About
John worked for HM Prison Service from 2004-2009 where his role entailed facilitating group interventions with female offenders, predominantly in the area of substance misuse and cognitive skills. During his time with the prison service, John completed the MSc in Applied Forensic Psychology at York University. From 2009-2019 he worked at Cheswold Park Hospital, a secure forensic psychiatric hospital in South Yorkshire. Within this setting, John gained vast experience in a wide range of areas of forensic psychology, interventions and mental health, although the majority of his clients were men with personality difficulties. He became chartered as a Forensic Psychologist in March 2016.
In early 2020 John began his current role as a Senior Psychologist with the NHS. He is the Clinical Lead for the Intensive Intervention Risk Management Service in West and South Yorkshire which is part of the Offender Personality Disorder pathway, which represents a collaboration between the NHS, Probation and community services.
John completed his initial training in Group Schema Therapy with Joan Farrell and Ida Shaw in March 2014 and, since this time, schema has been an integral part of his clinical work. He developed and implemented both group and individual schema therapy as core interventions within Cheswold Park Hospital. In January 2018, John became certified as a group schema practitioner.
In early 2019, John began working with community clients in private practice in addition to his hospital work, and he became certified as an individual schema practitioner in October 2020.
Outside of his clinical work, John has worked as an Associate Lecturer at Bradford University (2010-2012) and he lectured on the MSc in Applied Forensic Psychology at York University 2017-2019. He has been an Associate Lecturer at the Open University, tutoring on the Forensic Psychology and Counselling module since October 2020.
John has a private clinical practice in Wetherby where he sees community clients face to face and online. Outside of his professional life, John is a keen musician, cook, reader, dog owner and sportsman.