When Work Hurts

In this episode Dr Paula Redmond speaks with a team of colleagues in Wales about their groundbreaking and award-winning work on  avoidable employee harm  within NHS complaint and disciplinary processes. Working at the intersection of psychology, HR, and healthcare quality improvement Benna Waites, Dr Adrian Neal, and Andrew Cooper highlight the wide-ranging psychological and systemic imp...

Dr Paula Redmond speaks with two clinical psychologists — Dr Caroline Taylor and Dr Amber Johnston — about their personal stories of receiving a fitness to practise complaint. They discuss what it was like to go through the process, how it affected them personally and professionally, and what they’ve learned along the way. Together they reflect on themes of shame, fear, and isolation, but also on...

What should do you do if you get a fitness to practise complaint? What can you expect from the process? How long does it take, what are the possible outcomes, and where can you go to get support? To answer these questions Paula spoke with Nicholas Stöckling, who works with psychologists and other health professionals as a regulatory adviser providing legal and emotional Fitness to Practise guidanc...

This conversation delves into the research conducted by Dr Naomi Hogben on the impact of formal complaints on early career Clinical Psychologists in the NHS. Naomi discusses the lack of existing research on the experiences of clinicians receiving complaints, the methodology of her study, and the significant emotional and systemic challenges faced by those involved. The findings reveal a lack of su...

In this conversation Clinical Psychologist Professor Noelle Robertson discusses the profound impact of fitness to practice complaints on psychologists and other health professionals. She outlines the research in this field which highlights the emotional toll these complaints take, the inadequacies of support systems, and the long-lasting legacy they leave on practitioners. The discussion also touc...

Dr Paula Redmond, Clinical Psychologist, announces that Season 7 of the When Work Hurts podcast is on its way, with a special focus on surviving complaints. This season is brought to you by the Association of Clinical Psychologists, the representative professional body for clinical psychologists in the UK. As a professional having a formal complaint made against you is something we all dread, but...

In this final episode of the ADHD miniseries Paula discusses ADHD and burnout with Dr Floriana Reinikis, a Clinical Psychologist specialising in neurodivergence, and an ADHDer herself. They discuss the connection between ADHD and burnout, including the impact of workplace environments, over-compensation, perfectionism, and emotional regulation. Dr Reinikis also highlights the importance of underst...

This conversation explores the personal journeys of 3 NHS clinicians diagnosed with ADHD as adults, focusing on their experiences with diagnosis, the impact on their lives, and the challenges they have faced in academic and professional settings. The discussion highlights the complexities of self-disclosure, advocacy, and the need for greater awareness and understanding of ADHD, particularly in wo...

Paula speaks with Clinical Psychologist Dr Lauren Breese about some of the complexities, controversies and opportunities around ADHD diagnosis, particularly in relation to work. The conversation includes: what ADHD is and how it might impact people in the workplace gender differences in ADHD presentation thoughts on workplace adaptations controversies and misunderstandings about ADHD the importanc...

Dr Paula Redmond, Clinical Psychologist, announces that Season Six of the When Work Hurts podcast is on its way, with a special focus on ADHD. This season is brought to you by the Association of Clinical Psychologists, the representative professional body for clinical psychologists in the UK. It's going to be a little bit different from previous seasons, as it's a three-episode mini-series explori...

The Tree of Life is a narrative therapy approach that helps people to tell stories about themselves in ways that make them stronger. It uses the metaphor of a tree to support this process in creative ways and has a broad applicability in both therapeutic and professional contexts.  In this episode, Paula is joined by Dr Julie Fraser and Dr Liz Matias, both clinical psychologists, who have wri...

Reflective practice groups are a subject that has come up a few times on the podcast as being an important way of supporting both staff wellbeing and patient care.  Paula wanted to explore this in more depth, so in this episode she is joined by Dr Arabella Kurtz, consultant clinical psychologist and psychoanalytic psychotherapist to talk about her Heads and Hearts model. They discuss how refl...

Art and creativity are good for the soul, both in and out of work.  In this episode Paula is joined by clinical psychologist Dr Rachel Chater, discussing her inspiring work with the take heART Project, which aims to enhance the wellbeing of staff, patients and visitors to the Bedfordshire Hospitals through the arts.  Rachel describes how this more unusual psychology role took shape and h...

So far this series has talked a lot about the impact of traumatic experiences on us as individuals. But working in healthcare usually means working in teams and experiencing distressing events as part of a team. In this episode, Paula speaks with Dr Sadie Thomas-Unsworth, consultant clinical psychologist and lead for staff support and palliative care, about the guidelines she and colleagues have w...

Eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing, or EMDR, is a NICE recommended psychological treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder, and is also becoming more widely used in the prevention of PTSD in healthcare settings where staff are exposed to traumatic events in their work.  In this episode, Paula is joined by Dr Michael Paterson OBE, a clinical psychologist and EMDR Europe accredite...

Health professionals are not immune to trauma. In fact, many are motivated to become healthcare professionals as a way of understanding and even healing their own wounds. They are also vulnerable to experiencing trauma in their personal lives just as much as anyone else is, and especially likely to be exposed to trauma in their work.  In this episode, Paula is joined by Dr Yvonne Waft, a clin...

Dr Paula Redmond, clinical psychologist, is back for season five of the When Work Hurts podcast. On this show, she explores the stories behind the statistics of the mental health crisis faced by health professionals today and provides hope for a way out through compassion, connection, and creativity.  This season is brought to you by the Association of Clinical Psychologists, the representati...

Pete Lewin is a paramedic and director of Pete Lewin Newfoundlands. Pete and his pack of beautiful emotional support dogs take people out to swim with them (including frontline workers and first responders) with often transformative results. In this episode, he talks movingly about his work with the dogs and also some of the hard times he's been through in his paramedic career. Pete's website: htt...

Health and social care professionals who work with people who've suffered traumatic experiences are themselves at risk of vicarious traumatisation. So what can you do to understand and protect yourself from this? This week Dr Paula Redmond is joined by Anne McKechnie, an independent Consultant Forensic and Clinical Psychologist. The pair discuss the psychological impact of being in a caring profes...

The ways in which we relate to work are often shaped by our training experiences, and this is particularly true in medical education. Today Paula is talking to Dr Louise Younie, GP and Clinical Reader in Medical Education at Queen Mary University of London. The pair discuss how Louise draws on creative enquiry and the concept of flourishing to support medical students to embrace their vulnerabilit...

Internal Family Systems, or IFS, is a relatively new model of psychotherapy with a growing evidence base. In this episode Dr Paula Redmond takes a closer look at IFS with occupational psychologist Wendy Kendall. Wendy explores its application for making sense of how we relate to work as healthcare professionals, and how IFS can help us find space among the overwhelm. Wendy is a chartered occupatio...

Burnout is a really hot topic in healthcare. Every day there are new reports about NHS staff hitting higher and higher levels of burnout. But for a term that is used so much, how many of us know exactly what it is? And how can we begin to solve the issue? In this episode Dr. Julie Highfield - a Consultant Clinical Psychologist in adult and pediatric critical care, and National Wellbeing Director f...

To understand how and why we get caught up in unhelpful dynamics with our work we need to consider the role of the unconscious. Dr Libby Nugent is a clinical psychologist who uses a psychoanalytic approach to understand our complicated relationship with work. She draws on Jungian theory, group analysis, myths and fairy tales to explore the painful complexities that face us as healthcare profession...

This episode contains discussion of suicide and its impact Losing a patient or colleague to suicide can be devastating. In this episode Dr Rachel Gibbons (psychiatrist, psychoanalyst and group analyst) talks about her personal experience of surviving patient suicide and the work she has done to understand suicide and homicide; its impact on healthcare staff; and what helps. The Royal College of Ps...

Dr Mia Hobbs is a Clinical Psychologist who is passionate about the mental health benefits of knitting. She also hosts the podcast Why I Knit. She and Paula explore how we can use craft, and knitting in particular, to benefit our mental health - and how this is especially relevant for health professionals. You can find Mia at www.therapeuticknitting.org and on Instagram @knittingistherapeutic If y...