Dr. Shannon Seymour
President and Co-founding Director
Shannon has served the mental health needs of our Cayman community for over 25 years. She holds a PhD in Psychology with a specialisation in Infant Mental Health and Child from Fielding Graduate University (APA accredited). Prior to her doctoral studies Dr. Seymour earned a Bachelor’s Honours degree in Psychology, a Masters degrees in Clinical Psychology and a second Masters in Developmental Disabilities.
Dr. Seymour enjoys working across the lifespan and over her 25 year career and has gained expertise in the areas of psychological assessment, diagnosis and treatment of neurodevelopmental disorders, mental illness, trauma and family systems. She is an ESDM Certified therapist and certified in SPACE, an attachment based parent treatment for childhood anxiety disorders. Dr. Seymour has a designation in Reflective Practice and Supervision, and her interest in neuroscience led her to pursue certification as a Zero To Three trainer.
As a Co-Founding Director of CIPA she is dedicated to ensuring young Caymanian clinicians have equitable access to training and employment opportunities, to elevate the standards of culturally attuned clinical practices and to contribute to psychological research in the Cayman Islands and wider Caribbean region.
Dr. Seymour is the Director of The Wellness Centre, where she enjoys mentoring an amazing team of clinicians.
Dr. Alexandra Bodden
Vice President, and co-founding Director
Dr. Alexandra Bodden holds a master’s and doctoral degree in Clinical Psychology as well as a post-doctoral master’s degree in Clinical Psychopharmacology from Nova Southeastern University and an additional master’s degree in General Psychology from New York University. For the past fourteen years she has worked in community mental health clinics and hospitals in Florida and Cayman, specializing in working with persons who have experienced abuse or violence, persons with substance use difficulties and persons with severe and persistent mental illness.
At OnCourse Cayman, Dr. Bodden provides individual and group therapy, conducts psychological assessments for adults, adolescents and children and facilitates corporate workshops for skill and team-building purposes. Dr. Bodden is also an Adjunct Lecturer in psychology at the University College of the Cayman Islands (UCCI) and an EAGALA-trained professional, offering therapeutic and skill-building activities with horses.
As a Founding Director of CIPA, Dr. Bodden believes CIPA is important for the Cayman Islands as it is an avenue to provide support, training and accountability to clinicians and students interested in and/or pursuing mental health degrees, including continuing education and career guidance respectively. CIPA will also benefit the community by having clinicians be more accessible and working together more cohesively to meet their needs.
Dr. Antonia Hawkins
Honourary Director
Dr. Antonia Hawkins, often referred to as “the first Caymanian Psychologist,” pursued her goal of becoming a psychologist at a time when there were no psychologists practicing in the Cayman Islands. She received much pushback from Caymanian mentors against becoming a psychologist, but persevered and earned a PhD in Clinical Psychology from Florida State University (APA accredited).
In her 20 plus years as a Clinical Psychologist at the Health Services Authority (HSA) Dr. Hawkins has helped innumerable youth and their families directly, encouraged students interested in mental health careers, coordinated with other agencies to expand the breadth of mental health care in the Cayman community, and inspired many to value mental health and reduce stigma.
Dr. Hawkins sees CIPA as an exciting and important development in the mental health journey of the Cayman Islands. She particularly anticipates CIPA facilitating local access to continuing education, aiding emerging Caymanian mental health professionals, helping the community better understand mental health (including cultural/historical impacts), and improving access to quality mental health care.
Dr. Hawkins is currently CIPA’s Honourary Director.
Dr. Shari Smith
Director
Dr. Shari Smith, is a licensed clinical psychologist with over 30 years experience in the Cayman educational system.
Dr. Shari’s passion is working with persons who struggle with anxiety and depression, complex behaviour and learning challenges, individuals with disabilities and those navigating life transitions.
She believes in a wholistic approach when working with clients where she incorporates the connection between the body, mind, and spirit. Her work is grounded in mindfulness and embracing the inner self to achieve personal goals. She believes in empowering her clients to take hold of their own journey and become the best version of themselves.
As a part of her commitment to giving back, she is a volunteer with the Alex Panton Foundation and facilitator of “Teen Talk” an online support group.
As a member of CIPA’s Board, Dr. Shari hopes to help facilitate the development of local licensing standards and pathways for clinicians, especially Caymanians returning home to practice. She is honored to be able to provide healing to her community and serve as a mentor and advocate.
Dr. Shari is the owner and clinical psychologist at Life Options, a private practice providing counseling services.
Dr. Chantal Basson
Director and Membership Coordinator
Dr Chantal Basson, (commonly known as ‘Dr B’) is originally from the UK. She was an NHS Lead Consultant Clinical Child Psychologist and worked for 10 years in NHS Senior Management and Leadership. She is a qualified Family Therapy Systemic Practitioner, specializing in child and family mental health. She has also taught at multiple universities and across a number of NHS Trusts during her career to date.
Dr. Basson specialises in bringing compassionate and systemic methods to deepening understandings within and about societal and organizational mental health change. She has worked very closely with Doctoral level training programmes for the past thirteen years, providing teaching, supervision of clinical placements and supervision of doctoral level research projects. Clinically, Dr. Basson is trained to varying degrees in a number of modalities including Family Therapy, Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy, Theraplay, Dialectical Behaviour Therapy and EMDR.
She hopes as a member of CIPA to be able to contribute her many years of experience working with clinical psychologist trainees and training programmes to improve the outcomes of psychology graduates to the Cayman Islands, so that they might more easily fulfill their dreams of becoming practicing psychologists. She also hopes to be able to bring clarity to psychological therapies for the consumer of these services, so that anyone searching for help, in what is likely to be a very difficult time in their lives, understands what they can expect to receive and what their rights are here in Cayman.
Dr. Basson currently works at Health Services Authority as a Clinical Psychologist.
Ms. Leslie Hayes
Director and Secretary of CIPA
Leslie Hayes is a licensed Masters Level Psychologist in Grand Cayman who has worked in the field of psychology for over 15 years. She received her Educational Specialist degree in School Psychology from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and holds a National Certification in School Psychology from the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP-USA).
She currently serves as the Lead Educational Psychologist at the Cayman Islands Department of Education. Leslie works with educators and families to improve instructional support and academic interventions for students with additional learning needs and provides mental and behavioral health services and interventions to help students thrive at school.
Leslie is excited about the opportunity to support the advancement of psychology as a profession in the Cayman Islands through her work with CIPA.
She is particularly interested in providing professional development and collaborative opportunities for current and aspiring practitioners. She is also interested in working to enhance professional standards to guide regional psychological practice and credentialing to advance the integrity and quality of services available to the residents of the Cayman Islands.
Mrs. Alisha Tugman
CIPA Student Representative
Alisha has a heart for meeting the needs of others. This inevitably led her to the field of psychology where she would obtain an honours degree from Liberty University in Developmental Psychology.
She has spent 3 years as a registered behavioural technician, in the field of ABA, working with children on the autism spectrum and other developmental delays. Through her love for children and human development, she has moved into a parenting practitioner role at the Family Resource Centre, working with parents and children across the island implementing programmes on Healthy Relationships, Empowerment, Behaviour Management, Emotional Regulation and Parent Coaching.
Alisha spends her spare time basking in the arts, baking and cooking, and playing softball.
Due to the difficulties she’s faced as a graduate returning to the island, she looks forward to helping students in the field of psychology navigate their way here in the Cayman Islands.
Alisha currently holds the role of CIPA Student Representative and she hopes to encourage psychology students to get involved.