Dr. Annette Greenwood is an Associate Fellow of the BPS and Chair Elected for the  Crisis, Disaster & Trauma (CDT) section and a nominated board member of UKPTS.

She has worked at consultant level in the NHS for 19 years for the last 10 years she has been the Trauma Response Lead and Consultant Clinical Advisor for the Veteran’s Complex Trauma service at St Andrews Healthcare, a charity that provides specialist secure care for mental health patients within the UK.

She has led psychological incident responses both at international and national level and was a consultant psychologist on a Neonatal Unit for 10 years working with parents and staff who cared for sick and dying babies. Dr Greenwood is also HCPC registered Consultant Counselling Psychologist who specialises in psychological trauma and staff wellbeing.

'Thriving when work is tough in Covid and Non-Covid times'

Kate Upton is a Registered Adult Nurse and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and she serves on the Crisis Disaster and Trauma section committee. She is currently an Independent Nursing/Medical Tutor and medical writer. Prior to this, she was a lecturer for 13 years in the School of Nursing at The University of Birmingham.

Kate has had a number of academic and comment articles published in peer-reviewed journals. She is also a member of the Nursing Midwifery Council and the Royal College of Nursing. Having completed and published a study investigating compassion fatigue and self-compassion in acute care nurses for her Masters in Research (MRes), Kate has continued her interest in the well-being of health care professionals as a PhD student at The University of Birmingham investigating the strategies and facilities that can enable newly qualified, early career nurses to Thrive at Work.

Kay Bridger is a Doctoral Candidate whose thesis focuses on psychological responses to traumatic physical injury. Her past research interests include work related secondary traumatic stress, burnout and compassion fatigue in foster carers.

Nerea Jimenez del Nogal is a committee member of the BPS, Crisis, Disaster and Trauma section. Nerea is also a member of the following member networks: Clinical Psychologist Division, Psychology of Sexualities and Psychotherapy sections.

Nerea is a Practitioner Psychologist (Health, Counselling and Clinical Psychologist) trained and qualified in Spain and also a Family and Systemic Psychotherapist trained and qualified in the UK with over 11 years of professional experience covering the following areas: Youth Custody Services (creation and set up a Family therapy Service), Neurodevelopmental Services (assessment, diagnosis and treatment: CBT and FT), Eating Disorders, Gender Identity Service, CAMHS inpatient/outpatient, Adult Psychotherapy, Integrated Psychological Therapies, Chronic Illness (Diabetes), Domestic Violence and Sexual abuse, gender Equality and Immigration and sociocultural integration.

Nerea currently works in the NHS, in a recovery service for adults focused on complex and endurance mental health issues (PD, Psychosis, PTSD, Major depression and anxiety among others) and is part of the Integration project with Primary Mental Health Care. In the past, Nerea has been involved in some research areas such as Diabetes (impact and support for clients and relatives, developed a treatment program), Domestic violence (risk and protective factors for women), interpersonal relationships for adults in prison and Social support for people diagnosed with Gender Dysphoria. Nowadays, her primary research interests include first mental health aid after a crime incident, PTSD in young people after an offending behaviour/crime and family responses to trauma among others. Nerea is also a member of the following professional bodies in the UK: HCPC, AFT and UKCP.

“We may be facing the same storm but we are not in the same boat” – the impact of Covid 19 on asylum seeking people and refugees in the UK

Dr. Anne Douglas is a committee member of the BPS, Crisis, Disaster and Trauma Section, a Chartered Psychologist and a Fellow of the BPS. She actively supported the creation of the Crisis, Disaster and Trauma Section and served as its’ first secretary from 2014-2017. She organised several conferences for the CDT during this time. She re-joined the committee as a co-opted member in June 2019.

Dr. Anne Douglas is a Consultant Clinical Psychologist who specialises in Trauma. She worked in the NHS for 35 years where she was pivotal in setting up specialist Trauma teams and helping to develop trauma-informed organisations. 

Dr. Anne Douglas was also a member of the Presidential Task Force for Asylum Seekers and Refugees which was hosted by the CDT Section and was asked to present at an APPG meeting in Westminster on the topic of Trauma and Treatment in the Refugee Population. As an expert in this area, she also contributed to the BPS Guidelines for Psychologists working with Asylum Seekers and Refugees which was launched in June 2018.

Anne now works in Independent Practice providing consultation to organisations and individuals working in the field of Trauma.

'Using Social Identities to enhance resilience to Trauma and Disaster'

Dr. Blerina Kellezi is an Associate Professor in Social and Trauma Psychology and co-Lead of the Trauma, Social Isolation and Mental Health research group. Blerina teaches in a range of modules: Psychological Wellbeing, Trauma, Theory and Applications, Social Psychology and supervises undergraduate, postgraduate, PhD and Forensic Doctorate students.Blerina has a PhD in Psychology from the University of St Andrews and a LLM in Human Rights Law from University of Nottingham.

After her PhD, she held postdoctoral positions at Freedom from Torture, the University of Oxford and the University of Nottingham. She has also previously held Lectureships at the University of Nottingham, University of Tirana and Staffordshire University. Blerina joined the Department of Psychology at NTU in September 2015. Blerina's research investigates how people collectively deal with and are affected by extreme life events from illness and accidents to war, torture and immigration detention. This includes the interplay between Social Cure and Social Curse analysis of war, dictatorship, transitional justice, immigration detention, social prescribing, and vocational rehabilitation.

'Anxiety in a post-pandemic world: Returning to ‘normal’ for those with new mental health issues'

Dr. Heather Sequeira C.Psychol. PhD. is the Director of PTSDTraumaWorkshops and developer of the PTSD Masterclass; an innovative BPS Approved Workshop for clinicians that focuses on live therapy demo and simulation to facilitate clinical skills.

Heather has recent experience as a specialist clinician in the NHS, directing a service for Complex Trauma-related OCD. She has worked in private practice, a range of organisational contexts, and was the Editor for the British Psychological Society Journal' Counselling Psychology Review'. Heather has a solid background in research, working as a Senior Research Fellow at, University of London (St Georges Medical School) for over seven years before training as a Psychologist.

Heather published the first controlled studies in the impact of abuse on people with learning disabilities in the British Journal of Psychiatry. She has also held other research grants in complex trauma and coercive psychiatric practices in secure care populations. Heather has regular current input to Clinical Psychology Doctoral Training programmes, CBT Diploma Courses and British Psychological Society CPD. She is frequently appointed as an External Examiner for Doctoral level qualifications relating to trauma.Mission:With extensive experience of trauma and fiercely non-pathologising in her approach, Heather's mission is to bring together CBT and client-centred values with the current research in neurobiology and trauma research.

"How do we scrub up?" - Supporting colleagues during the pandemic and beyond.

Dr. Elaine Johnston is a co-opted member of the BPS, Crisis, Disaster and Trauma section.  Elaine has extensive experience of working clinically with adults experiencing a wide ,range of stress and trauma presentations, including civilian and military populations, as well as training, supervision and supporting staff in the NHS and voluntary sector.

Dr. Johnston is currently the clinical psychology lead for the adult intensive care unit at Chelsea & Westminster NHS Foundation Hospital TrustPrior to this, they worked for many years in clinical leadership roles across a range of NHS physical and mental health services before joining combats stress as the joint head of psychological therapies, contributing to delivering and developing psychological treatment and peer support for veterans with PTSD.

Dr. Johnston completed her clinical psychology training in Edinburgh in 2011 and has undertaken further post-qualification training in CBT for psychological trauma at Oxford University, as well as training in EMDR. Dr Elaine Johnston is also a member of the following professional bodies: BABCP, EMDR UK & Ireland, ISTSS and UKPTS. Dr. Johnston has a specialist interest in the assessment and treatment of psychological reactions to stress and trauma.