Role
Mike is a senior lecturer in Psychology and a member of the Department of Psychology in the School of Social Sciences. He is a registered clinical psychologist, an associate fellow of the British Psychological Society, and an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Since September 2020, he is the chair for the East Midlands branch of the BPS Division of Clinical Psychology.
Mike is primarily involved in learning and teaching related to mental health and clinical psychology. He is the course leader for the MSc Psychology in Clinical Practice/MSc Theoretical Foundations in Clinical Psychology, leading on the Self, Services, and Society module, and with overall responsibility for the clinical research placements and projects. He is also the module leader and teaches on the Child and Adolescent Trauma module in Year Three of the undergraduate curriculum. Mike is on supervision teams for DPsychs and PhDs, and supervises undergraduate and postgraduate psychology research projects.
Alongside his teaching and research activity, Mike maintains an active interest in developing external collaborations for NTU, particularly in healthcare settings.
Career overview
Mike joined NTU in August 2015, having worked within NHS mental health services since 2002. He qualified as a clinical psychologist in 2007 and has worked within local Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) since then. His most recent role had been specialising in work with young people with severe eating difficulties as part of a new team created by the Trust, taking a co-leadership role in developing the team's processes and bidding for ongoing funding. He maintains a small role within this team, continuing clinical and consultation work on a limited basis.
Previous specialist functions within the NHS included assessing Autistic Spectrum Disorders, the implementation of routine clinical measures across the service, and clinical supervision of other psychologists and allied professions. He has a strong interest in both systemic and cognitive-behavioural work with children and adolescents.
Mike originally studied at the University of Wales, Bangor, receiving a university scholarship to support his degree and also successfully applying for two external grants for subsistence to undertake research with stroke survivors over the summer of his second year. He was then an assistant psychologist with Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health Trust for two years, primarily working with adults with severe and enduring difficulties detained in low secure settings. He undertook his clinical training at the University of Sheffield, where he discovered his passion for working with children and families before moving to Nottinghamshire CAMHS.
Research areas
Mike's doctoral thesis for his clinical training used qualitative (IPA) research with people whose experiences were akin to "psychosis" and for whom spiritual or religious beliefs were of strong importance (see Marriott, 2007, and Marriott et al, 2019, in the publications link).
Previous research within his NHS role was focused around the appropriate use of routine outcome measurement in CAMHS, and he played a clinical consultation and facilitation role in a strand of the local Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care (CLAHRC) project evaluating measure use and trialling innovative practices in data collection. He has also published an evaluation of psychotherapies in the adult mental health context, with a particular focus on Cognitive Analytic Therapy.
Mike provided methodological supervision of qualitative research with parents of adolescents diagnosed with “Anorexia Nervosa” and with users of a paediatric liaison service. He has consistently applied research skills to evaluations of clinical work across services, supporting and encouraging other healthcare professionals to adopt evaluative attitudes to clinical work. He is or has been part of a number of supervisory teams for doctoral projects at NTU, exploring various facets of mental health or applied psychological practice (including social cognition and people diagnosed with “schizophrenia”, adolescent sexting, trauma amongst young offenders, body image, and peer-led recovery programmes in mental health).
Mike’s main research activity currently is exploring direct assessments of body image, and the potential use of 3D body-scanning as an intervention tool to support people to achieve and maintain a healthy weight, with potential applications in either obese or “eating disordered” clinical populations. Future research plans are broadly in the field of the experiences of “eating disorders”, but particularly around understanding outcomes for young people, the development of these difficulties in males, and cultural considerations in treatment and management. He oversees a program of applied clinical research in the context of the MSc Psychology in Clinical Practice, and is happy to consider collaboration in any work looking broadly at people who access mental health services, using qualitative or quantitative methodology as appropriate to the research question.
External activity
- Associate Fellow and Chartered Member of the British Psychological Society (BPS)
- Full Member of the BPS Division of Clinical Psychology (DCP)
- Chair: East Midlands Branch
- Full Member of the DCP Faculty for Children, Young People, and Families
- Full Member of the DCP Faculty for Eating Disorders
- Registered Clinical Psychologist (Health and Care Professions Council)
As a clinical psychologist, Mike maintains an clinical role within the CAMHS Eating Disorders team in Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust, continuing clinical work on a limited basis.
He has recently been a contributing author and sub-editor for a new BPS document in development related to a broader understanding of “eating disorders”.
Mike is an the external examiner for postgraduate studies at Swansea University, and has examined a range of MRes, Dpsych, and PhD theses over his academic career. He is an active peer-reviewer for journals in the field.
Mike has worked as a staff governor at Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, and is Chair of Governors at William Lilley School.
Sponsors and collaborators
- Dr Patricia Silva, Universidade Católica Portuguesa
- Graham Hutton and Sam Tema, Body Aspect, Nottingham
- Glyn Lawson and Tessa Roper, University of Nottingham