Psychology Experience & Research
I worked in the NHS for 10 years, from 2014 until September 2024. I have had a private caseload since 2021.
In the NHS I worked for a variety of services, overtime specialising in complex trauma with adults. My primary roles for developing this specialism included being part of the crisis team, HOPE (a service for refugees and asylum seekers, I worked with trafficking and torture survivors) and the complex psychological interventions team (for severe and enduring psychological distress).
Before my doctoral training, I worked at the University of Oxford conducting research into post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and social anxiety.
These roles have given me the privilege of connecting with people in their most vulnerable times and have opened me up to asking and exploring challenging questions about the meaning of suffering.
People I work with have often been diagnosed with problems such as PTSD, psychosis, personality disorders, bipolar, addictions, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), panic, body dysmorphia, social anxiety, depression and eating disorders, and come from all walks of life. I tend to lean away from diagnostic labels – unless they are helpful for the people I am working with, which they often are – and towards understanding the personal story that has led a person to where they are today (not ‘what’s wrong with you’, but ‘what has happened in your life that’s led you here?’).
As well as offering individual and group therapy, my time in the NHS was focused on training, supervising, managing and consulting to other teams and members of staff. I have developed and delivered a number of much-needed training sessions to increase staff skill and confidence in their ability to make a difference to the lives of those they work with. I also deliver training to medical doctors and psychiatrists around psychological perspectives on trauma and how to work with such experiences.
A large part of my role as a manager involved thinking creatively about how to address systemic issues within and between services. I am interested in how we develop and maintain healthy ways of relating and functioning in systems (e.g. families, workplaces, communities) and appreciate critiques of individually focused interventions.
I have published several papers based on my clinical and research work, although I would write some of them differently now! Topics include: trauma work with children and adolescents, compassionate approaches to trauma for people with learning disabilities, complex cases – moving beyond diagnosis, psychological approaches with stroke survivors, psychosis as a response to trauma and anxiety, and considering therapeutic boundaries when working with severely traumatised people who are seeking asylum or are refugees. For more information see my Research Gate page here.
I am currently in the process of submitting three new collaborative papers for publication; they explore the impact of BYRP, racist referral practices within community mental health teams, and a case study exploring doing PTSD work with people who are still experiencing current threat (in this case, domestic violence). Watch this space!