I am Dean of Quality Assurance and Curriculum Validation for the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, and a Senior Lecturer in Clinical Psychology in the School of Health in Social Science. I provide clinical practice and supervision to the university's Psychological Therapies Centre and contribute to teaching on the MSc Psychological Therapies and the professional doctorate in Clinical Psychology (DCinPsychol)

In my current role as Dean I oversee the development and improvement of taught and research programmes across the College and lead in collaboration with the Dean of Education on quality improvement projects including Assessment and Feedback and supporting Tutors and Demonstrators. I represent the College on the Senate Quality Assurance Committee and am Vice-Convener of the Senate Academic Policy and Regulations Committee. 

Background

After qualifying, I worked as a full-time clinical psychologist in NHS Lothian Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS). I moved into a part-time lectureship then a full-time lectureship, retaining clinical roles working in the National Ear Reconstruction Service and outpatient CAMHS. In 2016-17 I was seconded to the National Confidential Forum to hear the testimonies of adults who had experienced residential care as children, and to advise on the analysis and dissemination of findings from this Scottish government initiative. This included the interim report What We Have Heard So Far. 

From 2017 to 2022,  I was Director of Learning and Teaching for the School of Health in Social Science. This entailed strategic oversight of all learning and teaching practice in the school. During the pandemic, I developed policy and practice to support colleagues in the rapid, successful adaptation of clinically focused teaching and assessment to the online environment. 

Previously, I was programme director for the MSc in Children and Young People's Mental Health and Psychological Practice  (campus and online programmes) and the MSc Psychological Therapies. I contributed to the MOOC The Clinical Psychology of Children and Young People in summer 2014, and was part of a group delivering CPD to City of Edinburgh Council employees (teachers, social workers, foster carers etc.) on child and adolescent mental health. I developed and taught an online course: Trauma and Resilience in a Developmental Context between 2012 and 2022.

Research

My research in adolescent and developmental psychopathology is focused on attachment and interpersonal functioning, with the aim of establishing preventative and curative interventions for young people who experience significant early life adversity, with a special focus on care-experienced children and young people. The evidence base for care-experienced children and young people is currently lacking, especially in the UK.  This population are therefore a priority for government. Guidelines by the British Psychological Society, to which I was a contributor, and the National Institute of Clinical and Health Excellence (NICE) emphasised the need for systematic research to develop an evidence base for meeting the mental health needs of this population. With university KE grants I have developed a network of stakeholders across Edinburgh to partner in and be consumers of rigorous research into the mental health and wellbeing of this at-risk population. My research splits into three main areas:

1)      Scaffolding the System (understanding the needs of carers)

This research programme includes completed projects investigating compassion fatigue and burnout in foster and kinship carers, analysis of users of a Kinship Care Helpline, and attachment conceptualisation in residential childcare workers. Recently completed or completing projects include a needs analysis of kinship carers and understanding the impact of trauma disclosure on novice foster carers.     

2)      Trauma-informed Practice (TIP) and Wellbeing

Recently completed projects in this area include an evaluation of the effect of TIP on staff wellbeing, exploration of the mediators of staff wellbeing in trauma-informed organisations, the effects of secondary traumatic stress on wellbeing and quality of working life in homelessness workers, and making financial advice and support for care-experienced young people trauma-informed.

3)      Psychological interventions and training

I have recently completed a multi-model group therapy trial for young people with complex trauma, funded by the Chilean Government, in which I was responsible for the IPT (interpersonal psychotherapy) arm.

In 2022-23, I joined the Scottish Government funded FAAST project as a consultant, developing training for practitioners in the assessment and diagnosis of foetal alcohol problems. This follows supervision of a doctoral thesis on raising a child with foetal alcohol exposure in kinship care.

I sit on the reference group for an England-wide implementation trial of TF-CBT for care-experienced youth in CAMHS (ADaPT) and the steering group for a feasibility study of life story work in foster care (LIMITLESS II).

Earlier work includes full trial testing of the effectiveness of online training in neurodevelopmental trauma for residential care workers following its development and piloting.

I run a lab group for staff, students and early career researchers (CAREHub, Care-Experience Research Edinburgh Hub) which has supported three grant proposals, one of which was student-led, and all of which have been successful. I am a founding member of the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Research (CAMHR) Centre.

I am not currently able to take on PhD students.

I am a regular reviewer for journals including Children and Youth Services Review, Journal of Family Violence, European Journal of Social Work, Early Human Development, Child & Family Social Work and the International Journal of Mental Health Nursing.