Careers Breakfast: Dr Helen Bichard, Clinical Neuropsychologist

It was a pleasure to welcome Dr Helen Bichard to speak at this morning’s Careers Breakfast. 

Dr Bichard is a Clinical Neuropsychologist who specialises in stroke psychology, working primarily in North Wales. Following an interesting and varied career path, she retrained in Psychology after a successful 20-year career in Advertising.

Sharing a number of interesting case studies with students, Dr Bichard spoke about the range of people and conditions she works with, and the feeling of success when she has helped a patient with their recovery. 

She also shared her career highlights, which included holding a brain for the first time and the first time that she signed her name with “Dr”.

Dr Bichard is also very proud of the role she played in affecting a change in law to make non-fatal strangulation a specific criminal offence. It is as a result of her research into the devastating effects of strangulation on the brain that the government has changed the law, which will lead to much tougher sentencing. 

Our aspiring Psychologists were grateful for her practical, career-specific advice to gain volunteer experience, and all students benefitted from Dr Bichard’s excellent advice to pursue a career that fulfils them but, importantly, not to worry if they don’t know what that is yet! 

Head of Careers, Dr Hensman, thanked Dr Bichard for her time this morning. 

He said: “A Level Psychology is very popular choice at King’s Sixth Form and it has been incredibly valuable for our students to hear from Dr Bichard about her work, and about the path she took to become a Clinical Neuropsychologist.”