Dr Gemma Parker - Clinical Psychologist

Hello!

I'm Gemma. I'm a clinical psychologist with a passion for working with families and wider systems around people. I believe strongly in compassion and the need to work towards reducing suffering and harm where possible. I have always worked with people who have struggled with harmful behaviour, whether that is helping people to stop acting in harmful ways or helping people to heal from the harm caused by others. Often it is both of these things. I have worked in secure hospitals and community settings in the past, in the NHS, and more recently within social enterprises. I have experience of working with family courts, CAFCASS and local authorities to help to manage risky and harmful behaviour in families as part of a team of professionals across different agencies.

I have a passion for working with parents who are struggling with the behaviour of their children, particularly aggression or other risky behaviours. I also work with couples who are experiencing significant levels of conflict and harmful or abusive behaviour. Sometimes, my work is with parents who have separated and are trying to work out how to reduce the impact of this separation on their children, or repair or reconstruct relationships that have become strained or distant.

I am also very interested in social justice and I started studying again recently in order to influence our work in this area. I am keen to develop the community engagement aspects of our social enterprise and I am open to collaborations and creative social engagement projects. I have always been a creative person. I really enjoy craft work, particularly textiles and thread work. I'm also musical. I love working with groups and using creative ways to help people to connect, develop stories together and to heal through making and taking action. I firmly believe that creativity has a place in healing and in making connections, particularly when it takes place with other members of our support system and community. Craft and activism (also known as "craftivism") can help us to find our voice and express it, and take action that is in line with our values, and to bring about social change. 

Please do get in touch if you would like to connect on these issues, whether that is for a therapeutic intervention of some kind, or a collaboration, workshop, community engagement project or something else along these lines. I'd be really happy to hear from you.