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Staff and Trustees

Everything we do at Replenished Life is built on healthy and supportive relationships. People always come first. So here is a little about the key people at Replenished Life.

Trustees

Prof. Lisa Oakley

Lisa is professor of safeguarding and knowledge exchange and deputy programme leader for the MSc in Family and Child Psychology in the School of Psychology at the University of Chester in the UK. Lisa has taught in higher education for over 30 years. She is a chartered psychologist and chair of the British psychological society safeguarding advisory group. Lisa has conducted research into issues of faith, safeguarding and abuse for the past 20 years and has focused on spiritual abuse, she has co-authored a number of articles and book chapters on these topics.  Lisa has presented on these topics nationally and internationally. Lisa is currently engaged in a cross-faith research project exploring experiences of disclosing abuse that was experienced in a religious context.

Ruth Appleton

Ruth (she/her) is a freelance digital marketing consultant, helping charities and organisations in the wellness space increase their online impact. Her own experience of spiritual abuse, recovery journey and self-acceptance as a queer person has led her to begin re-training as a counsellor, with a view to specialise in working with survivors of spiritual abuse. She is a trustee at Replenished Life and volunteers on the support line. If she’s not at her desk, you will probably find her folk-dancing, walking in the hills, or swimming in a river. 

Dr Maryyum Mehmood

Maryyum is a gender justice advocate, advisor and academic specialising in domestic abuse, ‘honour’-based violence and spiritual abuse. She is the Domestic Abuse Commissioner of England and Wales’s lead advisor on marginalised survivors.

In 2019, Maryyum founded The SHIFT (Social Harmony, Intercultural & Faith Training), through which she facilitates pan-sector partnerships, and provides advice and training to tackle issues around ‘race’, religion and gender. She has extensive experience of youth mentoring, movement building and mediation, which centres intergenerational and interfaith engagement.

She previously served as the Associate Director of the Cadbury Centre for the Public Understanding of Religion at the University of Birmingham where she devised and delivered value-based leadership training to senior faith leaders. Maryyum holds a PhD in religious prejudice, stigma and stereotyping from King’s College London, as well as a masters degree in security studies in South Asia.

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Founders

Simon Plant

Simon has over 25 years experience working within safeguarding in Education, Local Government and Faith settings. Simon has a breadth of safeguarding knowledge including safeguarding children, safeguarding adults, safeguarding in faith, Domestic Abuse and Coercive Control.

Simon has spent 10 years listening to, hearing and validating people’s experiences of abuse and trauma within faith. This combined with his safeguarding experience has developed knowledge, skills and experience in supporting those who have experienced abuse and trauma.

Simon has qualifications and experience in Strategic and Executive Management which allows an understanding of the challenges of organisational change, developing and maintaining healthy culture and practice within organisations.

Simon is one of the founders of Replenished Life.

Caroline Plant

Caroline is a Registered Nurse with 11 years of experience in a variety of Adult Nursing settings.

Caroline is a survivor of extreme Spiritual Abuse. Caroline has written and published her autobiography.

Caroline is an excellent communicator and storyteller. Caroline uses her life experiences to discuss in a personal, powerful and relatable way:

  • Adverse Childhood experiences, including mental health, and violence
  • Radicalisation and extremism
  • Spiritual Abuse, Coercion and control
  • Domestic Abuse, Coercion and Control
  • The impact of trauma on physical, emotional and mental health and her life-long journey to living well with the trauma she has experienced.
  • Best practice in responding to supporting and working with survivors of abuse and trauma.

Caroline’s experience and insight is a rich source of practice learning for a wide variety of professionals that come into contact with those experiencing and recovering from abuse and trauma including Social Workers, Safeguarding Professionals, Police including Investigating Officers, Health Professionals including Psychotherapists, Counsellors and Mental Health professionals, as well as those who lead in Religious Organisations.

Caroline is one of the founders of Replenished Life and her volunteer work is vital to the successful running of Replenished Life.

Past Trustees

Farooq Mulla

Farooq has worked as an Imam in the USA, London, and Lincolnshire from 1992- 2000. He has worked as a Chaplain from 1995 to 2011 in various prisons in the UK, including 10 years at HMP Whatton, Europe’s largest sex offender prison. His current work also involves working with individuals to help them towards rehabilitation and restructuring their thoughts from a faith perspective. This has included working with high-risk individuals with personality disorders, to reduce their tendencies towards terrorism and radicalisation.

Farooq has worked as a sessional Muslim Chaplain at HMP Rampton, a consultant and trainer for Safeguarding Adults and Children, has contributed to Muslim Chaplaincy courses, Domestic Abuse and Spiritual Abuse Courses and contributed to academic papers on Abuse and Trauma within Faith.

Farooq is multi-lingual (Urdu/Hindi, Gujrati, and Arabic) and has also worked 1-1 with young and adult Muslims at risk of being radicalised.

Farooq has had to step back from Trustee duties due to health issues. We want to recognise his immeasurable contribution and impact for Replenished Life during his time as a founding Trustee.

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