How we came to be

My name is Mel and here is the story of how we came to be where we are today in 2021. 

Although originally from Scotland, I now call the North East my home, having settled here in 2003. Having always been fascinated by people, and curious as to why we do what we do, I was drawn to a career in Clinical Psychology, and love the job of helping people suffer less and embrace life more.

Through my 13 years working in the UK National Health Service, I met many wonderful colleagues and learned that my passions lie in a deeper understanding of the mind-body connection to help improve people’s lives. However, I also experienced frustrations in the lack of integrated client care that I was witnessing and how so often, people did not get the chance to tell their stories and get access to the help that they needed in a timely manner. 

With a desire to offer a greater reach to a greater number of people, with the freedom to offer individualised care as needed, I started a small private practice in 2016 and Trust Psychology was born!

Very quickly, it became apparent that I missed working in a team and experiencing the huge benefits that collaborative working can bring. With the added clinical knowledge, training and experience helping me grow as a psychologist, I recognised that flexibility, integration, connection and strong relationships are at the heart of all health and wellbeing. I therefore invited the first trusted team members to join the growing service. 

As we have worked, spoken, listened, reflected and learned together as a team, we have honed our clinical skills and been able to articulate clearly what we believe makes us unique as a service. Together, we now have a shared mission to offer a trustworthy, connected, inspiring service to people who experience difficulties in managing their psychological and physical health, and to those working with them.

As part of this mission, we recognised from 2019 onwards that a truly integrated service would involve the delivery of interdisciplinary care as part of a team approach to pain management, particularly where there was underlying trauma. Therefore, we established our Trust Pain Management division to be able to offer this as a team of experienced pain professionals working together, each bringing our own specialist knowledge and skills in the areas of Clinical Psychology, Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy.

The benefits of this much-needed way of working speak for themselves. Our clients and referrers talk of a high quality, well-coordinated service which produces real and meaningful change.