Episode 7 - Simon Stuart, Masuma Rahim, Nick Hartley, Aayesha Mulla and Will Curvis

Today we bring you a collective of Clinical Psychologists driven by community psychology values and brought together through this shared passion and desire for change: Dr Will Curvis a Clinical Psychologist who works part time on the DClinPsy at Lancaster University and part time in neuro-rehabilitation (Twitter: @WillCurvis); Dr Nick Hartley a Clinical Psychologist working in Newcastle (Twitter: @NickHartley); Dr Simon Stuart a Clinical Psychologist working in the NHS predominantly with people with experiences of complex trauma. He has also been involved in digital service development (Twitter: @soothron); Dr Masuma Rahim a Clinical Psychologist working in an inpatient neuro-rehabilitation setting. She is also the Director of Equity, Diversity and Inclusivity at the Association of Clinical Psychologists (ACP) in the UK (Twitter: @MasumaRahim); Dr Aayesha Mulla is a Clinical Psychologist working in the NHS in Paediatrics (Twitter: @she_who). They all share their experiences of NHS and Community Psychology work, innovation and their collaborative creations. They tell us the individual stories that brought them to this work, recognising the role that Psychologists play in parity of access to services and people accessing help at the right time.

Connecting originally through Twitter, with a shared experience of not feeling there was a workable space to explore the crossover between social, community and clinical aspects of work, they felt driven to think about alternative ways of working. Recognising this need and beginning to share ideas, they came together with other Psychologists from across the UK and harnessing their energy collectively.. ‘Beyond the Therapy Room’ was born!

Alongside other Psychologists Dr Abdullah Mia and Dr Ste Weatherhead, the group developed the first Beyond the Therapy Conference. The ethos of the first conference was how Clinical Psychologists could work towards society being more inclusive and looking beyond more traditional models of services. They also share their experiences of how the conference grew into the Psychology Fringe Festival which aims to bring Clinical Psychology together with the community, to inspire and explore something new through performances and events with local artists and performers.

The group reflect on what they’ve learnt through Beyond the Therapy Room and the Psychology Fringe Festival, moments that have stayed with them and how the experience has changed them and their practice.

Some useful links to check out:
The BTTR & Psychology Fringe Website: https://www.psychologyfringe.com/beyond-the-therapy-room
Some Beyond the therapy room videos: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxegpZRlKVIuK9cykfpmwQw/videos
An article talking about The Fringe: https://www.bps.org.uk/blogs/stephen-weatherhead/psychology-fringe