Dr Jo Flack

I am the founder and clinical lead at Doing Better Therapy.  As a Clinical Psychologist by background, I have a broad base of therapeutic models to choose from, with a preference for those which are systemic and trauma informed (i.e. looking at the relationships and context in which problems and solutions occur and compassionately attending to the impact of trauma on body and mind).  I have worked in both NHS and Children’s Services for over 25 years with many different groups of clients – both inpatient (an adolescent therapeutic community setting) and outpatient (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS)) services as well as specialist services for often marginalised and traumatised people – particularly the care-experienced and asylum seeking or refugee populations.

Professional training is an important part of being a therapist, but my experience is that clients are the experts when it comes to their lives and I have had many years of learning from my clients.  I, too, am a parent, child, sibling, and partner and reflect on both professional and lived experience (mine and my clients) in helping young people, individuals and families to work towards being in a better place. 

All of my work has been within multi-cultural London, where there is a huge variety of parenting beliefs and practices, which are not always reflected in therapeutic models. 

With families and other professionals, my primary focus is to understand the meaning of a family or young person’s actions (these meaning are not always shared and understood) and to explore together what might help us to be Doing Better in our lives and in the contexts that we are in.