Qualifications

1983-1986 BA (Hons) Social Psychology, University of Kent
1987-1989 MSc Clinical Psychology, University of Birmingham
1990-1992 MSc Psychotherapy, University of Warwick
1990-1996 PhD Psychology, University of Warwick

1991 Chartered Clinical Psychologist 2002 Chartered Forensic Psychologist
1993 Elected Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society
2008 Chartered Scientist
2008 Registered EuroPsy Psychologist

Areas of expertise

A seasoned expert psychologist, Dr Garrett has over thirty years of experience in the NHS and private practice. She has worked as an expert for over twenty years, in childcare, criminal and personal injury cases. Dr Garrett undertakes assessments of adults and some older children only. She specialises in psychological and risk assessment, and has particular experience with assessment of parents, in particular those who have experienced domestic abuse; those with personality disorder; sexual offenders; violent offenders; and individuals with mental health issues. She is experienced in cases of physical, sexual, and emotional abuse, domestic violence and neglect. Dr Garrett is also able to undertake assessments of cognitive functioning/capacity where required.

She has produced hundreds of reports in such cases, and as a result, has given expert evidence in County, Crown and Magistrates' Courts on numerous occasions. Testimonials regarding her written and oral evidence are available upon request, and examples are given on her website (address above).

Dr Garrett is an expert in the field of boundary violation, in particular sexual abuse by professionals. She undertook doctoral level research in this field, provided advice nationally in the area of boundary violation in therapy, to the Department of Health's 'Kerr/Haslam' Inquiry and to NHS organisations. She has served on Investigatory Panels of the British Psychological Society's Investigatory Committee, and on the Investigatory Committee itself (2003 - 2006). She has published widely and presented at conferences regarding professional boundary violation.

Experience

Dr Garrett held several clinical and managerial positions within the NHS from 1986 to 2008. After qualifying as a clinical psychologist in 1989, she worked for 6 years with children and families and adults with mental health problems in Walsall Health Authority. She was employed from 1995-2006 as a forensic/clinical psychologist (from 1998 at Consultant grade) within Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Trust, at Reaside Clinic, the West Midlands Forensic Mental Health Service, where she was latterly Deputy Head of Department. She was appointed as Lead Psychologist for the Forensic CAMHS service at Ardenleigh, within the same Trust in 2006, where she worked for two and a half years before leaving the NHS.

Dr Garrett has experience of assessing and treating children and adults with a variety of problems, including depression, survivors of sexual abuse, anxiety, behavioural problems, eating disorders, personality disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, schizophrenia and bipolar affective disorder, as well as a range of offenders, including sexual and violent offenders and those at risk of offending. She is experienced in individual, couple and group treatment, and ran the outpatient sex offender group treatment programme at Reaside Clinic when employed in that setting. Dr Garrett stopped providing psychological therapy in 2020.

Dr Garrett is an experienced teacher/trainer, having provided input within NHS, University, Local Authority and Probation settings. Topics provided include developing appropriate boundaries in therapeutic work/sexual abuse in therapy, working with sexual offenders, risk assessment, personality disorder, and working in teams. Dr Garrett is also experienced in providing consultation/supervision. She has undertaken research in a variety of fields, which has been published in various peer-reviewed journals and books, and has been presented at conferences. Dr Garrett has recently co-edited a book concerning the treatment of sexual offenders. A list of publications is available on request/on Dr Garrett’s website. Her research areas include ethical issues in therapy, sexual contact between therapists and patients, inappropriate behaviour between trainers and trainees, sexual offenders and consumer evaluation in treatment for sexual offenders.

Dr Garrett has experience of working with the media, having given interviews on a variety of topics over a number of years for TV and radio programmes, and for newspapers and magazines.

She has a full UK driving licence, and holds professional indemnity insurance and an enhanced DBS check (Cert. No. 001493227901 dated 09.07.2015).

Revised 2020