Dr Clare Brindley holds an MA (Hons) Psychology, an MSc in Forensic Psychology (with distinction) and a PhD in Psychiatry. She is a New Zealand–registered Clinical Psychologist and Neuropsychologist under the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003. She is a Member of the New Zealand Psychological Society (MNZPsS) and has been awarded Associate Fellow status (AFBPsS) by the British Psychological Society in recognition of her contribution to psychology.
Dr Brindley has more than twenty-five years of specialist forensic and clinical experience in the United Kingdom and Aotearoa New Zealand. Her practice has centred on serious violence, sexual offending, psychosis, major mood disorder and complex presentations where multiple mental health and neurodevelopmental conditions intersect with offending. She has worked in high secure hospitals, regional forensic mental health services, prisons, intellectual disability services and brain injury rehabilitation across both jurisdictions.
Her PhD in Psychiatry, awarded by the University of Nottingham, focused on improving violence and risk assessment within high secure forensic services, moving beyond simple predictions of “risk level” towards detailed formulation and prevention-focused management. All of her qualifications were completed alongside full-time work in applied forensic roles. She has also completed the Cardiff University Law School Bond Solon Expert Witness Certificate, providing formal training in court procedure, evidence, expert report writing and giving evidence under cross-examination.
In the United Kingdom, Dr Brindley developed an independent expert witness practice and progressed from lower court instructions to frequent High Court instructions in homicide and serious sexual violence. Her work included opinions on psychosis and major mental illness, personality disorder and psychopathy, risk of serious harm, treatment needs and suitability for various legal disposals.
After relocating to Aotearoa New Zealand she continued this work as Director of Forensic Psychology Ltd, providing medico-legal opinions in serious and complex criminal proceedings. Her New Zealand work has included Section 38 reports under the Criminal Procedure (Mentally Impaired Persons) Act 2003, both in relation to fitness to stand trial and in relation to mental state at the time of alleged offending where insanity or other mental impairment is at issue.
She has prepared Section 88 psychological reports under the Sentencing Act 2002 to assist with pre-sentence considerations, treatment and rehabilitation needs and dispositional options. She has completed assessments relevant to Extended Supervision Orders under the Parole Act 2002, including opinions on risk, treatment and monitoring needs for high-risk sexual and violent offenders, and has provided reports in matters involving preventive detention, parole and other high-risk release decisions, as well as applications under the Intellectual Disability (Compulsory Care and Rehabilitation) Act 2003 and the Criminal Records (Clean Slate) Act 2004.
Alongside clinical and medico-legal work, Dr Brindley has also undertaken senior academic roles. She has worked as a Senior Lecturer and subsequently Programme Director for postgraduate forensic psychology and mental health programmes at Manchester Metropolitan University and the University of Manchester, designing and leading Masters programmes, building multidisciplinary teaching teams and supervising numerous Masters and doctoral theses.
In Aotearoa New Zealand she has been a Clinical Lecturer in Psychological Medicine at the University of Otago and has contributed to education and supervision across psychiatry and psychology training, with teaching focused on psychology and law, risk assessment and formulation, clinical interviewing, diagnosis in forensic settings, psychotherapeutic approaches, personality disorder and major mental illness.
Neurodevelopmental and cognitive factors have been a consistent thread in her work. Early in her career she managed a large “hidden disabilities” project in partnership with the Dyslexia Institute and the University of York, assessing several hundred people across prisons in Yorkshire and Humberside. The study showed high rates of undetected dyslexia, ADHD and related learning and attention difficulties, and identified substantial literacy problems limiting education, work and life opportunities. This reinforced the importance of recognising neurodiversity and neuropsychological factors when understanding behaviour and has informed her later work with intellectual disability, ADHD, autism and acquired brain injury in forensic and correctional settings.
In Aotearoa New Zealand she has continued this focus through specialist roles, including formal designation as a Specialist Assessor under the Intellectual Disability (Compulsory Care and Rehabilitation) Act 2003, undertaking detailed assessments of intellectual disability and related conditions at the interface of disability, mental disorder and offending.
Dr Brindley has published in peer-reviewed forensic mental health journals and has presented applied research and clinical work at international conferences and professional meetings in the United Kingdom, Europe and North America on structured risk assessment and structured professional judgement approaches, institutional aggression and violence, psychopathy and personality disorder, intellectual disability and risk, and hidden disabilities and neurodevelopmental conditions in secure settings.
This combination of senior clinical practice, specialist neuropsychological and neurodevelopmental expertise, long-standing medico-legal experience and academic leadership places her within a small group of psychologists in Aotearoa New Zealand regularly instructed in the most serious and complex forensic matters.