Coordinates: 51°52′41″N 0°32′58″E / 51.8781°N 0.5495°E / 51.8781; 0.5495

Braintree is a town of about 42,000 people and the principal settlement of the Braintree district of Essex in the East of England. It is 10 miles (16 km) northeast of Chelmsford and 15 miles (24 km) west of Colchester on the River Blackwater, A120 road and a branch of the Great Eastern Main Line.

Braintree has grown contiguous with several surrounding settlements: Braintree proper lies to the south of Stane Street, and Bocking lies to the north. The two together can be referred to as Braintree and Bocking, although many people refer to them together as "Braintree"^{[citation needed]}.

Braintree is twinned with the French town of Pierrefitte-sur-Seine.

Braintree, Massachusetts, United States, was named after the town in 1640.

Essex ( /ˈɛsɨks/) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west. Essex County Council is the principal local authority for much of the county, sharing functions with twelve district councils. The county town is Chelmsford. The southern Essex boroughs of Thurrock and Southend-on-Sea are governed separately as unitary authorities. It was established in antiquity and formed the eastern portion of the Kingdom of Essex. Sections of the county closer to London are part of the Metropolitan Green Belt, which prohibits development. It is the location of the regionally significant Lakeside Shopping Centre and London Stansted Airport; and the new towns of Basildon and Harlow.

The name Essex originates in the Anglo-Saxon period of the Early Middle Ages and has its root in the Old English Ēastseaxe (i.e. the "East Saxons"), the eastern kingdom of the Saxons. Originally (in 527 AD) it occupied territory to the north of the River Thames, incorporating all of what later became Middlesex and most of what later became Hertfordshire, though its territory was later restricted to lands east of the River Lea.Colchester in the north east of the county is Britain's oldest recorded town, dating back to before the Roman conquest, when it was known as Camulodunum and was sufficiently well-developed to have its own mint. Subsequently the Kingdom of Essex was subsumed into the Kingdom of England and Essex eventually became a county.

Martin Weaver is a psychotherapist, author and media writer who took the first call on the Terrence Higgins Trust’s AIDS helpine in 1984.

He joined the Terrence Higgins Trust as a volunteer in 1983 and became the Trust’s first paid part-time employee at the end of 1984.

A UKCP-registered psychotherapist, Martin Weaver was formerly employed by East Surrey Health Authority, Kingston & Richmond Health Authority, North West Thames Regional Health Authority, South West Thames Regional Health Authority and as part of the South West London HIV/AIDS and GUM Commissioning Consortium.

In 1993, as District HIV Prevention Coordinator for both Kings and Esher Health Authority and Richmond, Twickenham and Roehampton Health Authority, he commissioned the Wolverton Centre at Kingston Hospital and the Roehampton Clinic for Sexually Transmitted Diseases at Queen Mary's University Hospital.

He is a past member of the Registration Committee, current member of the Training Standards Committee, and Co-Chair of the Experiential Constructivist Section of the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP).