Hello!
My name is Johanna Lind, and I am a registered Clinical Psychologist with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC). I am passionate about helping others with their mental health, to better understand their emotions and emotional responses, in order to improve their quality of life. I am a firm believer of practicing what I preach, and I try to take a 360° approach to my own mental health. Some days I’m at the play-park, on the swings with my children, some days I’m dancing and finding joy in connection with others, while other days yet I’m finding quiet time to meditate and rest. No day is the same, and we shouldn’t expect ourselves to always be ‘functioning’ and able to do everything.
My career journey…
I have worked in the field of mental health in Scotland since 2016. I worked with a mental health charity (Penumbra) in their alcohol addictions rehabilitation unit, where I provided 1:1 support, as well as leading and facilitating emotion-focused groups. I also worked in the Edinburgh Crisis Centre, where I provided a responsive, crisis service for people that were feeling suicidal and at risk of self-harm.
I started my NHS career in 2018 when I trained as a Clinical Associate in Applied Psychology (MSc course). I worked within a Community Mental Health Team, seeing people with a wide range of mental health problems. I stayed in this career, until I started the Doctorate in Clinical Psychology with Edinburgh University in 2020. During the Doctorate, I completed five placements and worked across the lifespan (from Child and Adolescent Mental Health (CAMHS), to Adult Mental Health, to Older Adult Mental Health services). In addition, I worked in a Community Learning Disabilities Team and in a Community Neuro-rehabilitation team, where we specialised in helping people adjust and improve their mental health while living with a neurological condition (eg. stroke, brain injury, MS, Parkinsons, FND, functional seizures). Throughout all these placements, I also worked with individuals on the neurodevelopmental spectrum (ADHD and ASD/autism), from completing assessments to working therapeutically to improve mental health.
All this experience accumulated in me finishing the Doctoral course in April 2024, registering with the HCPC, and officially holding the Dr. title. I continue to work in the NHS, currently working in a Secondary Care Adult Mental Health team. Here, I am working with people with a wide range of mental health problems, although predominantly with people experiencing complex trauma symptoms and more entrenched mental health difficulties.
The range of Mental Health presentations I have worked with include:
- Depression
- Anxiety (social anxiety, health anxiety, generalised anxiety)
- Panic
- OCD
- Low self-esteem
- Shame
- Work-related stress and burnout
- Emotional dysregulation
- PTSD
- Complex PTSD/ complex trauma
- FND, functional seizures
- Adjustment to pain and neurological conditions
The therapeutic approaches I can offer:
I like to take an integrated therapeutic approach to working with people, as everyone is unique and so everyone’s therapy journey will be unique to them as well. I use evidence-based therapies, and the therapeutic approaches that I have experience and trained in include:
- Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)
- Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT)
- Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
Qualifications and Training courses:
- BA in Creative Writing, Spanish and Psychological studies (2010-2014)
- MSc Psychology of Mental Health (2015-2016)
- MSc Psychological Therapy in Primary Care (2018-2019)
- Introduction to Compassion Focused Therapy (2018)
- Doctorate in Clinical Psychology, Edinburgh University (2020-2024)
- Clinical Skills in Compassion Focused Therapy (2021)
- Generic supervision competences for Psychological Therapies and Interventions training and CBT supervision training (2024)
- In-house Schema training (October 2024)
