I am a consultant psychiatrist specialising in sports psychiatry. Working with athletes across a range of sport, dance and performance disciplines, my extensive career as an early adopter of sports psychiatry has led to me becoming one of the most trusted and sought-after professionals in my field.

I have been appointed to three new positions within the world of sport. The English Institute of Sport (EIS) employed me as Sports Psychiatrist to the Mental Health Expert Panel supporting our Great Britain Olympic and Paralympic athletes in preparation for the Tokyo Olympic Games. The League Managers Association (LMA) appointed me as Consultant Performance Psychiatrist in a new role to guide and shape the Mental Health and Wellbeing programme for Premier League and Football League managers, to develop the game wide wellbeing strategy and provide one to one support for football managers and coaches. Burnley Football Club appointed me to a new role in Premiership Football, leading the development of the club’s mental health strategy and provision of mental health care for both 1st team and academy players and coaching staff.

I was employed by the Bradford Bulls RLFC as the world’s first Rugby League Sports Psychiatrist in 2012. I now work with athletes across a range of sports, dance and performance disciplines. Since leaving the Bradford Bulls, as Medical Director and Sports Psychiatrist to Synergy Medicine Ltd I have developed an independent sports medicine service in Leeds that works with all levels of conditions and injuries in Athletes and Dancers. I work with clients on all aspects of wellbeing and performance. As part of this work I have been recognised by the UK Anti-Doping authority (UKAD) as having special expertise in the assessment and management of ADHD. I sit on the UKAD specialist register for ADHD Therapeutic Use Exemption assessments.

In 2016 I co-founded the Royal College of Psychiatrists Sports and Exercise Psychiatry Special Interest Group (SEPSIG) to deliver education and governance for UK Sports Psychiatrists. After serving a 4 year term on the executive as deputy chair, I remain an active member of the group.

In my NHS role I chaired the Derbyshire Suicide Prevention Strategy Group 2013-2018 and led a range of innovations in the region including the development of the regional strategy, a greater involvement of service users in co-producing their own care and chairing Suicide Prevention conferences and World Suicide Prevention Day initiatives. Since 2015, over 3 successive years, suicide rates in Derbyshire almost halved. In 2018 the groups work with Public Health on training General Practitioners in Suicide Prevention strategies was nominated for a Health Service Journal (HSJ) award.

I was awarded the Everything in Sport 2019 national award for supporting the mental health of female athletes and was made Yorkshire’s Doctor of the Year 2019 at the YEP healthcare awards – the first occasion this has been presented to a psychiatrist. In 2020 I was part of a team awarded the EIS Collaboration and Teamworking award for supporting the mental health of athletes during the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021 I was given the International Society of Sports Psychiatry ISSP experienced practitioner in Sports Psychiatry award.

I work on a voluntary basis as Sports Psychiatrist and Trustee to State of Mind Sport, a charity aiming to improve the mental health and wellbeing of athletes and their communities.