About Connect Psychology
Connect Psychology Service was founded by directors, Dr Janet Menna and Dr Kirsten Krawczyk, who recognised the need for an East Midlands-based Psychological Assessment Centre for children and young people who are adopted and looked after by the Local Authority. Janet and Kirsten are passionate about working with children and families with complex needs and as Practitioner Psychologists they can offer recommendations regarding how families and Local Authorities can best meet the child/young person’s therapeutic and educational needs.
Janet and Kirsten met while working together at the same Local Authority and both have extensive experience in this area, with a keen interest in attachment, attunement, trauma and Relational Psychology approaches.
All about supporting families
The driving force behind Connect Psychology Service has always been, and always will be, the children, young people and families we work with.
Janet and Kirsten strive to ensure that their passion to support children and young people to achieve their psychological, social and academic potential is always felt by the families they help. At Connect Psychology Service strengthening relationships is at the heart of what we do.
Meet The Team
Dr Janet Menna
(BSc Hons, PGCE, PgC, DEdPsy) has been a practitioner Child and Educational Psychologist for seven years.
Following three years in teaching, Dr Menna embarked on her Doctorate in Applied Educational and Child Psychology and went on to work as a Child and Educational Psychologist for two Local Authorities over five years, before embarking on independent practice. She has experience of working as part of a Vulnerable Children’s Team, working with children in the care of the Local Authority and those situated in families facing complex challenges. Dr Menna also has experience of supporting specialist provisions for children and young people with Social, Emotional and Mental Health needs. Dr Menna has held a dual role working for a Local Authority Therapy Service delivering Theraplay to adopted children and their parents, which gave her experience and insights normally unavailable to Educational Psychologists. Janet has delivered consultancy and bespoke training to a range of different settings, such as children’s homes, schools and specialist educational provisions.
She provides assessment and therapeutic intervention for a range of common educational and psychological needs including autism, childhood anxiety, attentional difficulties, child relational needs and cognitive needs. Dr Menna’s assessments are holistic, meaning that they consider a range of factors such as physical, personal, social and emotional needs as well as cognitive aspects of learning. She is also skilled in a range of different therapeutic approaches for children with attachment and trauma needs including Theraplay-informed practices, Cognitive Behavioural Approaches, Emotion Coaching, Personal Construct Psychology and Motivational Interviewing. Dr Menna has completed her Theraplay Level 2 training and is practiced in delivering interventions informed by Theraplay.
Dr Menna is passionate about sharing the psychology of relationships and emotions with her clients. She now works with adopted children and their families delivering high quality post-adoption support assessments and intervention. She utilises positive approaches to support with change and recovery, while building resilience.
Dr Kirsten Krawczyk
(BSc Hons, MSc, DEdPsy) has been a practitioner Child and Educational Psychologist for six years.
Dr Kirsten Krawczyk has been a practitioner Child and Educational Psychologist for six years. Each psychologist will work slightly differently depending on their training and their perspective on psychology. Dr Krawczyk subscribes to the biopsychosocial model, which means that when considering a case, she will try to think about and understand any biological and neurological needs and predispositions, as they manifest in the child/young person’s views and behaviours, while also considering their lived experiences and how this influences their relationship with the world, themselves and others.
Dr Krawczyk began working in children’s homes when she was studying for her undergraduate degree. She loved this work and valued the time spent with the children and young people. She quickly realised the importance of relationships and became fascinated with research on attachment and attunement. She then spent a number of years working in Her Majesty’s Prison Service, with adults who engaged in criminal behaviours and had substance misuse difficulties and addictions. Dr Krawczyk enjoyed the cognitive psychology underlying principles of this work and would always strive to help the prisoners start to see their potential and develop their self-esteem.
Dr Kim Meyrick
(BSc Hons, MSc, DEdPsy) Dr Meyrick has been a Child and Educational Psychologist since 2020.
Prior to embarking upon this career, she undertook an undergraduate degree in Psychology at Lincoln University, achieving a 1st Class Honours degree, and completing a MSc in Applied Psychology in Children and Young People at University of Edinburgh.
Dr Meyrick has always been passionate about supporting children, young people, and their families. Prior to becoming a Child and Educational Psychologist, she worked in children services as a Family Support Worker and in Child and Adolescence Mental Services as a CAMHS practitioner. This has supported her passion for multi-systemic work and an appreciation of how different systems around the child can have a profound impact upon their wellbeing and development, rather than just a within-child perspective to potential difficulties.
Dr Meyrick has had the privilege of working alongside different families with the use of consultation and her knowledge of parenting programs such as Triple P, Mellow Parenting, and Incredible Years. The experience reinforced Dr Meyrick’s views as to the importance of identifying and building upon the strengths and positive attributes that the child, family and community already possess. She has continued to take this learning forward in the current work she does, using solution-focused techniques in her consultation and assessment with children.
As an Assistant Psychologist, Dr Meyrick became trained in Level Two Theraplay and as an Attachment Lead and worked with children and young people in care of the Local Authority using Theraplay informed intervention in both schools and with carers. This enabled her to develop skills to help advocate for pupils who have experienced significant relational trauma and losses in their lives and supporting schools and families to develop relational approaches to supporting behaviours to help children to thrive. She has continued to take this passion throughout her career as an Educational Psychologist with the focus on her doctoral dissertation being on the impact that Theraplay interventions can have when used in school. Dr Meyrick has continued to develop her understanding of attachment and trauma, and delivered training and consultations in both primary, secondary, and specialist schools. She has previously worked as a link Educational Psychologist to children’s residential homes, delivering bespoke training and consultations to both residential and school staff.
Rebecca Judge
(BSc Hons Psychology and Cultural Studies, PGCE, MSc Educational Psychology) has been working as an Educational Psychologist since 2001.
Mrs Judge’s passion has always been to work with children, young people, and their families. She began her career as a primary school teacher/SENDCo in London and then an Education Officer in Milton Keynes, before studying at Nottingham University.
Mrs Judge is an experienced Educational Psychologist of over 22 years, qualifying in 2001. Since then, she has worked in Northamptonshire for the local authority and was appointed as a Senior Psychologist and Line Manager in 2019, managing a team of psychologists in North Northamptonshire.
Mrs Judge has worked extensively with young people (0-25 years) and families in mainstream and specialist educational settings and is experienced in direct and consultative approaches. During her service, her role included the assessment of pre-school and school age young people and adults with a variety of learning, emotional, social, behavioural and mental health difficulties.
Mrs Judge is highly experienced in the use of SFBT, CBT, Consultation, Motivational Interviewing, Nurture principles, Boxall profile, ADOS and BOSA. She is also experienced in multi-agency working and has collaborated with Community Paediatricians on several neurodevelopmental pathways. Rebecca has supported schools in the event of a critical incidents also.
Mrs Judge also trained in the ADOS-2 with Fiona Scott and is highly experienced in this area.
Dr Bryn Williams
(BSc Hons, MSc, PhD, DClinPsy) with 24 years of experience working in psychology.
Dr Williams is registered with HCPC as a Practitioner Psychologist, Clinical, with a specialist interest in children, young people, and families. He has a Bachelors (Honours) degree in Psychology, an MSc. in Paediatric Clinical Neuropsychology (Nottingham); a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Developmental Psychopathology (UCL, London, 1995); and a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology (University College Christchurch, Canterbury, 1999).
Prior to working independently, Dr Williams worked as a Clinical Psychologist in the NHS and States of Jersey and a Research Psychologist at the Institute of Psychiatry, London and Institute of Child Health and Great Ormond Street Hospital, London. Dr Williams has experience in the psychological assessment of children, young people, and adults for the purposes of understanding their developmental and psychological well-being and has been in practice since 1999. He has specialist interest and training in developmental problems and is able to identify and contribute to the therapy and management of clients with complex learning, neurodevelopmental, mental health and attachment difficulties.
Dr Williams also trained in the ADOS-2 and is highly experienced in this area.
This is one of the most thorough and helpful psychological reports I’ve seen.
