Kay Richards

Senior Lecturer

Kay qualified as an Educational Psychologist in 2005 after working as an English teacher in an inner-London secondary school. Kay has held senior EP roles in a large Local Authority and is currently working in a part-time role with two local authorities alongside her role as a senior lecturer at the Tavistock. Kay is interested in the application of psychoanalytic ideas to EP practice, as well as the experiences of gender diverse young people in secondary education.  

Qualifications

• Doctorate in Child, Community and Educational Psychology – Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust / University of Essex (in progress)
• MSc in Educational Psychology – Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust / University of Essex
• BA (Hons) in Psychology and English – University of Liverpool

Memberships of professional bodies

• Registered Practitioner Psychologist with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC)

Teaching roles

Kay is the module lead for Psychological Frameworks in Years 1-3.  She also teaches on the research module in years 1 and 2.  

Research interests

• The school experiences of gender diverse young people, with a particular focus on adolescent young people’s peer relationships. 
• Children’s friendships / peer relationships and the link to mental health and wellbeing. 
• The application of psychoanalytic theoretical ideas to EP practice. 

Current research projects

Kay is currently completing her doctoral thesis exploring transgender young people’s peer relationships. 

Selected publications

Richards, K. (2021). Thinking matters. In C. Arnold, D. Bartle & X. Eloquin (Eds.), Learning from the unconscious: Psychoanalytic approaches in educational psychology (pp.145-160). Karnac Books.