About – G-map

About G-map: Leading the Way in Supporting Young People

Providing specialist services for young people who exhibit inappropriate and harmful sexual behaviour, and supporting those who care for them.

About G-map

At G-map, we are dedicated to helping young people navigate the challenges they face and build positive futures. Since 1988, we have been providing high quality assessment and therapeutic services, training, and consultancy to reduce sexual harm by addressing the needs of young people with inappropriate and harmful sexual behaviour.

Our approach is grounded in evidence-based practices and a deep understanding of the complexities these young people face. Whether through assessment, direct intervention, caregiver support, or working alongside professionals, we are committed to making a difference.

We are an independent organisation that has been at the forefront of developing services for young people who display inappropriate and harmful sexual behaviour for over 30 years. We are dedicated to promoting positive outcomes through compassionate, child-centred approaches. By working closely with families, carers, and professional networks, we strive to create safe and supportive environments where young people can heal, learn, and progress.

With a reputation for excellence in our assessment and therapeutic services, we remain committed to empowering young people to transform their lives, reduce the risk of harm, and build brighter futures.

Our history

G-map was formed in 1988 as a multi-agency initiative to develop services in the UK for young people who have displayed inappropriate and harmful sexual behaviours. We became an independent organisation in 1996 and are based in Greater Manchester.

Over the years, we’ve earned a national reputation for the quality of our work, and our ongoing commitment to training, research, and innovation. Through a combination of therapeutic assessment, intervention services, and a collaborative approach with local authorities and agencies, G-map has continually expanded and evolved to meet the ever-changing needs of the young people we serve.

We are committed to the welfare of the young person and provide an optimistic, child-centred environment where the young person can develop the self-belief and self-knowledge they need to progress to a safe and fulfilling future.

Our primary goal is to reduce the risk of sexual victimisation through compassionate, tailored services for young people.

From therapeutic programmes to assessment consultancy and training, G-map offers a holistic approach to support and intervention.

Our Team

Our team consists of dedicated professionals from a range of disciplines, including psychology, social work, criminal justice, counselling and specialist nursing.

Each member brings their unique expertise to our work with young people who display inappropriate and harmful sexual behaviours. We pride ourselves on our collaborative approach, with our practitioners working in co-therapy pairs to provide more effective support.

Our team is committed to ongoing professional development, ensuring we stay at the cutting edge of best practices in this highly specialised field. The combined knowledge, skills, and experience within our team allow us to deliver high-quality services tailored to each individual’s needs

Our Approach: Evidence-Based, Holistic, and Compassionate

At G-map, we adopt a holistic approach to intervention, focusing on understanding the full context of a young person’s life and focusing on their needs and strengths.

We believe that effective support comes from building meaningful relationships, addressing the underlying needs that drive harmful behaviours, and empowering young people to build a safe and positive future.

Our work is informed by a strong research base, and we continuously evaluate and adapt our methods to ensure they meet the needs of those we support. By integrating therapeutic work with family and community networks, we create lasting change.

G-map have developed ICOPE (Individual Community Opportunities Programme and Experience) to support young people’s safe social integration. ICOPE is an individually tailored incremental risk assessed programme of opportunities based on continuous assessment, analysis, review and evaluation. It involves a young person undertaking activities in community-based and other settings which directly reflect their assessed Good Lives needs and which assist them towards safe social integration and in their transition to increased independence.

The programme is graduated, moving through various risk assessed stages, from full supervision through shadowing, line-of-sight observations, spot checking and random spot-checking, as the young person evidences the capacity to self-manage. ICOPE planning is undertaken at a multi-agency level, and is underpinned by the principles of defensible decision making.

Co-working provides the obvious and important benefit of keeping practitioners and young people safe. Many of the children we work with have experienced trauma within a relational context and being alone with a single worker with whom they have not yet established a therapeutic relationship can often feel unsafe. Another practical advantage is that co-working provides greater consistency and stability for the young person allowing for emotional safety and trust within the therapeutic relationship to be preserved. As part of our service evaluation G-map gain feedback from service-users on their experiences of therapy; 85% of our service users view it as preferable to have two therapeutic workers rather than one.

Child and Adolescent Focused Intervention

Ongoing Research and Partnerships

Research-Driven Therapeutic Services

Collaborative Multidisciplinary Team

Good Lives Model for Positive Change

Co-Working Practitioner Approach

Meet Our Team

Bobbie Print

CQSW
Director

Bobbie has specialised in work with young people who sexually abuse for over 40 years. Bobbie was a founding member of NOTA (the National Association for the Treatment of Abusers), has authored a number of publications and has trained throughout the UK and internationally in this field. Bobbie established G-map with Dave O’Callaghan in 1996.

Service Managers

Laura Wylie

BA (Hons) Psychology,
MSc Forensic Psychology

Before joining G-map in January 2009 Laura spent 10 years working and conducting research across a range of forensic settings. This included providing psychological services to adolescents with emotional and behavioural difficulties in a secure care setting and to adult sex offenders within the Scottish Prison Service.

In addition to undertaking direct assessment and therapeutic work with Children and young people, Laura provides consultancy and supervision. Laura is involved in the development and delivery of G-map’s national training courses and has represented G-map at national and international level via seminars and key note presentations on G-map’s adaption of the Good Lives Model.

Dr. Helen Griffin

BA (Hons), PA Dip, NVQ4,
Foren.Psy.D., CPsychol, AFBPsS

Helen is also our Head of Research. She is a Chartered Forensic Psychologist and a member of the Division of Forensic Psychology. Helen is registered with the Heath and Care Professional Council (HCPC) and the British Psychological Society (BPS). Helen is one of the authors of the AIM2 assessment tool, for use with young people who display sexually harmful behaviour. In addition to undertaking direct assessments and therapeutic work with young people, Helen has provided consultation and liaison to carers and professionals. She is also responsible for psychometric testing at G-map and for research that G-map has been involved in to further develop this area. Prior to joining G-map in January 2006, Helen’s work experience included working with socially excluded young people, youth work and research completed for the Youth Justice Trust and Youth Justice Board. Helen has published articles and book chapters in this field of work and has peer reviewed articles.

Advanced Senior Practitioner

Verity Mukandu

BA (Hons) Criminal Justice, BA (Hons) in Community Justice, NVQ Level 4 Diploma in Probation Studies, Level 2 Practice Educator for Student Social Work.

Verity qualified as a Probation Officer in 2006 before working as a Case Manager, supervising children on Court Orders at Trafford Youth Offending Service. From qualifying in 2006, Verity worked with children who have sexual behavioural concerns. In 2010 she became a Senior Practitioner with Wigan Youth Offending Team and then became Operational Manager for Wigan Youth Offending Team in 2013. Verity joined G-map in August 2016 as Senior Practitioner, a role which includes providing training to other authorities and providers along with the liaison to residential care homes providing therapeutic support for children in care. In March 2023 she was promoted to Advanced Senior Practitioner for G-map.

Senior Practitioners

Karen Ashworth

Dip Social Work & Learning Disability Nursing, SW Practice Educatorfor Student Social Work

Karen qualified as a social worker in 2001. She has worked in a variety of social work roles, including six years with adults and young people with a learning disability and 15 years in local authority Safeguarding Children’s Services. In 2014 she became an Advanced Practitioner in a Complex Safeguarding Team working with children and young people vulnerable to criminal and sexual exploitation prior to becoming an Independent Reviewing Officer. Karen has developed training on exploitation and delivered it to a variety of agencies. Karen has also held responsibility for conducting AIM assessments with young people considered to have displayed harmful sexual behaviour as well as the Trauma Symptom Checklist.

Sharon Leeson

Dip HE (Community Nursing)

Sharon’s work experience is in learning disability nursing in hospitals, community residential settings, and community nursing where she has worked with adults, including individuals with challenging behaviour. Whilst working with G-map Sharon has developed and delivered assessment and intervention training as part of national training courses both to individual services and national conferences representing G-map both nationally and internationally. Sharon also provides consultation and liaison to residential providers and statutory services.

Jessica Eyre

B.A. (Hons)
Social Work

Prior joining G-map as a Senior Practitioner in May 2022, Jessica practised as a Children’s Social Worker for six years and has worked within Child Protection and Safeguarding and Assessment Teams. Jessica also worked within Complex Safeguarding for two years, specialising and working alongside the police to support children and young people who were at risk of Child Sexual Exploitation, Child Criminal Exploitation and Modern Day Slavery. Jessica supported to develop the team and delivered training to other agencies and services around exploitation and Complex Safeguarding.

Rebecca McDonnell

MA Clinical Counselling, BSc (Hons) Psychology with Counselling

Rebecca joined G-map as a Senior Practitioner in 2025, bringing extensive experience in clinical supervision and therapeutic support for children and young people affected by complex trauma. Prior to this role, she worked as a certified clinical supervisor, guiding therapeutic practitioners, and also served as a counsellor and sexual health advisor for children and young people. Since 2017, Rebecca has been dedicated to providing therapeutic support and tailored interventions in various settings. Her expertise includes working with both children and adults affected by trauma, as well as supporting individuals with Special Educational Needs (SEN).

Sarah Coleman-Bushby

MSc Social Work, BA (Hons) Psychology & Leisure, PGC Education, PGD Human Resource Management

Prior to joining G-map as a Senior Practitioner in 2025, Sarah worked as a Supervising Social Worker for eight years with an independent fostering agency whose ethos was in enabling and supporting foster carers providing therapeutic parenting to looked after children and young people. Her role involved dealing with children and young people with complex and challenging behaviours, learning difficulties, and mental health problems, as well as unaccompanied asylum-seeking young people, children and young people who have been trafficked, and children at risk of child sexual or criminal exploitation. Previously, Sarah worked as a local authority social worker supporting vulnerable children and young people. Before qualifying as a social worker in 2015, Sarah worked for 18 years for Greater Manchester Police in a variety of roles.

Clinical Consultant

Dr. Dawn Fisher

BA (Hons),
M.Clin.Psych, Ph.D

Dr Fisher is a Consultant Forensic Clinical Psychologist, currently working independently. She was formerly the Lead Consultant Psychologist at St Andrew’s Healthcare, Birmingham and at Llanarth Court Hospital, S. Wales. She was also Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the University of Birmingham. As well as providing consultancy to G-map, she provides consultancy to Barnardo’s Better Futures Project in Bridgend.

Dr Fisher has worked with sex offenders throughout her career, has published widely on the topic and spoken regularly at conferences. She was a member of the Home Office Accreditation Panel for Sex Offender programmes and a member of the STEP team involved in the evaluation of sex offender programmes in prison and community settings for the Home Office. She has been involved in research evaluating the effectiveness of sex offender treatment programmes, co-authored an accredited sex offender treatment programme and was a member of the Correctional Services Panel for several years. Dr Fisher was a founder member of NOTA.

Administrators

Catherine Hall

Senior Administrator

Catherine joined G-map in 2018 and is a versatile and experienced administrator/manager with well-developed communication, financial and customer-facing skills with an ability to provide a high standard of work to tight deadlines within a changing environment. Catherine’s background spans various industries including NHS and other social and healthcare organisations. She is proficient in various software programmes and, with a passion for organising and streamlining processes, she constantly delivers excellent support to the team and affiliated stakeholders.

Debbie Smith

Administrator

Debbie joined G-map in 2017. She is a highly experienced administrative assistant with over 30 years experience adapting to many business environments. She is a highly motivated and adaptable person who works effectively to deadlines. She excels in comprehensive support, including scheduling, travel arrangements and facilitating training. She engages with people at all levels, seeks ways to improve the services delivered and works to achieve deadlines. She is known for her proactive approach and friendly demeanor.

Testimonials

What People Say About Us

Ready to Make a Difference?

If you’re looking for support, training, or consultancy to help young people facing these challenges, we’re here to help. Get in touch with G-map today and learn how we can work together for a brighter future.