Dr Paula Hopkins to conduct interviews with Network members
Many of you will know Paula Hopkins already as a member in the ckos Network. It’s now exciting news for us that she has decided to conduct semi-structured interviews with individuals in our community in an effort to put together a picture of smell loss and mental health. The purpose of this is to create something for publication that will inform and raise awareness.
I have had the pleasure of meeting her at one of the ckos events, and am delighted to offer her the opportunity of conducting research within the group. I attach Paula’s CV below.
A chartered psychologist with the British Psychological Society and a full member of the Division of Educational and Child Psychology. Paula is registered with the professional body HCPC, allowing her to practise as an applied psychologist. She has nearly 22 years experience as an educational psychologist (EP) and has worked as a senior practitioner EP with Leicestershire County Council and as an EP with Gloucestershire County Council before establishing her own psychology service (EPIC Psychology and Well-being) in partnership with Discovery Schools Trust in 2015 where she is service manager and Senior EP. Paula has been working in the arena of Special Educational Needs and Disability for 32 years. She has key interests in children’s mental health (particularly anxiety), attachment and relationships, working memory/cognition and social processing. Paula has published research articles on group work and nurturing classrooms and is hoping to publish future articles from her doctoral research into class teachers’ perceptions and approaches to children’s anxiety in primary schools.
On a personal note, after experiencing a traumatic brain injury in January 2023, resulting in an acquired smell disorder, Paula is now wanting to raise societal awareness of the impact of smell difficulties/changes on people’s lives particularly in relation to mental health. She is keen to be an advocate for people experiencing smell difficulties and would like to see changes in attitudes and practises across the board in order to help people in a similar position feel understood and
accommodated.
