Executive Committee

Dr Hannah Friend
Chief Executive Officer

Dr Hannah Friend is Chief Executive Officer at Metanoia Institute, one of the UK’s leading providers of psychotherapy, counselling, and psychological education. A Chartered and Registered Psychologist with over 30 years’ experience, she brings a distinctive combination of clinical expertise, academic leadership, and senior executive experience across higher education, healthcare, and criminal justice.

Since joining Metanoia in 2022, Hannah has led the Institute through a period of strategic transformation focused on growth, academic excellence, and institutional resilience. She is steering the organisation’s long-term vision for inclusion and mental health equity, including the pursuit of Degree Awarding Powers.

Hannah has held senior leadership roles across sectors requiring strong oversight of risk, regulation, and care for vulnerable populations. She has worked as a Consultant Psychologist in secure mental health settings and led psychological services in the prison system. At the University of Warwick, she served as Group Director, with executive responsibility for mental health strategy, disability services, safeguarding, student hardship, and community safety.

As a senior Academic, she has also played an important role in professional education, developing and delivering accredited postgraduate programmes in forensic psychology and supervising MSc and PhD research. Hannah remains engaged with national professional standards as a Fitness to Practise Partner with the HCPC. She is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society, a Chartered Scientist, and a BPS Registered Clinical Supervisor.

Hannah holds a Doctorate in Psychology from the University of Birmingham and postgraduate degrees from the Universities of Leicester and Warwick. She is also a certified Director with the Institute of Directors (IOD) and trained in strategic leadership and crisis communication.

Across all her work, Hannah is driven by a passion for making education and psychological support more accessible, inclusive, and impactful, particularly for those who face barriers to opportunity.

Dr Peter Pearce
Director of Clinical Training

Dr Peter Pearce is Director of Clinical Training at Metanoia Institute, London, where he has held senior academic and leadership roles for over 20 years. His clinical career began in NHS multidisciplinary teams in adult mental health and learning disability services, where he worked in clinical and consultant roles for nearly two decades.

Peter led the Metanoia team that co-authored the National Curriculum for Person-Centred Experiential Counselling for Depression (PCE-CfD), in partnership with NHS England and BACP. He sits on the Expert Advisory Group for the NHS Talking Therapies programme and chaired the 2022 QAA Benchmark Statement group for Counselling and Psychotherapy.

As principal or co-investigator, Peter has contributed to major research projects including ETHOS (which received the 2023 BACP Outstanding Research Award), ALIGN, ProReal, and HEROINES, with a focus on relational, practice-based evidence. He has published widely, co-edited Person-Centred Practice at the Difficult Edge (2014), and is active in shaping national policy, training, and professional standards. Peter is also co-founder and Director of the Here4You school-based counselling service and is a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. He continues to advise on NHS workforce development, train therapists and supervise doctoral students.

He is also a devoted father to four daughters and a son.

Amanda Wilkinson, 
Director of Education

Sandra Bekvalac
Head of Governance and Compliance

Sandra has over a decade of experience working in higher education administration, quality, and governance roles and five years in senior leadership in higher education. She has particular expertise in quality, governance and student engagement at small, specialist providers.

Most recently she was Director of Quality and Governance at MetFilm School then Associate Director of Academic Services at BIMM. She has contributed to managing widescale institutional change, through governance and student experience reviews. Before that she worked in various universities and across the creative industries always focussed on administrative process improvement and stakeholder engagement.

As Head of Governance and Compliance at the Metanoia Institute, she coordinates institutional governance and quality processes and is Company Secretary. Passionate about the student experience, transparency and ethics, as well as all aspects of EDI, Sandra has a strong belief in the transformative power of higher education and a commitment to effective governance as an enabler of access, continuous improvement, and positive outcomes for all students.