Dr Louise Goodbody

I work on the Doctoral Programme in Clinical Psychology in the Department of Applied Psychology at the Salomons (Tunbridge Wells) campus of CCCU, having had previous posts at the universities of East London and Exeter. Running alongside my academic work, I have worked as a clinical psychologist and manager within the NHS in the area of adult mental health.

My academic interests include critical psychology, adult learning, service user and carer involvement, difference, diversity and social inequalities and personal-professional development. The teaching and research I am involved with is in these areas.

Facilitating experiential, group and reflective learning with the aim of fostering engagement in critical and transformative educational and developmental processes for adult learners and professionals are the teaching and learning methods of which I have most knowledge and experience, as well as using systemic and other methods to facilitate such processes in work with large groups.

My own doctoral research was about personal and professional development for clinical psychologists from minority and majority backgrounds in the profession. As a member of the Professional Development Research Cluster in the Department, I continue with this interest and also to contribute to local and national projects focussing on the impact of service user and carer involvement on professional learning. For instance, I am currently supervising a project that asks WHAT trainees learn from service users and carers being involved in their training, and HOW they learn (eg. cognitively, emotionally, culturally, through reflective practice etc.) I have a persistent interest in the social processes involved in identity formation and another trainee project is about the effects on the identities of people with learning disabilities of becoming a trainer of professionals.

I am keen to continue to explore those qualitative research methodologies that most lend themselves to addressing my academic interests in critical psychology, difference and diversity, subjectivities and adult pedagogy, such as narrative methods, discourse analysis and more recently, psychosocial research methods.

Memberships

Fellow of Higher Education Academy, chartered member of British Psychological Society, registered with Health and Care Professions Council.

External activities

I am a regular contributor to professional networks, for instance, conducting regular workshops for the Group of Trainers in Clinical Psychology annual conferences, andI have been invited to contribute to national BPS-organised CPD events. Academically, I have more occasionally contributed papers to interdisciplinary conferences that reflect what other social sciences and the humanities can bring to develop deeper psychological understandings of the topics of interest and concern to me ie. critical pedagogy, reflexive practice, lived experience and narrative, difference and diversity and the psychosocial interface between people's inner and outer realities.