CBT and Motivational Interviewing: Supporting Children and Young People to Engage in CBT

Programme Director, Pg Cert CYP Psychological Wellbeing Practice / MSc/Pg Dip CBT for Children and Young People

James is joint Deputy Director for the AMBIT programme and is a Consultant Clinical Psychologist. Since qualifying in 2007, James has worked primarily within the NHS in Child and Adolescent Mental health Services (CAMHS) in London, then in Cambridgeshire. James first became connected with AMBIT in 2011 as the lead psychologist in a regional adolescent inpatient service, helping develop the AMBIT model on the unit, then moving into training others in the approach. James is a systemic practitioner and is particularly interested in working with people with multiple needs, alongside supporting the systems around them to improve the help on offer. James leads on the evaluation of the AMBIT program and jointly leads the AMBIT international study group. James continues to work in NHS CAMHS and in private practice.

Rebecca is joint Deputy Director for the AMBIT programme. She progressed to this role having become a Lead Trainer in 2019. Her journey into AMBIT started in 2014 whilst working for Wandsworth Local Authority. In the 18 years she spent in Wandsworth, Rebecca’s roles included work as a team manager in the Evolve Team (who support young people and young adults impacted by gangs, youth violence and exploitation), and as a Youth Offending Team Practitioner. She came to Wandsworth having qualified as a Probation Officer in 2003, with experience of working with adults in the criminal justice system, particularly those convicted of violent offences. She has also run a social enterprise supporting young adults impacted by the justice and social care systems, and worked as a freelance trainer.

I jointly lead the AMBIT programme. The AMBIT framework supports teams to improve their capacity to help clients who have multiple needs and who may find professional help hard to trust. AMBIT works with a wide range of teams and services across the health, social care, justice, education and community sectors both nationally and internationally. We disseminate AMBIT via several methods, including training, post-training implementation support, supervision, consultation, evaluation activities and strategic partnerships. I qualified as a Clinical Psychologist in 2010 and have since specialised in working with young people and their families in community outreach services. I worked as a therapist on the Multi-Systemic Therapy START trial in the UK and have also held clinical lead roles in a range of innovative multi-agency projects. This has included working in an edge of care team for adolescents in Children’s Social Care, in a youth-led multi-agency project for young people who are gang affected, and in a local authority multi-agency team to prevent the permanent exclusion of children and young people from mainstream education. I am committed to focusing on how we can apply what we learn from young people, families and frontline workers to the design and adaptation of helping approaches to ensure that they are accessible, inclusive and effective for those who experience multiple forms of marginalisation, oppression and exclusion in our society.