Dr Valerie Sheehan
Dr Sheehan is both a Director and Senior Child Protection consultant at Forensic Solutions.
Dr Sheehan has worked for many years both with adults who have a sexual interest in children and with children who display problematic sexual behaviour. She is trained in the delivery of AIM2, MEGA and the Good Lives Model for intervention and planning with young people. She is co-developer of the New Ways Assessment and Intervention Programmes for children and young people displaying problematic sexualised behaviour and a Clinical Director of Programme Delivery with Compass Children’s Homes and Specialist Foster Care provisions.
Dr Sheehan has also worked extensively with the wives/partners of those who have sexually abused children or who have been suspected of doing so. This work involves undertaking assessments of their ability to protect their children for civil court proceedings as well as educative and intervention work to help them attain and develop skills to enhance child protection.
From 2006 to 2011 Dr Sheehan worked at the UK’s Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre where, as part of the behaviour analysis unit, she trained a wide range of multi agency professionals and provided consultancy in respect of those who engage in problematic sexual behaviour towards children. Prior to this she was a Senior Therapist for the Lucy Faithfull Foundation, based at the UK’s only specialist residential sex offender assessment and treatment programme. Valerie began her career as a therapist in the Cork Rape Crisis Centre, Ireland, where she worked for six years.
Dr Sheehan holds a Professional Doctorate from the Department of Criminology at the London Metropolitan University on the subject of individuals who produce indecent images of children. She also holds a Masters in Education, a Bachelor of Arts Degree and a Higher Diploma in Education. She has a Post-Graduate Diploma in Counselling for Sexual Abuse, a Post-Graduate Diploma in Integrative Psychotherapy and has completed specialist training in Cognitive Behavioural assessment and treatment techniques for sex offenders.