Non-Executive Director
Kamel Chahal is a Chartered Clinical Psychologist working full time for the South London and Maudsley NHS (SLaM) foundation trust. She completed her clinical psychology training at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience (IoPPN) in 1996 since which she has been working in community based mental health services with adults experiencing severe mental illness.  For the past 12 years she has specialised in providing cognitive behavioural therapy for psychosis (CBTp). During her career always been deeply passionate about meeting the needs for Black and ethnically diverse communities and understanding the impacts of racism on psychological health. She has been the Chair of the ‘Race’ and Culture faculty within the Division of Clinical Psychology (DCP) in the British Psychological Society (BPS), chaired the Clinical Psychology Black and Asian Network (CPBAN), presented at conferences including Delivering Race Equality (DRE), written ‘Working with Cultural Diversity’ for the textbook ‘What is Clinical Psychology’, taught at a variety of universities including the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience (IoPPN), University of East Anglia (UEA) and Goldsmiths on the impact of ‘race’ and culture and been involved in widening the access to clinical psychology training courses.

She says:

‘Bird College recognises that although racism remains a difficult and highly emotive topic for us all in the UK, the international Black Lives Matter movement has created a pivotal and reflective opportunity for White and BAME communities to engage in developing a far richer and more meaningful dialogue and deconstruct racism in all its covert as well as overt guises. As a member of Bird College’s Board I hope to facilitate and drive our objective of ensuring true equity through critical analysis of our practices and change at all levels of the organisational structure and teaching as required, within a systematic way so Bird College truly develops the fullest potential of all its students by engaging with the richness of their diverse identities.’