Healthcare Professionals

The Katie Piper Foundation delivers personalised, trauma-informed care to support survivors’ physical, emotional, and social recovery.

Rehabilitation Programme

The Katie Piper Foundation provides a comprehensive rehabilitation programme for survivors of life changing burns and scarring. Led by our clinically experienced team of physiotherapists, occupational therapists and psychosocial therapists we deliver a bespoke programme tailored to a survivor’s individual goals, addressing their physical, psychological and emotional needs.

Bespoke Rehabilitation for Survivors

Following a comprehensive clinically led assessment we develop a bespoke rehabilitation programme for every survivor. Delivered through a combination of online support sessions and visits to our rehabilitation centre in St Helen’s, a programme will deliver specialist physiotherapy, occupational therapy and psychotherapy together with wellbeing sessions including yoga, mindfulness nutrition, fitness and relationship counselling.

Catrin: Survivor and Clinician

Catrin, a burns survivor who retrained as a physiotherapist and works with the Katie Piper Foundation, shares her insights on the rehabilitation process. Her unique perspective bridges lived experience and clinical practice, offering reassurance to those navigating recovery.

Referrals

We welcome referrals from healthcare professionals, patients and family members, You can get in touch with via the referral form.

Referrals

Learn more about the Katie Piper Foundation

Hear from Kate Naish, CEO of the Katie Piper Foundation, as she talks about the work we do and the support we offer to survivors.

Rehabilitation Pathway

Upon completion of the assessment a survivor will be assigned a rehabilitation pathway, overseen by the lead therapists with their individual goals set with them. This will contain a tailored range of therapies to address their needs and will initially be delivered remotely, with a longer-term aim of face to face treatment in our scar clinic and/ or rehabilitation centre or via home visits.

We will always work in collaboration with our NHS colleagues, and as part of the assessment process we will reach out to the lead clinician in the home team (or GP if discharged form hospital services). We will remain in contact throughout the programme and involve the team in MDT meetings before and after a residential stay

Rehabilitation Pathway

All survivors who contact the Katie Piper Foundation follow the above set pathway for triage and assessment.

Johanne, our Head of Patient Services & Lead Psychotherapist explains the process after survivors contact the Katie Piper Foundation.

Assessment Process

The assessment process is led and owned by Rachel Kettle, our Lead Burns Therapist and Johanne Harrison, Lead Psychotherapist with all survivors having an initial online assessment with both clinicians, followed by detailed psychological and physical assessment sessions, online or in person as appropriate.

We then put together a personalised pathway based on the survivors needs and goals, bringing together the therapies and clinical team members to help them achieve this.

Residential rehabilitation

We deliver residential rehabilitation at Rainford Hall in St Helens, working in partnership with Steps Together, an independent provider of recovery, wellbeing and care services

In most cases 2 survivors will stay at Fenny Bank Cottage at Rainford Hall for a 2-5 nights and spend 7 hours a day in therapy and activities tailored to their needs. Throughout the stay the survivors are supported by experienced staff specialising in burns, who stay in the same venue. We use LPG scar massage at Rainford Hall, having pioneered the use of this treatment is scar management since the foundation of the charity.

Rainford Hall

In this section

Scar Clinics

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We also run a regular scar clinic in London, delivering assessments and LPG treatment to 3 patients a week, usually as part of an 8 week programme. This is done in partnership with LPG at their clinic in Hammersmith.

Group therapy and peer support

In 2025 we have introduced a new series of group therapies to our online programme, with initial programmes focused on pain management, thermoregulation and nutrition and further group planned in sleep therapy and scar management. All sessions are prepared on delivered by a specialist psychotherapist and subject specialist (e.g. burns nutritionist, MSK pain specialist).

The Clinical Team

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As well as employed physiotherapists, occupational therapists and psychotherapists. Katie Piper Foundation have a wide range of freelance therapists bringing specialist skills to the team to tailor services to individual need. The therapists include sex and relationships counselling, nutrition, yoga, personal training, MDK physiotherapy, meditation, mindfulness and sleep therapy.

Psychological support

Grounded in trauma-informed principles, the model offers a comprehensive package of therapeutic support that enables emotional healing, builds resilience, and combats the isolation that so often accompanies disfigurement and trauma. Included in face-to-face, remote and group-based interventions, are specialist therapies and interventions which the team are trained in, including:

Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR): A highly effective therapy for processing trauma and alleviating symptoms of PTSD.

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT): Helping survivors develop psychological flexibility and enhance resilience.

Group Therapy and Resilience Training: Providing opportunities for peer support and the development of coping skills within a safe therapeutic setting, whilst increasing the efficiency of delivery.

Trauma-Informed Therapy: Ensuring all support is delivered with sensitivity to each individual’s trauma history and unique recovery journey.

Development of Sleep Therapy: Acknowledging the vital role of sleep in emotional and physical recovery, we are developing specialised sleep therapy as a key component of our holistic rehabilitation model.

Outcome measurement and analysis

We use 5 different Patient Reported Outcome Measures for measuring different aspects of a patient’s physical and/or psychological state. The evaluation measures list is:

EQ-5D (a standardised instrument for use as a measure of health outcome)

POSAS Observer Scale (The Patient and Observer Scar Assessment Scale V20/EN)

CARe (The Centre for Appearance Research Evaluation)

Patient KPF Experience Evaluation

The outcomes from the measures inform the service delivery team on individual patient progress and developments to the structure and delivery of rehabilitation services.