Val Howatson
Senior Lecturer in Mental Health and Deputy HoD
Department of Nursing and Community Health
Val is a registered mental health nurse with many years of clinical experience working in a variety of clinical settings including acute in-patients and adult community mental health teams. She obtained a degree in mental health nursing (Thorn initiative) in 1999 and developed specialist practice in psychosocial interventions (PSI) for individuals and their families living with psychosis and bi-polar disorder in London.
She has extensive teaching experience delivering PSI training to pre and post qualified staff and was the course director for the Thorn programme at London Southbank University. After moving to Scotland in 2005, she returned to full time clinical practice for a short time before taking the role of Programme Lead for the PSI programme at Glasgow Institute of Psychosocial Interventions (GIPSI).
She qualified as a CBT therapist in 2008 and currently works within a primary care setting one day per week with people experiencing depression, anxiety and PTSD.
She is an accredited ASIST trainer (Choose Life) and Virtual Dementia Tour trainer.
She has been at GCU for over ten years and is now a Senior Lecturer in the mental health nursing. Her particular research/teaching interest include service user and carer involvement in education, innovations in teaching and learning and psychological therapies