychoanalytic Council (BPC), the Tavistock Society of Psychotherapists (TSP), the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP), and the Black, African and Asian Therapy Network (BAATN).
I am a qualified Psychodynamic Psychotherapist and EMDR therapist, registered with the British Psychoanalytic Council (BPC), the Tavistock Society of Psychotherapists (TSP), the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP), and the Black, African and Asian Therapy Network (BAATN).
I trained at the Tavistock and Portman, qualifying in 2018. Though I’ve been working alongside people and communities across Bristol, Manchester, and London since 2006; in youth work, community engagement, and therapeutic practice.
I trained at the Tavistock and Portman, qualifying in 2018. Though I’ve been working alongside people and communities across Bristol, Manchester, and London since 2006; in youth work, community engagement, and therapeutic practice.
I trained at the Tavistock and Portman, qualifying in 2018. Though I’ve been working alongside people and communities across Bristol, Manchester, and London since 2006; in youth work, community engagement, and therapeutic practice.
For answers to frequently asked questions, please visit the FAQ page.
For answers to frequently asked questions, please visit the FAQ page.
For answers to frequently asked questions, please visit the FAQ page.
Please email me at hello@jayperkins.co.uk or use the contact form below. I aim to respond within 3 working days.
For answers to frequently asked questions, please visit the FAQ page.
Please email me at hello@jayperkins.co.uk or use the contact form below. I aim to respond within 3 working days.
Please email me at hello@jayperkins.co.uk or use the contact form below. I aim to respond within 3 working days.
I trained at the Tavistock and Portman, qualifying in 2018. Though I’ve been working alongside people and communities across Bristol, Manchester, and London since 2006; in youth work, community engagement, and therapeutic practice.
[ ABOUT JAY PERKINS ]
[ ABOUT JAY PERKINS ]
[ ABOUT JAY PERKINS ]
[ ABOUT ]