Meet the DISCOVER team

Irene Sclare

Consultant Clinical Psychologist and DISCOVER Programme Lead

Irene created DISCOVER as an NHS service innovation for older teenagers in 2010, and has since shaped and refined the programme with colleagues so that DISCOVER can reach troubled young people in schools to help resolve their problems.

She has helped evaluate the impact of DISCOVER on young people’s mental health and wellbeing with research psychology colleagues at Kings College, London, within a feasibility trial in 2014-5 and is a co-applicant within the ongoing BESST trial. Irene trained in clinical psychology in Newcastle on Tyne and at Salomons, Canterbury Christ Church University, and has worked in the Trust for over twenty years within Child and Adolescent Mental Health services.

Irene has considerable expertise in the field of adolescent mental health and the provision of evidence-based treatments for teenagers and families. She has specialist skills in developing and evaluating service innovations in community settings and multi-agency contexts, and in staff supervision and training. 

Ruth Braidwood

Senior Clinical Psychologist

Ruth graduated from UCL with a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology in 2017. Prior to clinical training, Ruth worked in an anxiety disorders research group at King's College London, and at UCL developing NICE guidelines for mental health.

Ruth has skills and experience in a range of child and adolescent interventions and in multi-agency working. Ruth has a strong commitment to developing innovative services that are acceptable to young people and families who may find difficulty accessing mainstream support. She led a service project with Lambeth CAMHS, as well as a project to develop the DISCOVER app in 2019. Ruth is now leading an evaluation, funded by the Maudsley Charity and the Pictet Foundation, of the new DISCOVER Emotional Wellbeing Booster workshop which is currently offered to groups of Sixth Formers.

Emilie Bourke

Senior Clinical Psychologist

Emilie completed her Doctorate in Clinical Psychology at University College London (UCL). Before taking up this post within the DISCOVER team in 2020, she worked across a range of settings including as the psychologist for an inpatient ward, offering therapeutic support for young people during times of mental health crisis.

Prior to clinical training, Emilie was part of a research group at the University of Oxford that develops evidence-based therapeutic interventions for people living with psychosis. She is passionate about engaging young people as well as their families so that psychological ideas and strategies feel applicable within everyday life. Emilie is committed to the DISCOVER ethos of inclusivity and early intervention to foster resilience in young people. She has recently developed and piloted an adapted version of DISCOVER, ‘Getting the Life You Want’ for Care Leavers aged 16-19, and is leading the dissemination of this new intervention within the Trust catchment area.

Rhian Parham

Principal Clinical Psychologist

Dr Rhian Parham joined the DISCOVER team in July 2019. In addition to her role in organising the delivery of DISCOVER programmes in schools, and the evaluation of the impact, Rhian is leading on the development of package of resources to support sixth form teachers to deliver mental health and wellbeing content to their students.

Prior to joining the DISCOVER team, Rhian worked in the National and Specialist Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) CAMHS and the Service for Complex Autism & Associated Neurodevelopmental Disorders (SCAAND).

Rhian has specialist skills in supporting young people with autism to access psychological therapies, and addressing the needs of teenagers with complex emotional difficulties, in addition to her skills in the delivery of psychological interventions in the school setting and in staff supervision. Rhian completed her Doctorate in Clinical Psychology at Salomons, Canterbury Christ Church University.

 

Dr Jack Nejand

Clinical Psychologist

Jack graduated from King’s College London (KCL) with a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology in 2021. He then joined DISCOVER following a 12-month placement with the team in his final year of clinical training.

As well as running the DISCOVER programme in our partner schools, Jack undertook an evaluation of the DISCOVER Emotional Wellbeing Sixth Form assembly, including running a series of focus groups with Sixth formers. This work was funded by Maudsley Charity and the Pictet Foundation. He is now leading the development and subsequent evaluation of the new, accessible version of the Emotional Wellbeing assembly which includes testimonial films that he developed with young people who attended DISCOVER workshops.

Prior to clinical training, Jack worked on a neuro-rehabilitation ward, and at the Social Communication Disorders Clinic at Great Ormond Street Hospital during undergraduate degree at the University of Bath. He is particularly committed to increasing access to psychological support within the school setting within the DISCOVER outreach approach.