Ms. Amanda Bonnevie Christophersen
Amanda is currently studying to become a nurse, and looking forward to graduating in January 2026. In addition to her nursing studies, she works at a regional psychiatric intensive emergency unit, and with the Søs Competence Center where she assists in developing and delivering courses. Her spare time passion is enjoying spending time with my horse.
Amanda's current training work involves a project which is training all of the region’s paramedics as well as our police officers in our concept for relationship-building and de-escalation. She has worked closely with one of our keynote speakers, Lene Berring and has contributed to the development of our SAFE app designed to provide calming and grounding techniques for individuals who self-harm.
Dwayne Smith
Symposium Co-Chair
Dwayne Smith is a dual sector leader, combining over 20 years of technical expertise with deep rooted lived experience in mental health advocacy. As CEO of InspireHub, he partners with organisations such as the CQC, NHS England, BILD Act, the Restraint Reduction Network (RRN), Priory Healthcare, and Cygnet Group to ensure the voices of lived experience and service users remain central to service design and improvement. Dwayne plays a key role in governance, safeguarding, and policy development, while championing culturally competent, equitable care.
He also co-creates the ENTMA events, bringing together diverse voices to shape inclusive mental health practice across the UK and EU.
Alongside his work in health and social care, Dwayne leads Vivid Clouds Limited, a Managed Service Provider (MSP) and AI Solutions company. Through this venture, he helps businesses across the UK and EU modernise and automate processes with secure, intelligent technologies. His cross sector leadership bridges innovation with compassion, transforming services through co produced, tech enabled solutions.
Iris Benson MBE
Symposium Co-Chair
Iris is a health services award recipient as patient leader, a qualified peer support worker, lived experience advanced practitioner in quality improvement, lived experience personal safety service trainer with Mersey Care NHS trust, is a of British Institute of Learning Disabilities, and lived experience assessor of BILD Accreditation of Certified Training. Iris is a public speaker, and has served as independent expert by experience and consultant nationally.
Iris describes being proud and privileged to work alongside staff of all disciplines across a UK NHS Trust, whose care over many years she believes has supported her during many frustrating and scary episodes on her journey of discovery. she would not be alive today. While Iris describes her has journey but incredibly worthwhile and I like many others continue to be on a Journey of discovery.
Iris is inspired by so many wonderful people, both qualified and unqualified, and places great emphasis on drawing upon her lived experiences of trauma in enabling others to understand the reasons underlying behaviours of concern.
Iris is deeply passionate and committed to inspiring change toward more effective and compassionate services, and inspiring hope in others along their recovery pathway.
Iris believes that we all have talents, and if effectively supported, people with lived experience can use these gifts to support others who use services, and their families and carers, to ensure that their voices are heard, in a safe, respectful, shared and collaborative way, bringing expression to Iris’s declaration that ‘we are all human beings together’
Ms. Renata Bleichenbacher
Renata Bleichenbacher lives in the St. Gallen Rhine Valley in Switzerland. She is married, mother of two adult daughters, primary school teacher and adult educator.
For 14 years Renata has been working at the Psychiatry St. Gallen in Switzerland as an expert with experience in various areas, such as ward work, training of staff and trainees, quality control and project development.
For five years, Renata has been co-director of the Recovery College St. Gallen, responsible for the quality of the courses, the development of the course content and their implementation. As a course moderator she is also allowed to accompany people on their (recovery) path.