23. Marc Kozlowski: What’s it like to be a forensic psychologist?.
What does working as a forensic psychologist look like? Should I train as a clinical psychologist or a forensic psychologist? Am I too old to train as an applied psychologist? These are some of dilemmas facing todays guest Marc originally thought of becoming a clinical psychologist before taking a twenty year break as a software developer. When he returned to psychology he took a different path. Marc has been a practitioner forensic psychologist since 2003, becoming chartered with the British Psychological Society in 2006. He was Head of Psychology at four UK prisons, two in England and two in Scotland. In addition to conducting and reporting on risk assessments on serious offenders, Marc was involved in the delivery and management of accredited offending behaviour interventions that addressed intimate partner violence, general violence, sexual offending, substance-related offending, and anger-related violence. One aspect of his role that Marc particularly valued, was supervising Forensic Psychologists in Training as they worked towards chartership. He is delighted to be able to continue this nurturing and guidance role in his work with the students at Edinburgh Napier University. Marc’s specialisms within forensic psychology are personality disordered offenders, intimate partner violence, hostage negotiation, and trauma-informed working. Since joining Edinburgh Napier University, Marc has led on the development of a new Applied Forensic Psychology Master’s programme, which was accredited by the BPS in March 2021. Marc has designed the programme to enable students to develop some of the skills and insights that they will need in the workplace, so that they become immediately helpful to employers once they have graduated. Marc continues, in a private capacity, to conduct risk assessments for both criminal justice and family courts. In this way his skills and experience remain current, something that he hopes will benefit the generation of psychology students currently studying at Edinburgh Napier University.