Making a
difference

Rising to the challenge

It’s a tough role with a much misunderstood client group. Kanish, who’s still in the early stages of her career, is relishing the challenges it presents. “The most rewarding part for me is giving people the opportunity to talk,” she explains. 

As Interventions Facilitator, Kanish works with offenders to help them develop skills that will enable them to live fulfilled lives when they leave prison and reduce their risk of re-offending.

Transferable skills

After her first degree in Psychology, Kanish studied a Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) at Derby. “This was after I’d had my first child and I wanted to gain good transferable skills and qualifications. Teaching has been a passion of mine since I was young, so this felt like the obvious choice.”

After completing her PGCE, Kanish had her second child. Not one to shy away from a challenge, she embarked on her MSc Forensic Psychology when her son was one month old. “Again I wanted to use my time wisely and study something that I’ve always enjoyed,” she says.

Career guidance

Her main career aspiration had always been to be a forensic psychologist. Although clear on her ultimate goal, she was grateful for her lecturers’ advice: “They offered me lots of guidance as they’d been in similar roles themselves,” she explains. “The teaching team have fantastic networks, which gave us insight into various careers from guest speakers, and generally brought the teaching to life.”

The course enabled her to explore the world of forensic psychology in great depth: “We covered topics such as victimology, which enabled us to explore effects of crimes on victims, a useful approach in my current role. And we also looked at the practical aspects of forensic psychology in case formulation.”

Future plans

Her role at Whatton pulls together skills that she gained on both her postgraduate courses, as she facilitates offender behaviour programmes. She’s still undergoing training but has already started to consider her next steps: “I would like to gain more experience working with this client group at Whatton and progress to a trainee forensic psychologist role. The MSc is a requirement for this so I wouldn’t have been able to consider this without the masters, but Derby brought me so much more – I got the best of both worlds with the mix of academic and practical insight.”