Sarah-Jane
Areas of expertise:
- Experienced Forensic Psychologist with extensive expertise in assessing and treating individuals within forensic mental health settings.
- Experienced expert witness for Family Courts, Parole Boards and Criminal Justice.
- Experienced in providing cognitive and capacity assessments for family and criminal courts and risk assessment for sentencing.
- Psychological assessment of mental health, neurodiversity and risk in parents for Family Court.
- Skilled in conducting complex risk assessments and delivering psychologically informed interventions.
- Works effectively with adults presenting with mental health difficulties, offending behaviours, personality disorders, neurodiverse presentations and forensic needs.
- Provides specialist input into forensic care pathways, therapeutic interventions and psychologically informed risk management.
- Strong background in supporting multidisciplinary teams.
- Professional experience spanning criminal justice services, mental health, personality disorder, neurodiversity and substance‑misuse support.
- Experienced in clinical supervision and consultation.
- Skilled in trauma-informed assessment and intervention.
Experience:
- Over 15 years’ experience working in forensic and clinical environments.
- Continuous employment within the NHS Community Forensic Mental Health Team since 2010 as a Forensic Psychologist (and previously as a Trainee Forensic Psychologist). Clinical Lead for Offender Personality Disorder Pathway.
- Earlier roles include Drugs Intervention Counsellor within a criminal‑justice‑linked programme (2005–2010) and Mental Health Advocate with Mind (2000–2005).
- Professional background spans criminal justice, community forensic mental health services, substance‑misuse intervention and mental health advocacy.
- Extensive expertise in assessment, formulation, intervention, risk evaluation and multidisciplinary working across statutory and non‑statutory services.
- Experience of consultation and training other professionals.
- Skilled in delivery of various psychological interventions, including Dialectical Behavioural Therapy, Schema Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Compassion Focused Therapy.
Bio:
I am a Chartered Forensic Psychologist with over 15 years’ experience working across forensic and clinical environments, including the OPD pathway, community forensic mental health services, low‑secure and high-secure inpatient services and prisons. My earlier career provided me with a rich grounding in advocacy and substance‑misuse intervention and I have over 7 years’ experience providing independent psychological and risk assessments for pre-proceedings, family court, parole boards and criminal court.
I specialise in forensic psychological assessment and intervention with people presenting with complex risk, personality difficulties, mental health issues and neurodiversity. I also design and deliver psychologically informed training, consultation and reflective practice for multidisciplinary teams.
I use Structured Professional Judgement tools and clinical interview and psychometric assessments to produce formulation and recommendations. I provide autism and ADHD diagnostics, cognitive and capacity assessments, psychological assessments and assessments of neurodiversity, risk of harm, and capacity to protect.
