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.
[ READ THE FULL STORY ]
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, and it was tough, 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 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.
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.
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.
[ READ THE FULL STORY ]
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, and it was tough, 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 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.
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.
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.
[ READ THE FULL STORY ]
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, and it was tough, 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 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.
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.
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.
[ READ THE FULL STORY ]
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, and it was tough, 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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.”
— 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
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, and it was tough, 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 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.
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, and it was tough, 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 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.
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
“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
[ ABOUT JAY PERKINS ]
[ RP 1 ]
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.
[ ROOTED PRACTICE ]
[ ROOTED PRACTICE ]
I believe wellbeing, and particularly Black wellbeing,
is not a soft extra. It is a political imperative.
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.
[ ABOUT JAY PERKINS ]
[ GO DEEPER ]
[ MY APPROACH ]
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.
[ ROOTED PRACTICE ]
I believe wellbeing, and particularly Black wellbeing,
is not a soft extra. It is a political imperative.
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.
[ ABOUT JAY PERKINS ]
[ GO DEEPER ]
[ MY APPROACH ]
[ ABOUT JAY PERKINS ]
[ RP 1 ]
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.
[ ROOTED PRACTICE ]
[ ROOTED PRACTICE ]
I believe wellbeing, and particularly Black wellbeing,
is not a soft extra. It is a political imperative.
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.
[ ABOUT JAY PERKINS ]
[ GO DEEPER ]
[ MY APPROACH ]
[ ABOUT JAY PERKINS ]
[ RP 1 ]
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.
[ ROOTED PRACTICE ]
[ ROOTED PRACTICE ]
I believe wellbeing, and particularly Black wellbeing,
is not a soft extra. It is a political imperative.
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.
[ ABOUT JAY PERKINS ]
[ GO DEEPER ]
[ MY APPROACH ]
[ TRAINING & REGISTRATION ]
[ TRAINING & REGISTRATION ]
[ 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).
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.
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.
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 ]