My name is Dr Sarah Blackshaw. I'm a clinical psychologist with a decade of experience working in the area of physical health - in the last ten years I've worked in many different areas and with lots of health conditions, including diabetes, heart conditions, chronic fatigue/ME, cancer, HIV, sexual health, and chronic pain. Currently, I work within the NHS as a highly specialist clinical psychologist for the Manchester and Salford Pain Centre, where I work closely with my physiotherapy and medical colleagues to deliver individual pain management and group-based pain management programmes. Whilst physical health is my specialist area, I have also worked in mental health services with people with a variety of concerns, including anxiety, low mood/depression, bipolar disorder, and disordered eating. I have also worked with people who struggle with their sexuality and transgender people, and set up a pathway for transgender people to be seen in physical health services rather than mental health services in a previous post.
I tend to favour cognitive behavioural therapy as my main model of treatment, but I'm also trained in other approaches such as acceptance and commitment therapy, compassion-focused approaches, systemic therapy, psychodynamic interpersonal therapy, and hypnosis.
Outside of the NHS work that I do, I'm particularly interested in the areas of fitness and personal finance - specifically, why we do what we do when it comes to meeting our goals (or not!) in these areas. I also enjoy teaching, having taught on modules within clinical psychology training for the University of Liverpool and the University of Hull, and I am a mentor on the Liverpool clinical training programme. I have previously offered sessions at a local gym on using cognitive behavioural therapy to meet your fitness goals, and am able to offer bespoke teaching and training on a variety of topics.
I am also available to supervise qualified clinical psychologists, having completed supervisor training and supervised a number of qualified and unqualified members of staff within the NHS. I prefer to work in a cognitive behavioural way, but I am happy to discuss your supervision needs with you.
I do not currently accept clients through insurance. I offer a flexible scale of payment for sessions, please contact me for more details. Sessions can be delivered via telephone or in consulting rooms in the North West of England - I'm mainly based near Warrington but can travel to Manchester and Liverpool if needed. I also offer advice via email.
Qualifications (not exhaustive):
Doctorate in Clinical Psychology - University of Hull, 2009 - 2012
Five day training in Psychodynamic Interpersonal Therapy - University of Manchester, 2015
Two day training in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy with Steve Hayes - London, 2016
Postgraduate certificate in leadership - University of Lancaster, 2018