Dr. Helen Griffiths (Doctorate in Clinical Psychology)
Senior Lecturer in Clinical Psychology

Contact details
- Email: helen.griffiths@ed.ac.uk
Address
- Street
-
Room 2.14, Doorway 6, Medical Quad, Teviot Place
- City
- Edinburgh
- Post code
- EH8 9AG
Background
Helen Griffiths studied Psychology and Philosophy at Oxford University before coming to Edinburgh for clinical psychology training, qualifying in 1997. Subsequently, she worked in an adult mental health service in West Lothian, specialising in psychological interventions for individuals distressed by their psychotic experiences for 13 years. She joined the academic team at the University of Edinburgh in 2010, and also worked between 2010-2019 as a Consultant Clinical Psychologist at the Early Psychosis Support Service, CAMHS, NHS Lothian. Between 2018-January 2025 she was Programme Director of the University of Edinburgh/NHS Scotland Clinical Psychology training programme (DClinPsychol). Currently, she is a Senior Lecturer in Clinical Psychology affiliated with the MSc in Psychological Therapies and the Centre for Psychological Therapies but continues to provide some teaching and thesis supervision to trainees on the Doctorate in Clinical Psychology.
Qualifications
BA (Hons) Psychology and Philosophy, University of Oxford
Doctorate in Clinical Psychology, University of Edinburgh
MSc Social Anthropology, University of Edinburgh
Postgraduate teaching
I am a Senior Lecturer in Clinical Psychology with a core alignment to the MSc in Psychological Therapies where I am course organiser for Complex Presentations and Psychological Approaches to Psychosis.
I also provide Advanced Practice Seminars on the Doctorate in Clinical Psychology, including Psychological Approaches to Psychosis and Mentalization Based Therapy Skills
Open to PhD supervision enquiries?
Yes
Areas of interest for supervision
Please note I am unable to take on any further PhD supervision for the 2025-2026 intake.
Current PhD students supervised
I currently provide research supervision to a number of DClinPsychol trainees including:
Exploring supervisors’ experiences when delivering psychological supervision; an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis and a systematic review of therapist mentalizing (Toby King, DClinPsychol)
Lived Experiences of Recovery Oriented Systems of Care in the Context of Problematic Substance Use (Anita Lenyk, DClinPsychol)
Coping in the relationship between trauma and psychosis proneness (Lily McNamee, DClinPsychol)
Evaluating the implementation of an Early Intervention Psychosis Service in a rural Scottish health board: a mixed methods study (Kirsten Richardson, DClinPsychol)
How do clients and clinicians make sense of service responses to self-harm in a community-based secondary care setting? (Maisie Satchwell Hirst, DClinPsychol)
Working with women who self-harm: exploring the experiences of nursing staff in women’s secure units (Ilaria Dal Lago, DClinPsychol)
Past PhD students supervised
The Relationship between Childhood Trauma and Psychosis: Testing the Mentalization Model of Psychosis (Ercan Ozdemir, PhD)
Risk factors of suicidality and self-injury among young people from a developmental perspective (Xinxin Zhu, PhD, 2nd supervisor)
How can psychology professionals and individuals with lived experience work together in addiction services? (Nancy Sneddon, DClinPsychol)
An exploration of the effects of Drug Related Deaths on staff (Yanni Yannoulis, DClinPsychol)
An exploration of voice-hearers reflective functioning and how they experience their voices as social agents. (Laura Williams, DClinPsychol)
Emotional reactivity to daily hassles in young people (Laura MacLean, PhD student, 2nd Supervisor)
Social anxiety in Psychosis (Liesbeth Tip, PhD student, 2nd Supervisor)
Understanding Service Responses to Repeated Self-Harm (Rachel Stabler, DClinPsychol)
Team formulation in inpatient mental health settings (Katie Lamacraft, DClinPsychol)
Social Identity and Psychosis (Hannah Cooper, DClinPsychol)
'There's psychological masonry flying everywhere': a mixed-methods systematic review of ‘Psychologically-Informed Environments’ interventions for staff working in homelessness services; and, An empirical study of factors contributing to the development and maintenance of work-related distress in frontline workers in homelessness services (Alienor Lemieux-Cumberlege, DClinPsychol)
Multiple Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and experience of shame in adults (Alice Marten, DClinPsychol)
The associations between expressed emotion (EE), attachment, reflective functioning and self-harm in late adolescence (Jamie Kennedy-Turner, DClinPsychol)
A Grounded Theory Exploration of Adolescent Sibling Perpsectives of Self-Harm (Nienke van Alphen, DClinPsychol)
Exploration of distress tolerance and its association with self-injurious behaviour and as a trans-diagnostic target for intervention (Emma Boyd, DClinPsychol)
Systematic review of attachment and substance misuse: measurement and outcomes for clinical samples; and a grounded theory study: how non-treatment seeking substance users make sense of their behaviour. (Sarah Lawson, DClinPsychol)
What psychological variables influence mental health outcomes in a Scottish cohort of young looked after children? (Harriet Hockaday, DClinPsychol, co- supervision with Prof Matthias Schwannauer)
Metacognitive Training for Negative Symptoms (Linda Eriksson, DClinPsychol)
Understanding Negative Symptoms from an Attachment Theory Perspective in help-seeking young people (Alice Thomson, PhD student, 2nd Supervisor)
Trauma and Interpersonal Functioning in Psychosis (Julia Hannon, DClinPsychol trainee)
How do staff make sense of psychosis in NHS mental health services? (Laura Corfield, DClinPsychol)
Self-other processing and social anxiety in psychosis (Hannah Buckland, DClinPsychol)
Research summary
My clinical and research interests focus on adolescents and adults experiencing psychosis and other complex psychological disorders. I am interested in how the theoretical framework of attachment and mentalization can offer new perspectives on clinical presentations such as negative symptoms in psychosis and self-harm, and how the application of mentalization based approaches can improve service provision for these populations. More recently, I have developed a particular interest in therapist/clinician mentalizing, and how service environments can be optimised to sustain and/or enhance clinician mentalizing as a means of improving clinical outcomes.