Jessica (she / her) has over 12 years of experience working in mental and physical health services. She completed her doctorate training at University College London and as such was given the opportunity to be trained and supervised by some of the leading experts in psychological theories and treatments.

Working for specialised services, Jessica has had the opportunity to deliver tailored and evidence based psychological interventions such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Dialectical Behaviour Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing). As a result, she has experience of offering psychological therapy to those with common mental health problems such as anxiety and depression, but also adapting her work to focus on issues such as adjustment, loss and relational difficulties. Jessica is also interested in issues of power, discrimination and equality, therefore contextualising an individual’s distress to include wider systemic factors.

Alongside her work at Talking Heads, Jessica is a Senior Psychologist in a specialist NHS hospital setting and works with children, young people and their families. She also has extensive experience in offering training and consultation to other health care professionals.

“Training as a clinical psychologist meant that I was given knowledge and skills to understand human behaviour, and to help people make changes to the way they react or do things. As I have practiced as a therapist, I see both the importance of using those skills learned while also supporting the natural skills and resilience of those I work with. I recognise that people have many capabilities and often know what can help, if given opportunity to explore this. I understand the privilege it is to be able to join a person on a little part of their journey of life and try in every way to offer a contained, honest, non-judgemental space to make sense.

The therapies that I have worked with all focus on developing a compassionate understanding to human problems and subsequently, using approaches such as mindfulness and acceptance to change relationships with self and others. I wanted to be involved with Talking Heads as it is an organisation that has an ethical stance to its associates, clients and the wider community.”