PPN NW Newsletter
Thursday 24th July 2025
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Welcome to the latest edition of the Psychological Professions Network North West newsletter. We aim to bring you the latest updates about our work to join up psychological professionals, associated stakeholders, carers and experts by experience in the region.
NW PPN Conference date announced – 12th November
We have a date in the diary for our annual PPN NW Conference - Wednesday 12th November. This will be as part of the wider Psychological Professions Week which runs from 10th – 14th November. Last year we had over 150 attendees, from across multiple psychological professions and sectors.
We will have two key themes as the focus for the day.
Prevention – looking at prevention into Practice, what prevention is for psychological professions and the role of social determinants of health
Neighbourhood working – looking at Community Psychology, the role of Third Sector & VCFS partners and how can we work together.
We will release more details over the next couple of months, for now save the date in your diary!
Sign up to be a PPN Ambassador!
Over the last couple of months, we have been developing a group of Psychological Professions Ambassadors to work with us to inspire young people to get into Psychological Professions. Alongside this we have been working with the existing ambassadors to develop a Ambassador Resource pack and a CPD Leadership for those involved.
We are still looking for ambassadors to join our group. We’d love to hear from more people to help influence and shape the materials so these can help facilitate conversations with you people about getting into this career.
Are you passionate about inspiring young people? Do you wish you’d had someone who represented you in the psychological professions? If so, we’d love to hear from you!
We are wanting a wide range of ambassadors to sign up across all healthcare teams both clinical and non-clinical, qualified and student.
Upcoming PPN Events
Peer learning session on Associate Psychological Practitioners Physical Health Community of Practice Event
Wednesday 13th August 2025
10:00 – 11:00 (remote)
Join the Community of Practice and find out more about this and future events here.
Functional neurological symptoms (FNS): Development, maintenance & treatment – Physical Health Community of Practice Event
Wednesday 17th September 2025
09:00 - 10:00 (remote)
Join the Community of Practice and find out more about this and future events here.
PPN NW and NE&Y NHS Talking Therapies Leadership and Innovation Forum
Coming Soon - October 2025
This bi-annual forum for leadership and innovation within Talking Therapies will be taking place in October – keep your eyes out on future PPN Comms for confirmed agenda and instructions on how to book on!
Trauma Resource pack from PPN London
PPN London have created a trauma resource pack to help integrate trauma-informed principles into your daily practice.
This project was co-created by Living Experience Advisors in collaboration with the London Psychological Professions Network (PPN). Unlike traditional resources, our focus is on the power of personal stories to drive meaningful change in mental health services. Whether you’re a professional, volunteer, or someone accessing support, the aim of this project is to guide you toward a more trauma-informed approach.
National Schizophrenia Awareness Day – Friday 25th July
1 in 100 people in the UK live with schizophrenia. That’s over 600,000 individuals.
Individuals who are friends, colleagues, loved ones, parents, siblings, and everything in between.
Individuals who have to deal with work stress, dodgy Wi-Fi, dating drama, the cost of living crisis – the 99 other problems everyone else does – alongside their condition.
Schizophrenia is a part of life for the people living with it, but it is not what defines them. Reducing someone to just their mental illness fuels stigma, misunderstanding and can create social isolation.
This National Schizophrenia Awareness Day, it’s time to see the whole person – their ambitions, their sense of humour, their everyday problems – not just our perceptions of schizophrenia. You can find out more about the day and schizophrenia here.
Coming together to reimagine pain care – LSCFT event
Join us for an evening of stimulating talks about reimagining pain care provision within and beyond the NHS using narrative approaches, combining clinical cases, storytelling and art.
Who is it for?
This event is for all Lancashire and South Cumbria foundation Trust colleagues (clinical and non-clinical), colleagues from neighbouring NHS Trusts, local health and social care providers and researchers based in Lancashire who are passionate about health equity and equitable pain care. Although the focus of this event is pain care (chronic pain), it will also be relevant to other areas of healthcare.
Get involved in research around CBT supervision
Researchers at the Canterbury Christ Church University are looking at exploring CBT supervisors’ experiences of group meta-supervision and to construct a theory about what comprises ‘good’ meta-supervision, based on data gathered from UK CBT supervisors about their experiences.
If you are a BABCP accredited therapist who offers supervision and receives regular group meta-supervision, we want to hear from you!
You can find out more about the study here.
Psychologically Informed: Far Right Riots Response by CMHTs
Welcome to this week’s Psychologically informed, a space where PPN NW members can share something psychologically related that stirred them in some ways.
This week Chloe Torkington, Assistant Psychologist for Widening Access, talks about a piece of research on Investigating community mental health services’ responses to racial trauma during the 2024 UK far-right riots
Hello, my name is Chloe. Like many, my interest in mental health grew from a genuine desire to support people and help them to feel more positive about themselves. After pursuing my interest in psychology at university and graduating in 2019, I was fortunate enough to begin working at Mary Seacole House, a community mental health service, primarily supporting Black and minoritised ethnic communities. What started as a stepping stone towards clinical roles quickly became much more, as I saw first hand how systemic barriers stop people from getting the support they need. Whilst I had cared about social justice issues before, working there changed how I thought about mental health care and the systems surrounding it.
This experience led me to my current role at Step Forward Liverpool, where I work as an Assistant Psychologist for Widening Access. This position allows me to focus on how we can make our service more accessible for people from minoritised ethnic communities. When my colleague invited me to research our service response to the far-right riots last year, I welcomed the chance to explore how these events impacted staff and subsequently the clients we support.
This research provided an opportunity for us to explore how we engage with race-based discussions. These conversations can be challenging, often shaped by broader societal views that treat race as a taboo topic. The aim of the research was not to prescribe how race should be discussed but to encourage reflection about how we can unlearn the discomfort that often surrounds these topics. My hope is that, with practice and support, we can create environments where these conversations feel safer, helping to reduce systemic barriers that exist for minoritised ethnic groups.
Are you a member of one of our Communities of Practice?
By receiving this email you are a confirmed member of the PPN NW; however, have you considered joining one of our Communities of Practice (CoP)? Please see links below for information on how to join one of our CoPs:
PPN NW Mailing List Review
The Psychological Professions Network depends on the engagement of its members. To do this we need to ensure we have an accurate and up to date register and mailing list to enable us to keep you regularly updated with events, policy changes, projects and more.
Due to an error on our website registration form, a number of people who have created PPN NW accounts have automatically been opted out of communications and, therefore, are not receiving professional updates or event opportunities – effectively negating any benefit of being a member! We are therefore in the process of opting all of these members back into communications. Please do email us if you wish to remain opted out of communications.
What are we asking you to do?
Being a member of our PPN NW Mailing List allows us to invite you to bespoke Community of Practice events and workshops, receive our newsletter.
We will not share your information with any third parties or send you any promotional emails that are not connected to delivering psychological health and wellbeing within an NHS-commission space.
Please email the PPN NW at england.ppn.northwest@nhs.net if you wish to be removed from the PPN NW Mailing List.
You can update your own details, for both Membership and Communications Preferences, at any time by visiting the website here, this includes your profile with your most recent job title, professional role, banding and ICB etc.
Share Your News!
Please email the PPN-NW team at england.ppn.northwest@nhs.net if you have an update from your work or local network that you would like featured in one of our upcoming newsletters. We want to boost important events and developments from around our region, so let us know what’s going on where you are!
Interested in joining the PPN?
Anyone can join the Psychological Professions Network! Whether you are a member of one of the psychological professions, another professional of any discipline, an aspiring psychological professional, or a member of the public, you can sign up and join us for free.
