Dr. Peter Jakob

Consultant Clinical Psychologist

In the late 1970ies, I trained in Social Work to ‘intermediate examination’ level in Germany. This motivated me to combine social work and clinical psychology approaches to helping children in need of protection.

Following doctoral training in clinical psychology, I practiced within the German Social Services funded child guidance system, with US military authorities’ child protection agencies, and with international agencies. I have been working in child- and adolescent mental health and in adult mental health as a qualified Clinical Psychologist for over 26 years. The majority of this work has been undertaken in the context of child protection, involving issues related to child sexual and physical abuse or neglect, parents’ mental ill health as well as drug and alcohol misuse problems, domestic violence, and very serious trauma.

After my training as a Clinical Psychologist, I went on to train as a Systemic Family Therapist. Over the years, I have pursued a strong interest in processes within the ‘larger system’, i.e. the interaction of family and the helping agencies. This interest has led me to develop service models for effective interagency working in child protection and child in need contexts.

From 1997 until 2006, I developed 'Thanet Multi Agency Service' (TMS), as well as leading a large child Psychology Deartment within the NHS. This team provides comprehensive psychological interventions to Social Services, for behavioural, psychological, emotional and mental health issues presented by multi-stressed families in a child protection context. As its Lead Clinician, I promoted not only a high standard of therapeutic competence and multi-agency working at close range, but have also introduced a number of innovative therapeutic approaches.

Over the past few years, I have begun introducing Non Violent Resistance (NVR) to Britain. NVR is a systemic and behavioural approach to the violent behaviour of young people and children, which is highly effective, and ideally suited for working within a Social Services and Educational contexts.

My current position in the NHS is Consultant Clinical Psychologist and lead for complex cases in the Sussex Partnership Foundation NHS Trust. I am currently developing PartnershipProjects, a multi-agency training consultancy aimed at creating effective service models for change promotion at the interface of Social Care, CAMHS and Education. I also provide general psychological practice for adults and for children and families from different locations in the Southeast of England. My main areas of interest are severe trauma, anxiety, and violent and controlling behaviours.