Sue is a Counselling Psychologist who works with separated families. As well as working therapeutically, she is instructed as an expert witness in family proceedings, delivers training, offers consultancy and supervision. She works with children and parents who have experienced harm or abuse, live with complex family dynamics or in challenging social contexts.
Sue’s interest in men and boys stems back to her teaching days. She noticed the failure to understand the different presentations of trauma and psychological distress in boys in school, the impact on their learning and the consequent failure to intervene effectively. Boys are seen as “bad” – in need of punishment or “fixing” – rather than in need of nurture, support and engagement which recognises and incorporates their developmental and sex-based differences. On beginning her work as a psychologist, she noticed the same pattern through boyhood into manhood. She works to challenge this narrative and to advocate for services which listen to men, work with them and respond effectively to their needs, rather than shoe-horning them into ill-conceived interventions or pathways which often lack an evidence base.
Sue is Chair of the British Psychological Society Division of Counselling Psychology, sits on the BPS Expert Witness Advisory Group and the BPS Male Psychology Section Committee. She recently became a Trustee of Both Parents Matter Cymru who provide practical and emotional support to parents, family members and carers post separation, as well as help for male victims of domestic violence and abuse through their service, Aegis DV.
Email: sue@suewhitcombe.co.uk
Twitter: @drsue2014
Linktree: linktr.ee/drsuewhitcombe