Rhona Brown

I qualified as a cognitive analytic therapy practitioner in 2010.  Prior to this I completed clinical psychology training in 1989 and have since worked mainly in primary care and outpatient NHS settings. This has been mainly in inner city areas, with adults who have complex mental health needs.  In 2017 I left a clinical lead role in an NHS ‘Complex Cases’ service to work in an occupational health & staff support setting for NHS staff.  More recently I worked for a year as a cognitive analytic therapist in a newly established CAT-informed team in the third sector, offering a residential recovery service for people with substance use difficulties. I am currently completing training towards accreditation as a CAT supervior.

In addition to CAT my clinical work is informed by a number of other approaches such as psychodynamic interpersonal therapy (PIT), cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and solution focussed therapy.

I’m interested in social context, inequalities and how mental health services can better respond to the needs of diverse communities. I’ve led a number of training and service development initiatives aimed at enhancing accessibility of services, including close collaboration with third sector agencies.   CAT has been a useful model for tying together these areas of interest.  In addition to its strengths as a highly collaborative and person-centred therapy approach, I value how CAT can help facilitate more collective and community solutions to individual distress.

I’ve worked with ACAT since 2016 to help develop its social media presence and public engagement materials.

Within Catalyse I look after our website and social media on behalf of the Executive Committee. This involves staying abreast of all the other workstreams so that we can share and communicate our activities through the site.  I also contribute to Catalyse tweeting and blogging, help edit other peoples’ blog articles, and produce and update other content. Additionally I contribute to some of the practitioner training days.

I’m a chartered member of the British Psychological Society and am registered as a practitioner psychologist with the Health & Care Professions Council.

Publications

Brown, R., (2010). Situating Social Inequality And Collective Action In Cognitive Analytic Therapy. Reformulation, Winter, pp.28-34.

Brown, R., (2011). Flowers by the Window: Imagining Moments in a Culturally and Politically Reflective CAT. Reformulation, Summer, pp. 6-8.