Karen is an HCPC registered Clinical Psychologist and joined MHW and the Doctorate in Clinical Psychology (DClinPsy) programme in 2018.  She is an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society (AFBPsS) and holds BPS accredited degrees in Psychology, Clinical Psychology and Applied Forensic Psychology.

She currently balances a lecturer post with a role as a lead psychologist in an NHS Inpatient Mental Health rehabilitation service role which follows varied post-qualification NHS experience including with Tier 4 Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS), community and inpatient adult mental health services and community and secure-inpatient forensic mental health and learning disability services.

She has also worked with Interventions for Vulnerable Youth (IVY) hosted at the University of Strathclyde: a national specialist clinical psychology service, funded by the Scottish Government.  The project was designed to address gaps in services and was aimed at supporting children and young people with high-risk and related needs from across Scotland.

In addition to clinical and teaching roles, Karen also sits on the national committee of the British Psychological Society's Division of Clinical Psychology - Scottish Branch (DCP-S).

• Forensic Mental Health and Neurodevelopmental Needs
• Young People with Complex Risk and Mental Health Needs
• Complex Personality Needs
• Adult Inpatient Mental Health
• Staff Support, Development and Wellbeing
• Exploring the needs and perspectives of unheard populations using qualitative research methods

Current Projects:

• Service Users' experiences of Acute Inpatient Mental Health Unit and Trauma Informed Care (Co- Supervisor)

• Nursing Staff's Experiences of Restrictive Care:  An Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (Proposal)

Completed Projects:

• Callum Thomas McAvoy (2025) -  Understanding Barriers to Engagement and Pathways to Desistance: exploring mental health access and desistance factors among young people who offend

• Megan Bradley (2024) - Understanding Forensic Mental Health Service Users' Experience of Collaboration and Strength-Based Approaches in their Care

• Maria Abbas (2024) - An Investigation of the Delivery of Psychological Therapies to Service Users with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Related Complex Needs in Forensic Settings 

• Judhika Ravindran (2023) - A Narrative Analysis of Recovery Stories within a Scottish Forensic Mental Health Service

• Katherine Hopkins (2022) - The Effect of School Climate on Trauma Responses in Young People Exposed to Ethnic Political Violence in Palestine (Second Supervisor)

• Fraser Anderson (2022) - Psychological Mental Health Interventions in Prisons: an exploration of intervention efficacy and treatment non-completion

Karen currently coordinates Module 14 Psychology and the Law, delivered in the third year of the DClinPsy Programme and also contributes to Module 2: Foundations of Clinical Practice.

In the past she enjoyed coordinating a number of programme research modules inlcuding Module 5: Data Analysis and Module 11: Service-Based Evaluation.