I am a Chartered Psychologist and accredited Cognitive Behaviour Therapy practitioner with over 25 years’ experience spanning academia, advisory work, corporate training, management and psychological therapy.
I am currently appointed Chief Clinical Officer at Onebright, the largest UK provider of private outpatient mental health services (supporting over 60,000 people a year), where I am a member of the Executive Board and have responsibility for the delivery and governance of the company’s clinical services. In this role I lead a 6 strong Clinical Leadership Team which oversees over 30 clinical and team leads, 150 FTE clinical assessors and therapists, and a national network of more than 3,000 clinicians. I am also Emeritus Professor of Addictive Behaviours and Mental Health at London South Bank University. As a senior executive I have achieved considerable success in motivating and engaging teams to deliver on set goals. This has included leading two University business units (30 FTE staff and £5.5m income and over 100 FTE staff and £13m income), establishing an alcohol and drugs service with 20 FTE staff, and co-leading the reconfiguration of an NHS Trust Cognitive Behaviour Therapy provision.
My advisory roles have included co-authoring governmental guidelines for psychological therapists in supporting their clients discontinue prescribed medication, helping to set up new mental health services/platforms, and acting as a trustee. My corporate training work has focused on improving mental wellbeing for individuals and organisations and my media engagement has centred on thought pieces/commentaries in the area of mental health.
As an academic and researcher, I have made a significant contribution to psychological theory and therapy by leading on the development of the field of metacognition in addictive behaviours. I am in the top 1% of globally cited scientists with over 200 scientific journal articles published and serve as Editor-in-Chief of Addictive Behaviors, one of the leading scientific journals in addiction psychology and psychiatry. Both the British Psychological Society and the British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies have awarded me a Fellowship in recognition of my work in this field.
For more than 25 years I have also been working, in both private practice and in community mental health settings, as a psychological therapist specialising in both Cognitive Behaviour Therapy and Metacognitive Therapy, and have over 20 years' experience as a trainer and supervisor in both these psychological therapy modalities.
