Dr Joseph Clarke

  • Professional Title: Clinical Psychologist
  • Qualifications: DClinPsy, MSc, MA, BA (Hons)
  • Clinic location: Charlotte Keel Medical Practice, Easton

Background

Dr Joseph Clarke is a Clinical Psychologist registered with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC). He has worked across NHS and charity mental health services since 2016 and has been working as a psychologist within NHS services since 2020. Since qualifying, Joseph has specialised in providing therapy for adults experiencing severe, complex and enduring mental health difficulties within NHS community mental health services.

Areas of Specialist Experience

Joseph has experience supporting people with a range of difficulties including depression, low mood, shame, perfectionism, self-criticism and low self-esteem. Joseph is able to offer evidence-based therapy for all types of anxiety including generalised anxiety, social anxiety, panic, phobias and health anxiety, as well as obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and hoarding difficulties.

Joseph can support clients who are negotiating various life events and stressors including bereavement and loss, difficult life transitions, relationship/family/couple difficulties, as well as pain and physical health conditions and sleep problems. In addition, Joseph is able to offer therapeutic input to clients with addictions, dissociative experiences, bipolar difficulties and emotional regulation difficulties, including anger.

Joseph has a particular interest in working with the psychological impact of trauma in all its forms, including childhood adversity, abuse, neglect, Complex PTSD (C-PTSD), and difficulties often described as “personality disorder” or complex emotional needs.

Joseph is experienced in supporting clients with identity-related difficulties (including gender, sexuality, age, race, class, culture, disability, neurodiversity) as well as those who have encountered experiences of discrimination and oppression.

Finally, Joseph is able to offer therapeutic input to clients with eating difficulties (including anorexia, bulimia and other eating-related concerns), body image and body dysmorphic concerns.

Therapeutic Approach

A central belief in Joseph’s work is that people do not exist in a vacuum. Many people arrive in therapy feeling that they are the problem. Joseph helps people to develop a more compassionate understanding of their difficulties, in the context of their relationships and life experiences, as well as social, cultural, political, historical, and intergenerational factors. Joseph also takes an active role in therapy, helping people challenge themselves and make changes so they can move towards a life that feels more fulfilling and meaningful.

Joseph works integratively, which means he adapts therapy to the needs of the individual rather than relying on a single model. He draws on a range of evidence-based approaches, including: Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Cognitive Analytic Therapy (CAT), Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT), Dialectical Behaviour Therapy-informed approaches (DBT), Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR), Open Dialogue principles, Solution Focused approaches, Systemic approaches, and Trauma-Focused CBT (TF-CBT).