An inspirational Applied Psychology colleague

In this blog, we celebrate our Applied Psychology colleagues. Each of them have studied for many years, and then built a career specialism helping and supporting clients across age groups and with variety of needs. Aside from their clinical roles, they often lead teams and services and help design pathways and treatments to use in their services. Many colleagues also work in private practice and NHS roles, showing their depth and breadth of knowledge.  Today we offer you a snapshot on one such an inspirational Psychologist, Dr Khushbu Haria. 

We hope by learning more about Dr Haria's journey, you will glean more information about the variety of pathways available in pursuing a career in Psychology. 

Dr Khushbu Haria, 

Dr Haria is a Principal / Highly Specialist Counselling Psychologist. She is the Head of Psychology for Brent CAMHS & Neurodevelopmental Lead for CNWL CAMHS and Therapy Lead for Neurodevelopmental Disorders Pathway at Brent CAMHS. 

Dr Khushbu Haria is a Chartered Counselling Psychologist. She has over 10 years’ experience of working with children and young people as well as adults with severe and enduring mental health concerns. Her experience extends from working in educational settings, community clinics to tier 4 secure unit. She has extensive experience of working in the NHS as well as the private sector. 

Within the NHS, she currently works as a Principal / Highly Specialist Borough Lead Psychologist at Central North West London NHS Foundation Trust with Children and Young people experiencing complex and often enduring mental health problems. She is also the borough Assessment & Therapy Lead for the Neurodevelopmental Pathway in a local London CAMHS team and well as CAMHS Neurodevelopmental Disorders Trust Lead. She further provides training and supports NHS staff working in highly pressured environments and supervises Senior Psychologists within her team. 

Khushbu also has her own small private practice where she predominantly offers support to adults as well as clinical supervision and mentoring. 

Khushbu works collaboratively and creatively with clients to meet their specific needs and goals. She believes that effective therapy draws on clients’ strengths and resilience, enabling them to move forward in life even when change seems impossible and to maintain progress after therapy is completed. 

She has experience of delivering high-quality, evidence-based therapy for people across a range of age groups and emotional and psychological difficulties. Some of the difficulties that she has treated include; low-self-esteem; depression; anxiety; emotional regulation difficulties; PTSD / trauma; sleep problems, stress management and burnout. 

She specialises in providing Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) which she applies to a range of disorders as well as adapting therapies to neuro-diverse populations. Furthermore, she is an EMDR trained practitioner as well as being trained in mindfulness-based approaches and has experience using Narrative Exposure Therapy (NET) and Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT).

Qualifications/Registrations

​HCPC registered Practitioner Psychologist 

​Chartered Psychologist with British Psychological Society (BPS)

​EMDR trained practitioner, EMDR Association member

​On Approved Register of Applied Practitioner Psychologist Supervisors (RAPPs) - BPS

​On Approved Register of Qualifications in Test Use (RQTU)- BPS

​Member of British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP)

Honorary Services 

July 2021-to date- DCoP Executive committee member

Feb 2022- to date- Chair of Black and Asian Counselling Psychology Group (BPS DCoP) 

Special interests 

Her specialist interests are working with victims of PTSD/trauma, neurodevelopmental disorders (ASD and ADHD) as well as working with individuals suffering from stress, anxiety and depression. Khushbu also offers mentoring and coaching to individuals. 

Languages

English & Gujarati 

Training Route

A Levels – Sociology, Psychology and Biology 

Undergraduate degree in Human Psychology – 2:1 (upper class)

Counselling Skills training 

MSc in Counselling Psychology

Doctorate in Counselling Psychology 

Experiences prior to completing doctorate 

Paid/unpaid experience of working in variety of setting incl. as a support worker within a Brain injury service, Youth Centre and BAME women’s centre 

Assistant Psychologist – Hospice working with terminally ill patients and their families

Children’s therapy worker – Domestic Violence Unit 

Senior Assistant Psychologist – CAMHS

During doctoral training

Placements included Domestic Violence Unit with children and adults,  IAPT, Older Adults CMHT, CAMHS (NHS and Local Authority)

Post qualification 

Band 6- CAMHS practitioner (until HCPC registration received)- Local authority - Educational Psychology service and CAMHS

Band 7- IAPT Hight Intensity Therapist - NHS

Band 7- Counselling Psychologist – Community CAMHS- NHS

Band 8a- Senior Counselling Psychologist – Inpatient CAMHS – Private 

Band 8a- Senior Counselling Psychologist - Community CAMHS - NHS

Band 8a- Senior Staff Wellbeing Psychologist - NHS

Band 8b- Principal Counselling Psychologist and CAMHS Clinical Team Lead / manager for Generic and ND service  - NHS

Band 8b- Principal / Highly Specialist Borough Lead Psychologist and Neurodevelopmental Disorders Pathway Clinical Lead - NHS

Looking at Dr Haria's journey, we can see the very many approaches she makes use of, settings in which she has lead teams, and arenas where she brings about change for clients.

We hope you have found this information helpful, and as always, contact the blog team, we would love to get discussions going, answer any of your questions related to careers in Applied Psychology, and also get the message out there that there are many different pathways to a career in Applied Psychology.

The Pathways team.