Dr Susannah Colbert

I trained myself at Salomons and graduated in 2010.

My specialism is working with people with an experience of psychosis, and I have worked in an Assertive Outreach Team, a crisis house and a Promoting Recovery Team in the NHS. In 2017, I started my Eye Movement Desensitisation Reprocessing (EMDR) training and using EMDR to try and help clients heal the trauma underlying their experience of psychosis.

I became an EMDR Accredited Practitioner in Sept 2019 and I'm now working towards becoming an EMDR consultant.  In Jan 2021, I started as a Clinical and Academic Tutor on the Salomons course, and in November 2021 I moved into the research team and became a Senior Lecturer (Research).

Now I have the opportunity to carry out and support more research on EMDR and psychosis to provide the evidence base for the clinical work I have seen can be so successful for our clients. As part of my academic role, I undertook the University Certificate in Academic Practice and became an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. 

I co-ordinate the first-year research teaching, and my particular methodical interest is narrative analysis. My other teaching interests are around psychosis and trauma, and research practices.

I co-originate the lunchtime seminar programme. I am also interested in decolonising the curriculum and working towards equality, diversity and inclusion as a central tenant in the programme.    

I'm of the view (consistent with the Threat, Power, Meaning Framework; PTMF) that psychosis IS trauma, rather than ‘co-morbid’ with trauma, i.e. it's the experience of trauma, and unprocessed trauma memories, that give rise to psychosis.

I am currently supervising research into: the experiences of clients with psychosis who have undertaken EMDR; the misuse of power in the link between trauma/adversity and psychosis; the role of dissociation and avoidance in processing trauma memories in psychosis; and attachment security in EMDR in psychosis.

I am also supervising research on: the role of attachment and developmental timing of trauma in the development of psychosis; the impact of the PTMF on staff and clients’ understanding of psychosis; and the process of psychology services working with sexual violence in New Zealand decolonising therapy models to reconstruct centring indigenous knowledge and practices, to become more welcoming and acceptable to their Māori clients.    

I teach and facilitate on EMDR standard training and provide supervision for novice EMDR therapists.

I work in an independent practice with adults with a wide range of emotional concerns.