Jane Watkins
CBT Therapist for anxiety
The new home for Daisy Therapy
About Me.
Summary
I started my Mental Health Nursing training, at Kings College University London, in 2005, graduating in 2008. I went on to work on the national in-patient ward for children at the Bethlem Hospital. This is the sister hospital of the famous Maudsley Hospital in London.
Following this I worked in various community NHS teams, including neurodiversity and adolescent crisis teams. I did my specialist training in cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) at the Institute of Psychiatry, in 2014, which is part of Kings College University in London.
After passing the course, I became fully accredited with the British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies (BABCP). This is considered the gold standard for a cognitive psychotherapist.
My CV
2005-2008
Qualified as a Mental Health Nurse, King College University, London
I started my training at Kings College University in 2005 and qualified with a BSc (Hons) in Mental Health Nursing in 2008 and gained NMC registration. During that time half of my time was working in practice in many different NHS services, such as, acute psychiatric wards, psychiatric intensive care, rehabilitation services, addictions and many more.
I gathered a rich and diverse amount of experience during this time. As part of my degree I chose the CBT module that started my, now lifelong, interest in CBT and therapy.
2008-2010
The Bethlem, NHS Psychiatric Hospital
During this time I worked on the children’s ward at the Bethlem that took admissions nationally, seeing the most severe cases on an in-patient basis. I had named children that I would go out to homes to assess. Once admitted we spent a lot of time developing therapeutic relationships with the children and their families. We worked with families using many treatment and therapeutic models with the aim of improving mental health and the systems around the child. Seeing children leave the ward and go home to fulfil their potential was immensely rewarding and I have many fond memories of the children and their families that I worked with.
2011
Working in neurodiversity
I wanted to expand my knowledge and experience in this area of mental health and joined an NHS community team in Lambeth, London. I met some extraordinary professionals in this team whose knowledge I still carry with me. I worked with many families, in a very deprived area of London, and gained so much insight and understanding into the adversity they experienced. I also witnessed some amazing courage of patients and their families I worked with. I learned about how to adapt therapy for this diverse group of clients and continued working with families. I delivered social skills training to children and their parents and did a lot of ASD and ADHD awareness training in schools.
2012-2013 (2 years)
Adolescence Crisis
I worked in one of the first of its-kind, Adolescent Crisis teams in London.
Working with children aged 13-18 years, mostly using an out-reach model. This also involved working with social care, schools and families to support young people to try and prevent hospital admission or reduce bed days when this was unavoidable. This job involved a lot of therapeutic work with both families and young people. I gained a lot of additional training in different therapeutic approaches such as mindfulness, family therapy, solution focussed therapy, mentalisation (at the Anna Freud Centre in London), DBT and CBT for Psychosis. This job led me to want to specialise in therapy and I went back to Kings College University (The Institute for Psychiatry) to do my CBT Speciality Training.
2013-2014
Back into training
It was here that I completed by Post-Graduate Diploma (masters level course) in CBT that led to full accreditation with the BABCP. I did a years placement in the IAPT service in Camden, together with attending university.
2014 – to date
Since qualifying as an accredited CBT therapist I have worked in various adult and young people’s services across the NHS, private sector and in my own private practice. I have gained a wide experience of working with people depression and anxiety disorders. I have developed an interest in anxiety disorders and am now specialising in OCD, in particular. That is not to say I don’t see clients with other presentations. I have undertaken training in ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy with Jim Lucas, CFT (Compassion Focussed Therapy) at the Compassionate Minds Foundation and Mindfulness Training over the years at different places.
Keeping my knowledge up to date is very important to me, along with delivering evidence based therapies that I know work for my clients.
Qulaifications
My private practice is based near Tain, in the Scottish Highlands having moved nearly 700 miles north from Kent, near London about 4 years ago. With the wonders of Zoom and Teams my location is almost irrelevant now. It doesn't matter if you live in London, St Ives or Manchester or the Yorkshire Dales, we can meet for sessions. Appointments are strictly by prior arrangement. I am very happy for you to contact me with any questions that you may have. I can be contacted via phone, email or zoom/teams (by arrangement).
Jane Watkins
BSc (Hons), PG dip in Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, PG cert in systemic therapy, DypHip