Jenny is a Senior Clinical Psychologist and the Lead for Education Provision at CMCAFS. She has a broad range of experience working with children, young people and their families across health, social care and education settings.

A large part of Jenny’s work with CMCAFS involves providing psychological services to educational settings. This work includes supporting these settings to develop and embed ‘whole school’ approaches to promoting the emotional health and wellbeing of children and young people. She also works more specifically with schools to develop ‘trauma informed therapeutic frameworks’ to address the needs of children who have experienced trauma and adversity in their lives. Jenny also provides training and consultation to staff teams to support them in their understanding of the psychological difficulties and needs of the children they work with.

Prior to joining CMCAFS, Jenny worked within NHS Children’s Psychological Services, providing specialist psychological care to children, young people and their families, as well as clinical supervision to staff, and consultation to multidisciplinary professionals. In her clinical practice, Jenny draws upon a range of psychological models and interventions to support the families and organisations she works with. She has a particular interest in complex trauma, attachment and systemic practice. Jenny is an accredited VIG (Video Interactive Guidance) practitioner (an intervention focussed on enhancing communication within relationships) and has undertaken training in Theraplay ® (Level 1). Throughout her time in the NHS, Jenny was involved in the delivery of Family Therapy and other specialist parenting clinics.

Jenny previously worked for two years within a specialist Looked After Children’s service (embedded within Children’s Social Care), providing support to carers and professionals working with Looked After and Adopted children.

Jenny’s research interests are in understanding the needs and experiences of vulnerable children and young people, and exploring the embedding of attachment and trauma informed frameworks into education. Her doctoral thesis explored the experiences of young people making the journey out of homelessness and was developed alongside a research advisory group of young people with lived experience of homelessness. Jenny has a keen professional interest in working creatively and innovatively to reach those most in need of psychological support, and her work with schools has grown out of the idea that a young person’s educational experience, and the relationships they develop within school, can represent key protective factors in their lives.

Jenny was awarded a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology from Lancaster University in 2014 and is registered with the HCPC