Rachael King

BAAT Vice Chair  2009-2010

I qualified in 1993 and initially worked in Orkney helping to set up a Mental Health Resource Centre on the islands, carving out a small remit to introduce individual and group therapy.  In 1995 I took up a post as Psychodynamic Art Psychotherapist with a regional NHS Psychotherapy Department in the midlands, which involved individual work with adults alongside a remit to establish an Art Psychotherapy Service for an innovative under 18-substance misuse project.  In 1999 I returned to Orkney to set up a service for adults, having researched and identified the need through regular meetings with both Community Social Services and NHS directors, managers and clinicians.  Until recently, this was the sole psychological therapy service for adults in Orkney, funded by the NHS for patients and staff referrals.  The service is now complimented by Clinical Psychology provision.  A private practice has been run alongside the statutory service for the past 9 years.  I also provide clinical supervision to counsellors and therapists from both Social Services and Voluntary agencies, having trained in Core, Therapeutic, Group and Advanced supervision with Robin Shohet ('Supervision in the Helping Professions') and Joan Wilmot at the Centre for Staff Team Development. 

As a practitioner I am interested in the use of the single image in therapy as this has been a recurring practice for several clients.  I also have a keen interest in Clinical Supervision, particularly where it can be utilised across professional boundaries.  Aside from clinical work I have developed, both through intrigue but also need, an interest in the 'politics' of service provision, locally and nationally, and have found this useful both in maintaining a service in the current climate but also in relation to service development.  I am keen to support a greater understanding of issues which arise nationally for practices in 'remote and rural' areas, both in terms of clinical work in often small communities but also in relation to overall service provision (often on a sessional basis) and how both developing and existing services can access specific political, commissioning and financial support for remote and rural initiatives.

I hope that the experience I have gained, being both employed and contracted by Community Social Services and the NHS, particularly in developing new services and meeting the challenges in ensuring the survival of those services, alongside links with voluntary agencies and running a private practice, will mean that I am able to contribute on issues which relate to a wide membership of BAAT and the work that Council undertakes.

I regard the role of Scottish Representative to BAAT Council as one of a number of routes that the membership of BAAT can access to ensure that their individual, regional and national needs are represented to members who sit on BAAT Council.  It is also one of a number of routes where members on BAAT Council can ensure that the work they undertake on behalf of the membership is communicated clearly.  The effectiveness of this role is therefore dependent on the cumulative effort of all Art Psychotherapists/Art Therapists who live and work in Scotland and of the members who constitute BAAT Council itself.