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Director of Strategy and Admissions / Intellectual Disabilities Module Lead / Personal, Clinical and Research Tutor

“The person is not the problem, the problem is the problem.” — White (1988)

Dr Melanie Hodgkinson is a Chartered Clinical Psychologist and Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA), working full time on the Doctorate in Clinical Psychology programme. She qualified as a Clinical Psychologist in 2011 after training at the University of Hertfordshire, and has since developed extensive expertise in Systemic practice, completing additional postgraduate training at the Tavistock Centre.

Melanie has over 18 years of experience working with adults with intellectual disabilities and autism, across both the NHS and the third sector, alongside her academic role on the Doctorate in Clinical Psychology since 2014.

As Director of Strategy and Admissions, Melanie provides strategic leadership on programme development, selection processes, and widening access initiatives. She also serves as the Intellectual Disabilities Module Lead, Accessibility Lead, Personal and Clinical Tutor, and Research Supervisor.

Melanie’s research interests centre on qualitative methodologies and the value of lived experience within research. She is deeply committed to co-production, ensuring that the voices of those with lived experience are meaningfully represented throughout the research process. Her key areas of interest include autism, intellectual disabilities, suicide bereavement, and Doctorate in Clinical Psychology selection processes.

Nationally, Melanie is the Chair of the Admissions Subgroup for the British Psychological Society’s Group of Trainers in Clinical Psychology, where she leads national projects on DClinPsych recruitment and widening access, collaborating with multiple stakeholders across the UK.

She also serves on the BPS Faculty for People with Intellectual Disabilities, where she leads on education, training, and research initiatives aimed at strengthening the clinical psychology workforce’s knowledge, skills, and confidence in working with, for, and about people with intellectual disabilities. Through this work, Melanie promotes research that is inclusive, co-produced, and meaningfully informed by the voices and experiences of people with intellectual disabilities.