I am a highly specialist clinical psychologist whose main area of research and clinical special interest is in working with adults with intellectual or learning disabilities. Since qualifying as a clinical psychologist, I have worked with people with learning disabilities, and since 2011 I combined this with also working as a lecturer / senior lecturer (clinical tutor) at Royal Holloway's Doctorate in Clinical Psychology. 

Since 2022, I have been Clinical Director / Deputy Course Director for Royal Holloway's Doctorate in Clinical Psychology. 

I am also a Committee Member and Research Lead for the British Psychological Society's Division of Clinical Psychology Faculty for People with Intellectual Disabilities.

I am currently involved in conducting and supervising research projects, which are largely in the following inter-related areas, which are of particular interest:

1) People with Learning Disabilities who are Parents: With an increasing number of parents with known or suspected learning disabilities presenting to services, and with these parents facing multiple societal challenges to their efforts in parenting their children successfully, I have been involved in supporting and developing services to improve their joint-working to better support these parents and their families, conducted and supervised research projects investigating how parents with learning disabilities are supported, from the multiple perspectives of service-user, family/social support network and professional network, and also investigating the attitudes of people in the general population to the sexuality and parenting rights of people with learning disabilities.

Mind the Gap & Daughters of Fortune: Between 2016 - 2021, I was privileged to work with Mind the Gap inclusive theatre group, on their research into the experiences of parents with learning disabilities, which is also part of their creative outputs: http://pc.rhul.ac.uk/staff/K.Theodore/index.html

I took part in a podcast for Social Care Inform, together with parents from the Elfrida Society self-advocacy group for parents with learning disabilities and Nadine Tilbury from Bristol University's Norah Fry Unit for Disability Studies which you can find here: https://www.spreaker.com/user/communitycare/parents-with-learning-disabilities

2) Social Inclusion and Supporting Relationships in People with Learning Disabilities: This is a second and related area of interest. I have also supervised DClinPsy research investigating how young people with learning disabilities negotiate and understand the development of social relationships, sexuality and gender identity when moving into adulthood.  

“My world would be dark without them”: Evaluating The Ark Trust’s Social Activities for People with Learning Disabilities and Autism: As part of Royal Holloway’s Civic University funding, between 2023 - 2024, I worked with The Ark Trust, an award-winning charity based in Bracknell Forest in Berkshire, to evaluate a specific set of social activities provided by The Ark Trust which aim to increase social inclusion and reduce social isolation and loneliness for people with learning disabilities and/or autism. The project employed an inclusive research methodology, with involvement from Experts by Experience throughout the project, to develop a mixed methods approach using both accessible survey and qualitative interviews. As part of the project, two short films were produced to capture people’s experiences of the project and the Ark’s social activities: (1) What people think about the Ark social activities: https://youtu.be/qiUTJoXp2gs and (2) About the research project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQrYLpdBtvc. Full research report and Easy Read report also developed and available from Kate Theodore on request.

3) Provision of Mental Health Services for People with Learning Disabilites: I am also interested in research into other areas of learning disabilities clinical services development, including the development and delivering of Psychological Therapies services for people with learning disabilities, and the development and use of routine outcome measures (such as the 'Mini-MANS-LD') and client feedback measures in clinical services for people with learning disabilities.

I supervised DClinPsy research projects which has looked at adaptations to the GAD-7 and PHQ-9 measures of mood (used in NHS Talking Therapies / IAPT services) to investigate their accessibility for people with learning disabilities.

I have also been accredited with the Institute of Applied Behavioural Analysis, and have an interest in the delivery of positive behaviour support services for people with learning disabilities and autism who present with behaviours that challenge services. 

Other areas of interest:

I am actively involved in the Royal Holloway Clinical Psychology Service User and Carer Involvement Group, I work closely with local self-advocay and service user groups, and I am keen to ensure Expert by Experience involvement is a key priority in the research and teaching I conduct as well as supervising research into service user involvement in clinical services, such as research into service user involvement groups and accessing service user feedback in learning disability and dementia services.

I have experience in both qualitative and quantitative research, although have developed specific expertise in qualitative research methods. 

I have also been involved in research in early intervention for psychosis services in the past.