Jennifer Jordan

Jenny convenes a post graduate paper on the treatment of addiction and co-existing disorders and is involved in clinical research. She also works as a Clinical Psychologist in the publicly-funded Canterbury Alcohol and Drug Service.

She has been a therapist/investigator on a number of comparative psychotherapy trials for mental health disorders, including therapies such as cognitive behaviour therapy, schema therapy, and metacognitive therapy . She is a co-investigator and therapist in a series of current studies led by Professor Richard Porter and Dr Katie Douglas trialling adjunctive cognitive remediation with interpersonal social rhythms or behavioural activation respectively, targeting cognitive dysfunction in depression.

In utilising group behavioural activation with those with severe substance use (including those receiving opioid substitution treatment), Jenny has observed all too prevalent cognitive dysfunction perpetuating ongoing complex psychosocial difficulties in this population. Jenny is exploring integrating contemporary developments with potential to improve outcomes for this group.

Current positions (2022)

Jenny currently works half time for the district health board in clinical, and in clinical research roles and is also an Associate Professor, working half time in research and academic roles at the University of Otago, Christchurch, New Zealand.

Since qualifying as a clinical psychologist in 1990, she has worked across a range of primarily adult mental health services: from inpatient and outpatient mental health services and the psychiatric emergency service, to speciality services including eating disorders, psychiatric consult-liaison, anxiety disorders, a specialist team treating earthquake-related trauma, and addiction services. Prior to that she worked for seven years in the intellectual disability service.