Sam is a Chartered and HCPC Registered Clinical Psychologist with extensive experience working across a range of criminal justice and mental health settings.

Sam completed her BSc (Hons) degree in Psychology in 2006. She then worked in various roles across HM Prison Service in both male and female (Offender Personality Disorder pathway) establishments, before working across a secure hospital and community for individuals with mental health needs and forensic backgrounds. Alongside these roles, Sam completed an MSc in Forensic Psychology, graduating with a distinction from Teesside University in 2016. After completing doctoral training in 2020, Sam gained a position in the NHS working within the OPD pathway. She is currently employed in the NHS as a Highly Specialist Clinical Psychologist in Youth Justice Services.

During her career Sam has worked with both male and female adult offenders, and with service users across the lifespan within mental health and learning disability services. She is experienced in assessing and formulating high risk offenders with personality difficulties and mental illness, and is trained in a number of assessments (e.g., HCR-20 V3; PCL-R; IPDE; WAIS-IV) and psychometric assessment tools. Sam also recently trained in the ADOS-2 and ADI-R for the assessment of Autism Spectrum Disorders. Sam has significant experience of delivering group and individual therapy across a range of complex presentations and offending histories. She is trained and experienced in the Life Minus Violence - Enhanced group programme, Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) skills, and is a trained Behavioural Family Therapist.

Sam is highly experienced in delivering training to a wide range of professionals regarding trauma and trauma-informed care, mental health, and offending, and has contributed to the development and delivery of lectures for the MSc Forensic Psychology course at Teesside University. Sam also held the position of module lead for the basic Psychology module for the MRCPsych course in Newcastle. She has presented on several occasions at the Division of Forensic Psychology annual conference, most recently in 2022.