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Posted on 12 Jan 2015

Dr Sarah Fairbank, Clinical Psychologist in Adult Mental Health Services at Nottinghamshire Healthcare, has been presented with an award from the British Psychological Society. Sarah received the Practitioner Award from the Psychology of Sexualities Section for her ongoing and innovative developments in the field.

The Psychology of Sexualities Section of the British Psychological Society aims to provide a forum for those involved in research, teaching and applied work relevant to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender issues.The Section is strongly committed to developing non-heterosexist and gender-inclusive forms of research, theory and clinical practice in British psychology.

Sarah's initiatives and achievements are based around the notion of mental health service users being able to express their sexualities in safe and supported ways.

Sarah established a Sexuality, Relationships and Intimacy Forum in 2007 in response to conversations with staff working with clients who display inappropriate sexual behaviour. This forum aimed to help staff address this topic and discuss how to support their clients to express their sexualities in positive ways, while encouraging and helping them to find positive and meaningful relationships. A number of initiatives have been developed as a result of the forum, including anti-stigma campaigns, service user discussion groups, sexuality relationships and mental health conferences and sexual health surveys.

Sarah said: “I am really thrilled to receive this award and I want to thank all of the members of the Sexuality, Relationships and Intimacy Forum for their continued support and encouragement.”