Dr Jo McKay DPsych, CPsychol, AFBPsS

Training, qualifications & experience

I trained as a counselling psychologist at City University. I have many years experience working in private practice and previously within the NHS  providing a psychological service to community mental health teams and working within a psychological therapies team offering both short and longer term individual and group therapies.  During this time I also developed and ran a programme for Anger Management and treatment.

Throughout this time I enjoyed providing supervision to clinical and counselling psychologists, both qualified and within training and also to other professionals including nurses, social workers and junior doctors.  A very rewarding part of my work involved facilitating reflective practice groups for other professional groups.  I have experience in teaching and running workshops within the NHS, voluntary and private sector.

Research interests

My research interests include attachment and impact on psychotherapy outcome, outcomes in therapy and the effectiveness of staff consultation groups.

• Chartered by the British Psychological Society
• Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society
• Member of the BPS Division of Counselling  Psychology
• Registered Practitioner Psychologist with the Health and Care Professions Council

Other areas of counselling I deal with

I have experience of working with a wide range of mental health difficulties
I offer supervision to psychologists, qualified and in training.  I also offer consultation to organisations.

I am interested in mental health issues of men.

I have an interest in and experience of working with problems associated with university including undergraduates, post graduates and academics.

Further information

What to Expect during Psychological therapy

The aim of my psychology practice is to tailor therapy to you and your needs.

I understand that coming to a first meeting can create anxiety.  During this initial meeting we can talk about your difficulties and reasons for seeking therapy.  We can explore what you want to get from therapy and consider any previous experiences of therapies that you might have had.  It can be helpful to talk a little about your childhood and about your life experiences to date so that we can better understand your current problems or concerns in a wider context.  Through this we can arrive at a joint understanding of your concerns which helps us decide whether therapy with me will be helpful.

We can discuss the model of therapy which I think might be most helpful for you and think together about the number of sessions which might be needed. If you decide to proceed, we can think about whether it would be helpful to have a review at a certain stage to see whether therapy is meeting your needs.

During this first meeting you have the opportunity to ask any questions you may have.

After an initial consultation, there is no need to continue if you decide not to.