Providing specialist psychological therapy to women, their partners and families, working on an individual and group basis with or without the baby presentProviding specialist psychological therapy to women, their partners and families to improve the relationship between parent and child, including the use of Video Interactive Guidance, Circle of Security Parenting, and work informed by parent infant psychotherapyFacilitating Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT) skills groups, engaging in DBT consults, and developing a CFT informed therapy group (in progress)Helping to develop a bereavement pathway within the serviceFacilitating reflective practice groups and complex case discussion Providing clinical supervision to band 7 clinical psychologists and an early year's practitioner Offering formal and informal consultation within the staff team Providing consultation and training to other health and social care agencies

As the lead Clinical Psychologist for the North Kent team within MIMHS, I provide evidencebased assessment, formulation and treatment to women with moderate to severe mental healthdifficulties during the perinatal period. I work with women individually, with their babies, theirpartners, or with their wider families. I have recently trained in Dialectical Behavioural Therapy(Level 2), the Circle of Security Parenting Programme, and have become accredited in VideoInteractive Guidance.Another part of my role is providing support to colleagues around managing the difficulties theyface, as perinatal mental health is an area associated with high levels of anxiety due to therelated risks. I also support the team in managing the uncertainties we experience because oflarge expansion within the team. I recognised that the team were not communicating effectively,perhaps because of the lack of role clarity they were experiencing, due to several newprofessionals joining the team. To try and help with this I worked closely with the operationallead. I suggested a change to the format of the weekly team meetings to facilitate a morereflective conversation, focusing on formulating a client's difficulties and the related risks, andencouraging a more supportive environment. I also introduced complex case discussion slots toprovide a protected time for colleagues to discuss complex clients. My consultation andsupervisory role was extended during the Covid-19 pandemic, to cover the entire MIMHS team,due to limited psychology provision.I also offer monthly clinical supervision to our peer support workers, nurses, and occupational therapist, and have completed the induction supervision training with Salomons Institute for Applied Psychology. I offer monthly reflective practice groups and take a lead on implementing outcome measures within MIMHS. I have represented the psychology team in CCQI planning discussions, andhave attended other teams' perinatal CCQI reviews.

I completed my clinical psychology doctorate. I was employed by SABP and the teachingelement of the course was provided by the University of Surrey. My time was split acrossuniversity teaching (two days a week), placement (two and a half days a week) and myresearch role (half a day a week). The courses main therapeutic models were CognitiveBehavioural Therapy and Systemic Therapy. I also received teaching and training for a widerange of additional models such as Psychodynamic, Acceptance Commitment Therapy,Cognitive Analytic Therapy, Dialectical Behavioural Therapy, Narrative Therapy andCompassion Focused Therapy. Furthermore, I received teaching, and gained experience in,both quantitative and qualitative research methods. My major research project involvedundertaking a systematic literature review and carrying out focus groups with school agedchildren to gain an understanding of their social understandings of Looked After Children. Thesefocus groups were analysed using Thematic Analysis.I completed the following placements: a year long placement in an Adult Community MentalHealth Recovery Service; a six month placement within a tier 3 Child and Adolescent MentalHealth Service; a six month placement in a Community Learning Disability Health Team; a sixmonth placement in an Older People's Recovery and Support Team and Memory AssessmentService; and a six month specialist placement at the Mother and Baby Unit at The BethlemRoyal Hospital. This placement also included individual and group work with clients referred tothe community perinatal mental health team.The teaching and training I received, in addition to the experiences I gained on placement,enabled me to become skillful in engaging, assessing and treating individuals, groups andfamilies across the life span, with a wide range of presenting problems, drawing on a range ofmodels to allow me to best meet the needs of the client.

I contributed to initial assessments, developing skills in formulation, treatment planning, andreport and therapeutic letter writing. I worked individually with young people and their parents,using the principles of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) to help them manage anxiety. Ialso co-facilitated group interventions, including a CBT anxiety management group for youngpeople and their parents and an emotional regulation group for adolescents using the principlesof Dialectical Behavioural Therapy and Acceptance Commitment Therapy. These therapeuticroles involved me carrying out initial assessments to discuss the suitability of certaininterventions with clients and their families, explaining therapeutic models and workingcollaboratively with clients to help them apply these therapeutic principles. I experienced therewards of witnessing the recovery of clients, as well as the disappointment that can occurwhen progress halts. I also evaluated group interventions to inform decisions on their continueduse and to assess how to improve the groups moving forward.I was part of a countywide Autism Spectrum Condition assessment team, liaising with parents,schools and other agencies. I scored and interpreted psychometric assessments, carried outschool observations and took part in Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedules and 3DIdiagnostic interviews. This role required me to feedback the outcomes of these assessments,both directly to families, and in reports, increasing my ability to discuss sensitive informationwith clients. I also completed cognitive assessments, namely WISC's, increasing my ability inpsychometric assessment.Through supervision with a clinical psychologist I developed an understanding of a number ofdifferent therapeutic approaches, as well as issues impacting the work of psychologist with inthe NHS. I also had the opportunity to supervise two assistant psychologists with in the team.

I was responsible for the safety, wellbeing, care and development of a 5 year old girl both during term time and the summer holidays. I utilised my creativity to think of fun, engaging and educational activities for both her and her playmates. As with all children there was sometimes a need to deal with challenging behaviour, to do so I successfully used a number of methods such as time out and positive reinforcement.

I helped facilitate a group for young care leavers; designed to help them learn to better regulate their emotions using dialectical behavioural therapy. The aim of the group was to develop meaningful ways of coping with distress, including tolerance, mindful awareness and acceptance, in an effort to decrease the likelihood of substance misuse (in line with the NICE clinical guidelines).

Worked under two clinical psychologists for an academic year as a member of the Child and Family Psychological Health Service (CFPHS or CAMHS). This service offers psychological interventions to children and families, largely within a community setting. It also offers consultations to a number of other professions. This role gave me an insight into child and family psychology services within the NHS. I had the opportunity to observe a number of psychologists in therapy and consultation leading to a greater understanding of their roles. A number of the psychologists used systemic therapy, and I observed a family consultation clinic every week, therefore I specifically gained further knowledge of this method of working. I also saw first-hand the pros and cons of multi-disciplinary working by observing weekly team meetings and network consultation meetings. One of my key roles was to put together a directorate of other services available to further assist families, which developed my research and communication skills. I was also responsible for auditing evaluations of foster carer training, health visitor and social worker consultations. This gave me an appreciation of the clinical psychologist skills in providing consultation and training in order to disseminate complex psychological concepts. Through the experience of observing and contributing to these consultations, I was able to develop my skills in communicating with a range of different professional groups.

I was responsible for the safety of children aged between 9 months and 5 years at a designated care facility. My role included practical aspects of care (for example feeding and changing) as well as guidance of play and development within the remit of Early Years Foundation Stage Framework.

I worked at a number of organisations during my time at Heart of the South including nursery’s, adult care homes and schools for those with special needs as well as carrying out domiciliary work with the elderly. My role as a nursery assistant was similar to that of Little Treasure but with the added responsibility of larger group sizes with more varied age ranges. My role in adult care homes and schools for those with special needs involved looking after the safety of those with a number of complex difficulties including autism, epilepsy and Down syndrome. I developed ways to communicate with those that can struggle with language or in social situations and methods of dealing with challenging behaviours. A large majority of my role was to engage with the service user whether it be during activities or spontaneous play so they could get the most out of their time there. The domiciliary care involved home visits to elderly people that needed assistants with everyday activities such as changing, taking medicine and cooking. I found that while helping the clients with these tasks it was important to encourage them to do as much as possible, so they still had a sense of independence and autonomy. As well as providing them with practical help I was also keen to be someone for them to talk to about their worries and concerns.

I worked as part of a team assisting disabled young people during the summer while going on days out. My tasks were to ensure the safety of the young people, while using my creativity and energy to maximise their enjoyment throughout the day. I also fed and changed them if required. I gained a lot of knowledge in how to deal with challenging behaviour as well as different techniques for engaging with the young people at an individual and group level.