Latest News

Dr Dionne Joseph joins us

With extensive experience working with refugees and asylum-seekers

Dr Dionne Joseph is a Clinical Psychologist working with adults and children. Dionne is particularly skilled in working with families of African and African-Caribbean background. She has great understanding and experience of different cultural practices in respect of child-rearing beliefs and customs, the impact of different spiritual belief systems and how parental attitudes expectations and behaviour may differ from Western European standards. She has worked extensively with refugees and asylum-seekers in respect of assessing functioning and psychological trauma (when individuals are from war-torn countries) and in cases where residency status is disputed. Dionne has specialist training in working through interpreters and is also able to conduct assessments of cognitive functioning where the individual speaks no English.

New Associate Eliza Harris joins us in January

Eliza Harris provides psycho-legal assessments for civil, criminal and family court proceedings. She has extensive experience in the assessment of risk for violence, sexual offending against both children and adults and arson. Eliza uses a wide range of structured, empirically-based clinical judgment tools and psychometrics within her practice. She is also trained and experienced in the assessment of cognitive functioning and personality disorder, including psychopathy. She can provide cognitive behavioural interventions (stress/anxiety management, anger management, relationship skills, relapse prevention), and is currently expanding into training psychology with both individuals and organisations. Eliza has previously worked for 16 years in HM Prison Service and is an appointed member of the Parole Board for England and Wales.

Counselling Psychologist Dr Rina Bajaj joins us as an Associate

Dr Rina Bajaj is a qualified Counselling Psychologist now working with us at Psychology Associates. As with all our psychologists, Rina is registered with the Health Professionals Council and is a Chartered Psychologist with the British Psychological Society. She has been working within the field of Mental Health since 2005 and has worked within various settings including the NHS, private practice, the charitable sector as well as the corporate sector. Rina provides psychological assessments of children (0-18), parenting assessments, therapeutic work, and consultation to children’s services and families as well as expert witness assessments and reports for courts. Rina has an expertise in working with children who have experienced abuse and trauma as well as working with individuals who have been impacted by substance misuse.

New associate Dr Vicky Sutton – specialist in Looked After and Adopted Children

Dr Vicky Sutton is a Chartered Clinical Psychologist with a specialist experience in working with Looked After and Adopted Children, their Families and professional networks. For the past six years, Vicky has worked with Looked After and Adopted Children within Social Care and NHS settings, as well as offering services independently. She can provide psychological assessments of parenting and family relationships; assessments of children (0 - 18) which can include Story Stem Assessments (attachment patterns), developmental and cognitive functioning, and the impact of trauma and abusive experiences on a child's psychological well being. Vicky provides therapy, and is an accredited Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapist (Attachment Therapy). She also provides consultation and training to allied professionals working with children in care.

Chartered Counselling Psychologist - Sarah Wimpress joins us as Associate

Sarah Wimpress is a chartered Counselling Psychologist who works in private practice and the NHS. Sarah offers clinical psychological assessment, reports, therapy and supervision to a range of services including providing clinical input to rehabilitation providers, Employee Assistance Programmes and Primary Care. Sarah works with adults suffering from a wide range of difficulties including depression, PTSD, adjustment disorders, anxiety disorders and pain management. Within the broad scope of adult mental health Sarah specialises in providing Cognitive Behaviour Therapy to individuals who have difficulties arising from traumatic events and accidents and provides assessments, reports, and treatment interventions to meet an individual’s needs. She adopts a humanistic integrated approach to her work, utilising theory and techniques as indicated by the clients’ presentation.

January 2012  saw us host GP Training

Psychology Associates 2012 CPD courses have already begun. On 4th January Dr Sue Candy and Dr Susan Jones, both Clinical Psychologists, provided a course for GPs in psychological issues relating to the 10 minute consultation and to clients with complex presentations.

Positive Training Reviews

What do solicitors and barristers say about Psychology Associates CPD training?  For the last two, 19 out of 25 rated the event Excellent and the rest rated it Good.  Here are some of the comments:

“A very practical and helpful course”

“The information will be extremely useful in my work”

“Interesting subject, well presented”  

Norwich Personality Disorders Training

Psychology Associates continues to provide an active training schedule for solicitors and barristers, in topics relevant to Child & Family Court Proceedings, as well as Criminal and Prison Law.  The sessions aim to help legal representatives learn more about how psychological issues are relevant to their clients and their cases.   On 15th November 2011 Dr Susan Jones, Clinical Director and Forensic Lead provided a day long training in Norwich, Norfolk in Personality Disorders.  On the 8th December 2011 Dr Susan Jones also did a shorter CPD in Cornwall on the Effect of Personality Disorders on Parenting.

Expert Witness Skills for Psychologists

On Thursday December 15th 2011 Dr Sue Candy, Managing Director of Psychology Associates and Dr Susan Jones, Clinical Director and Forensic Lead presented a workshop in Bristol on Expert Witness Skills for Psychologists.  Most of the attendees were psychologists who have recently joined Psychology Associates.  The feedback included:

“Excellent enjoyable training. I thought the group size, pace and combination of slides, discussion and experiential opportunities was excellent”

“Great to pick the brains of such experienced clinicians!”

Association of Personal Injury Lawyers Meeting

Stephen Roundhill gave a talk at a meeting of the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers recently. The topic under discussion was ‘Neuropsychological assessment in personal injury and clinical negligence cases’, and was attended by approximately thirty solicitors / legal professionals. The talk proceeding Stephen’s was by Jude Fewings, a consultant therapist in acute neurology, who gave an interesting overview of medical management in the critical hours and days following injury. This meant that Stephen’s talk on the quantification of neuropsychological effects later in the rehabilitation process followed on nicely.

The audience seemed to engage well with discussion regarding neuropsychological assessment and rehabilitation, and it gave the opportunity briefly to get across the services Psychology Associates have in these areas of work, including expert witness reporting, cognitive rehabilitation, and long-term therapeutic interventions. It certainly felt like we could have used at least another couple of hours discussing the subject, but it being a cold and dank winter night, we wrapped things up on time! However, it appears that the talk was well received, as subsequently Psychology Associates has been approached by a number of attendees interested in our work, and Stephen has been asked to present at a future APIL event. This will be in the thorny but important subject of ‘symptom validity testing’...something that is naturally always a concern in these types of legal cases, but so important to do well from a psychological perspective as the outcomes can have wide ranging influences (including often unhelpful and at times unfair labels as ‘faking’ and ‘malingering’).

Division of Clinical Psychology Annual Conference

Dr Sue Candy, Dr Susan Jones and Dr Kelly Camilleri presented a symposium at the Division of Clinical Psychology’s (DCP) Annual Conference in Birmingham on 2nd December 2011 entitled Navigating through the commissioning storm to achieve best outcomes for psychology.

We welcome Dr Susan Wimshurst as Associate

Psychology Associates would like to welcome Dr Susan Wimshurst to the practice

Dr Susan Wimshurst has worked with children (aged 0-18) and families since qualifying as a clinical psychologist in 2005. Within her NHS role, Susan provides specialist psychological assessments of children and their families and provides psychological intervention, for a wide range of emotional and mental health needs, by working individually with the young person as well as with families and carers, schools and other relevant agencies.

Susan has particular interest and experience in anxiety disorders including Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) as well as developmental disorders including Autistic Spectrum disorders and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Within her NHS role she provides several behaviour management workshops for parents of children with challenging behaviour and provides consultation and supervision to other health professionals and agencies. Susan also has experience of psychometric testing, assessing the cognitive functioning of children and young people often as part of a broader assessment exploring possible differential diagnoses.

Consultant Forensic psychologist Lisa Davies joins us as Associate

Psychology Associates would like to welcome Lisa Davies to the practice

Lisa Davies is a Consultant Forensic Psychologist, Chartered Scientist and Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society. Lisa has been working as a psychologist for over 12 years working with offenders in prison and in mental health settings, becoming chartered in 2004. During this time Lisa has also worked as an independent consultant to Solicitors specialising in Prison, Mental Health and Immigration Law, including attendance as an expert witness in the Crown and Magistrates Courts, at Parole Board Hearings and Asylum and Immigration Tribunals. Lisa has worked for over seven years designing and implementing treatment interventions for women with a history of self injurious behaviours and has experience of delivering dialectical behaviour therapy since 2006. Lisa is trained in the administration of the HCR-20 structured risk assessment of violence, the International Personality Disorder Examination (IPDE), The Risk of Sexual Violence Protocol (RSVP) and Sexual Violence Risk (SVR-20), The Structured Assessment of Spousal Assault (SARA), Stalking Assessment and Management (SAM) and she has undertaken a number of assessments of fire setting and arson risk.

News 2011

New Associate: Dr Fiona Pipon-Young

Psychology Associates would like to welcome Fiona Pipon-Young to the practice.

Dr Fiona Pipon-Young is a Registered Clinical Psychologist working within the NHS with adults experiencing mental health and cognitive difficulties. Fiona provides a range of psychological services including diagnostic neuropsychological assessment, assessments of capacity, differential diagnosis and psychological assessments and interventions for mental health problems (e.g. depression, anxiety, PTSD). She has worked within the NHS as a Clinical Psychologist since 2009, specializing in neuropsychology and later life mental health. Fiona holds a specialist interest in neuropsychology and holds a Masters degree with distinction in Cognitive Neuropsychology and is currently completing a postgraduate diploma in Clinical Neuropsychology at the University of Glasgow.

New Associate: Dr Richard Rushe

Psychology Associates would like to welcome Richard Rushe to the practice.

Dr Richard Rushe is a Clinical Psychologist with expertise in adult mental health, including psychotraumatology, and clinical neuropsychology. In his work for Psychology Associates, Richard provides personal injury medico – legal assessments, cognitive assessments, mental capacity assessments, and neuropsychological assessments. His clinical experience has included appointments in community mental health and acquired brain injury. Richard has extensive experience of psychological and neuropsychological assessment and intervention in respect of adults referred with a wide spectrum of mental health needs and cognitive impairment.

New Associate: Dr Linda Bolton

Psychology Associates would like to welcome Linda Bolton to the practice.

Dr Linda Bolton is a Chartered Clinical Psychologist with over 20 years experience of working in child, family and parenting NHS services. She has worked across a range of community and Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services in London, Somerset and for the past 7 years in Dorset. Linda has developed particular expertise in the areas of trauma, systemic family work and long-term health problems. Linda provides developmental and psychological assessments of children (0 to 18), parenting and attachment assessments, therapeutic work and consultation, both in the NHS and for a local Charity. Linda is fully trained in EMDR practice and currently training in Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy. She provides training and supervision in CBT, attachment and psychological issues. Linda has provided reports for the Courts intermittently over 20 years, including personal injury assessments, and has given evidence in Court.

New Associate: Dr Yetunde Ade-Serrano

Psychology Associates would like to welcome Yetunde Ade-Serrano to the practice.

Yetunde Ade-Serrano is a Chartered Counselling Psychologist. She provides psychological therapy to a variety of people on a short and long term basis, and has worked with a variety of presenting issues. She has 7 years clinical experience. She completed a doctorate research exploring the self-definitions and individuality of black professional women. Yetunde works integratively using a number of therapeutic approaches; this enables the sessions to be tailored to the needs of individual clients. She is new to Psychology Associates but also works in the City as an Assistant Underwriter for a Reinsurance Company.

New Associate: Dr Alexandra Toombes

Psychology Associates would like to welcome Alexandra Toombes to the practice.

Dr. Alexandra Toombes is a Registered and BPS Chartered Clinical Psychologist. Alex provides short and longer term therapy for a range of psychological difficulties. Alex has a specialist interest in working with trauma, both complex and severe trauma reactions, and those resulting from a one-off traumatic experience. Alex also works with anxiety disorders, personality difficulties and depression. Alex’s approach is integrative; utilising a range of psychological theories and models to provide evidence-based practice, but that is fundamentally tailored to the individual needs of, and understandable to, the client. Alex was previously employed in the NHS and with a national human rights organisation, where she worked with people from different cultures through interpreters.

New Associate: Dr Claire Nagi

Psychology Associates would like to welcome Claire Nagi to the practice.

Dr Claire Nagi is a Chartered Forensic Psychologist. She provides psycho-legal services for criminal proceedings and Prison Law, specialising in the risk assessment of violence and sexual offending, in addition to assessment of personality and cognitive functioning. She has been working in the field of psychological assessment and intervention with forensic populations since 2003, across a range of settings including the HM Prison and Probation services, as well as medium and low secure forensic mental health services. Dr Nagi currently works in an NHS low secure hospital for mentally disordered offenders. She has experience working with offenders who present with complex needs, including risk for violence and sexual offending, difficulties with motivation, mental disorder, personality assessment and treatment. Dr Nagi is also an Honorary Clinical Lecturer for the Centre for Forensic and Family Psychology, University of Birmingham.

New Associate: Mrs Judy Faulkner

Psychology Associates would like to welcome Judy Faulkner to the practice.

Mrs Judy Faulkner is a Forensic Psychologist and Cognitive Analytic Psychotherapist. Judy has extensive experience in providing psycho-legal services for civil, criminal and child-care proceedings, specialising in assessment of risk for violence and sexual offending, personality disorder and psychopathy, cognitive functioning and mental health difficulties.  Judy also provides assessments for mentally disordered offenders in secure or prison settings.  She has a particular interest in psychological assessment which assists the decision making of the Parole Board and Discretionary Lifer Panels. Judy offers Cognitive Analytic psychotherapy to a wide range of clients and she is also a Motivational Interviewing trainer. She has an interest in those who have been in care homes and boarding schools. Judy was previously employed by Her Majesty’s Prison Service in prisons and at Offending Behaviour Programmes Unit in the Prison Service HQ.

New Associate: Dr Joanne Weston

Psychology Associates would like to welcome Joanne Weston to the practice.

Dr Joanne Weston provides psychological assessment and therapy to adults. She has particular experience of working in adult mental health settings with people with emotional and mental health problems of varying severity. This includes anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress reactions, work-related difficulties, and adjustment to and managing health conditions. Her career includes working in primary care settings (e.g. GP surgeries) for three years, providing brief therapy for people with common emotional difficulties. Joanne uses a range of therapeutic approaches, including Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT), Psychodynamic, Systemic and Brief Solution-Focused approaches. These are tailored to the client’s needs and drawn from the current research evidence base.

New Associate: Dr Lesley Leeds

Psychology Associates would like to welcome Lesley Leeds to the practice.

Dr Lesley Leeds is a Clinical Psychologist who has worked in the NHS for 6 years. She has extensive experience in the assessment of learning disability, with particular knowledge of Autistic Spectrum Conditions (ASC) and the assessment of intellectual impairment. Lesley has extensive experience of providing a range of psychological interventions to people with and without learning disability. Lesley also has experience of undertaking medico-legal work, specifically providing psychological interventions to individuals with anxiety and depression. Lesley works in a community learning disability team in North Wales. She has a specific interest in Dialectical Behaviour Therapy and is part of a consultation team in North Wales.

Associate Psychologists

We are looking to extend our partnership working with Psychologists across the United Kingdom who have specialist expertise in all fields of Psychology. A large proportion of the work we are able to offer currently is Expert Witness work, but we are developing other services too. In return for your working expertise, we offer support with the work you complete, advice about completing reports, CPD opportunities and links with a network of Psychologists. If you would like to hear more, please contact the practice via enquiry@psychologyassociates.org.uk with your CV. Our website www.psychologyassociates.org.uk will offer you more information about the Practice.

Psychology Associates launch new blog

Psychology Associates have launched their new blog, the Psychology Spot blogspot and will be keeping this updated with informative professional articles and the general goings on at the firm.

Sue Candy says “The blog represents  our commitment to staying at the forefront of psychological services and helping to spread best practice”…

Check out the new blog at the Psychology Spot.