Dr. Kimberley McNeill

Dr Kimberley McNeill (BSc, MSc, CPsychol, PhD) is a Chartered Psychologist, and Registered Forensic Psychologist. She is registered with the Health Care and Professions Council and is a Chartered Member of the British Psychological Society, where she is a full member of the Division of Forensic Psychology. She is directly involved in the assessment and treatment of clients across the lifespan with a range forensic, cognitive, and mental health needs. She has worked across secure psychiatric services, the community, and residential settings.

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Dr. McNeill is trained to deliver Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) and Attachment Informed EMDR (ai- EMDR) therapy to adults and adolescents who present with trauma and other forms of distress. She is also trained in several other treatment modalities, including CBT, DBT, ACT, TF-CBT and ERT. She is also a trained Critical Incident and Hostage Negotiator.

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Dr. McNeill is trained in several risk and protective assessment tools (HCR-20 v3, SVR-20v2, J-SOAP II, SAVRY, SAPROF Adult and Youth) and treatment programmes including Life Minus Violence Enhanced (LMV-E) © (Ireland et al., 2009) and the Feeling Safe Programme © (Freeman et al., 2024). She is also trained in the administration and supervision of assessments of cognitive functioning, including the WAIS-V.

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Dr. McNeill's role also includes the provision of psychological input to residential settings. This involves work with individuals who present with a range of issues including anxiety, depression, trauma, aggression, self-harm, and substance misuse. She provides general consultation and facilitates reflective practice to a range of professionals working in forensic and psychiatric services. She also delivers training packages to professionals in the following areas: Trauma Informed Care; Recovery Based Practice; Trauma and Attachment; Managing Professional Boundaries, Managing Psychological Wellbeing, and Pro-Social Modelling.

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Dr. McNeill is research active, with interests in Critical Incidents (including hostage taking, barricade and protest), Trauma, Trauma-informed care, General Offending Behaviour, Hostage Negotiation, Young and Adult Offenders, Pro-Social Modelling, Aggression (including motivations and protective factors), Sleep and Aggression, Risk Assessment, Personality Disorder, Staff-Client Relationships, Forensic Culture & Impact of Environmental Factors. 

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In addition to her clinical work, Dr. McNeill also holds a position as a Lecturer on the MSc in Forensic Psychology at the University of Central Lancashire and she holds an honorary research contract with the Ashworth Research Centre (ARC), Mersey Care NHS Trust, High Secure Services. She is also involved in training delivery for The International Organisation of Forensic Practitioners (TIOFP) and also works in independent practice undertaking expert witness work for the criminal courts, family courts, and civil claims.

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Publications

 

Birch, P., McNeill, K., Levtova, Y., & Ireland, J. (2024). Policing hate crime: Exploring the issue with a cohort of sworn police officers. Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology, 40, 335–347. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11896-023-09641-y

 

Lewis, M., Ireland, J., Ireland, C., Derefaka, G., McNeill, K., & Birch, P. (2021). Psychopathic processing and personality assessment (PAPA): Exploring factor structure. Journal of Criminal Psychology, 11, 157–172. https://doi.org/10.1108/JCP-03-2021-0008

 

Nally, T., Ireland, J., McNeill, K., Birch, P., & Ireland, C. (2021). Access to non-violent pornography in a secure forensic hospital. The Journal of Forensic

Practice, 23(2), 175–186. https://doi.org/10.1108/jfp-03-2021-0012

 

Ireland, J. L., Mann, S., Lewis, M., Ozanne, R., McNeill, K., & Ireland, C. A. (2020). Psychopathy and trauma: Exploring a potential association. International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, 69, 101543. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijlp.2020.101543

 

Ireland, J. L., Sebalo, I., McNeill, K., Murphy, K., Brewer, G., Ireland, C. A., Chu, S., Lewis, M., Greenwood, L., & Nally, T. (2019). Impacting on factors promoting intra-group aggression in secure psychiatric settings. Heliyon, 5(3), e01400. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2019.e01400

 

McNeill, K., Ireland, C. A., Chu, S., & Ireland, J. L. (2018b, June). Staff perspectives of critical incidents: An exploration of perceived functions, protective mechanisms and environmental factors. Ashworth Research Centre, Secure Services: Innovative Research Programmes Conference.

 

McNeill, K., Ireland, C. A., Chu, S., & Ireland, J. L. (2018a, June). Perpetrator perspectives of critical incidents: An exploration of perceived antecedents, organism variables and motivations. Ashworth Research Centre, Secure Services: Innovative Research Programmes Conference.

 

Chu, S., McNeill, K., Wright, K. M., Hague, A., & Wilkins, T. (2015). The impact of a night confinement policy on patients in a high secure inpatient mental health service. Journal of Forensic Practice, 17(1), 21–30. https://doi.org/10.1108/JFP-11-2014-0045

 

Chu, S., McNeill, K., Ireland, J. L., & Qurashi, I. (2015). Facial emotion recognition and sleep in mentally disordered patients: A natural experiment in a high security hospital. Psychiatry Research, 230(2), 725–727. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2015.10.005