Meet the Psychology Team

 Louise Braham - Consultant Clinical Psychologist

Hi, I’m Louise and I am a Clinical & Forensic psychologist and a Multi Professional Approved Clinician. I’m the head of Psychological Therapies and am proud to work with the most amazing psychological therapists and psychologists here in Derbyshire. I joined Team Derbyshire at the beginning of 2019, having worked in other NHS Trusts, Charities and private facilities, but now, could not imagine being anywhere else. Not only is the county we work in one of the most beautiful, but working for Derbyshire Healthcare allows me to enjoy it by supporting my personal life with more flexible ways of working.

Dr Andy Reeve - Clinical Psychologist

I have worked in DHCFT since qualifying in 2019. I work in a great team – both my psychology colleagues and those in the wider CMHT – which both supports me clinically and makes work an enjoyable place to be. I have been offered great opportunities for further training, although this has sometimes meant studying outside of my contracted hours it has also opened various doors in terms of developing an area of specific knowledge which fits well with my specific job role.

Like all NHS Trusts I have worked in (four in total), there are challenges regarding both national and local contexts which mean it isn’t without its faults as a workplace. However, being surrounded by compassionate, skilful, and helpful colleagues certainly makes these challenges easier to meet. Because of this, rather than seeing myself simply as an employee of DCHFT, DHCFT forms part of my professional identity. To my mind, other advantages of working for DHCFT are being line-managed within profession, the level of communication from the Trust leadership, and did I mention how much I like my colleagues?

Paul Croucher, Consultant Clinical Psychologist

I have worked in Derbyshire in the various iterations of DHCFT ever since qualifying in 1993 and have really enjoyed working with colleagues in a county-wide department throughout that time. It has been really valuable to have links with the three local D Clin Psych Training Courses, not just with trainee placements, but also supporting us with service evaluation and my own education, including supervisor training events. I have also  been well supported to take on leadership roles in the NHS and partner organisations.

With good managerial support, I have had a number of career pathways in our Mental Health service (inpatient & community, psychosocial rehab, assertive outreach, neurodevelopmental/forensic, Early Intervention in Psychosis, CMHT) and during this time I progressed from newly qualified to Consultant grade. Early on, I undertook training as a Psychodynamic Psychotherapist with our NHS department and Derby University to a Master’s level allowing me to practice psychodynamically in the NHS and register with the UKCP. I felt privileged to be around in the early stages of the development of Compassion Focused Therapy by Paul Gilbert who was a senior colleague in DHCFT and I continue to develop my knowledge, skills and experience locally through a monthly, facilitated supervision group with our local, expert Clinical Psychologists. Recently, I completed EMDR training and found that this intriguing modality added to other approaches I’d used with trauma.

I am really interested in promoting understanding about the links between trauma and psychosis, again, I have been well supported with this in DHCFT and I am proud to be part of a Trust-wide endeavour to develop Trauma Informed Systems as just one of the ways that we are transforming our Community-based Services. Currently, we are recruiting many kinds of psychologists and psychological therapists to provide much more input at the earliest stages of service users entering our mental health services. It is a really exciting time! During my time as a Clinical Psychologist in the NHS, I feel privileged to see that what we offer to our service users has completely changed, from asylum-based containment to meaning-based psychological therapy, which has helped people to live valued lives and massively improved expectations and outcomes.