Dr Joanna Griffin

School of Social Policy and Society
Research Fellow

Contact details

Email: j.k.e.griffin@bham.ac.uk

Address: Intellectual Disabilities Research Institute (IDRIS)
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Dr Joanna Griffin is a Counselling Psychologist and Research Fellow at the University of Birmingham. Jo is also a family carer.

Qualifications

Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society

Doctorate in Psychotherapy for thesis entitled ‘You have to re-orientate to this new terrain’: Emotional wellbeing in parents of children with a learning disability and/or developmental disability.’ Metanoia Institute, 2021

MA and Post-MA Diploma in Counselling Psychology, Regent’s University

BSc in Psychology, Open University

BA in English and Philosophy, Reading University

Biography

After completing a Psychology BSc, Dr Joanna Griffin undertook training to become a Chartered Counselling Psychology. Jo has 25 years’ experience of working as a Counselling psychologist in the NHS and several charities.

Following the birth of her son she set up the website www.affinityhub.uk to signpost to emotional support for parents of disabled children and sends out quarterly newsletters on Parent Carer Wellbeing. Sign up for the newsletter is via the website.

More recently Jo completed a Doctorate in Psychotherapy at Metanoia Institute and her thesis was entitled: ‘You have to re-orientate to this new terrain’: Emotional wellbeing in parents of children with a learning disability and/or developmental disability.’

Following her doctorate Jo worked in the Centre for Research in Intellectual and Development Disabilities (formerly CEDAR) at the University of Warwick. Projects included the development, with family carers, of a support programme for parents of a child with a learning or developmental disability called Positive Family Connections. A further project developed guidance and a toolkit on undertaking co-production work in research with family carers.

Jo joined the University of Birmingham in 2025 and is currently helping to establish a family carer co-production group and network within IDRIS as well as working on other projects within the Institute. Jo also runs a small psychology private practice mainly providing supervision to other psychologists, counsellors and psychotherapists.

In 2025 Jo was awarded the Carer and Service User Involvement Prize from the Division of Counselling Psychology at the British Psychological Society.

Research

Emotional wellbeing in family carers

Co-production in research with family carers of people with learning disabilities.

Publications

Recent publications

Article

Sutherland, D, Griffin, J, Austin, D, Bjornstad, G, Bradshaw, J, Charles, M, Cooper, V, Divers, J, Evans-Jones, K, Foxwell, S, Gore, N, Minhas, S, Penfold, I, Singh, G & Hastings, R 2025, 'Developing guidance on co-producing research with family carers of people with learning disabilities', Tizard Learning Disability Review. https://doi.org/10.1108/TLDR-12-2024-0040

Sutherland, DL, Taylor, EL, Gray, KM, Hastings, RP, Allard, A, Carr, J, Griffin, J, McMeekin, N, Randell, E, Russell, D, Willoughby-Richards, B, Wolstencroft, J & Thompson, PA 2025, 'Estimating a minimum clinically important difference for the Developmental Behaviour Checklist: parent report', Frontiers in Psychiatry, vol. 16, 1612911. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1612911

Sutherland, D, Flynn, S, Griffin, J & Hastings, RP 2025, 'Programme Recipient and Facilitator Experiences of Positive Family Connections for Families of Children With Intellectual Disabilities and/or Who Are Autistic', Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities, vol. 38, no. 1, e70003. https://doi.org/10.1111/jar.70003

Griffin, J 2025, ''They Got It': How professionals can support the emotional wellbeing of parents of a child with a learning disability, or who are autistic', European Journal for Qualitative Research in Psychotherapy, vol. 15, pp. 110-125. https://doi.org/10.24377/EJQRP.article3185

Sutherland, D, Griffin, J, Flynn, S, Thompson, PA & Hastings, RP 2024, 'Positive family connections for families of children with a developmental disability: Cluster randomized controlled trial', Journal of Family Psychology, vol. 38, no. 4, pp. 559-570. https://doi.org/10.1037/fam0001211

Griffin, J & Gore, N 2023, '‘Different things at different times’: Wellbeing strategies and processes identified by parents of children who have an intellectual disability or who are autistic, or both', Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities, vol. 36, no. 4, pp. 822-829. https://doi.org/10.1111/jar.13098

Griffin, J, Austin, D, Lynham, J, Hafidh, R, Boxill, N, Sutherland, D, Flynn, S & Hastings, RP 2023, 'Positive family connections: co-producing a virtual group programme for family carers of children with learning disabilities or who are autistic', Tizard Learning Disability Review, vol. 28, no. 3-4, pp. 61-70. https://doi.org/10.1108/TLDR-03-2023-0008

Review article

Apanasionok, MM, Paris, A, Griffin, J, Hastings, RP, Finch, E, Austin, D & Flynn, S 2025, 'Digital Psychological Wellbeing Interventions for Family Carers of Children and Adults With Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities: A Systematic Review', Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities, vol. 38, no. 4, e70081. https://doi.org/10.1111/jar.70081

Sutherland, D, Flynn, S, Kurzeja, O, Griffin, J & Hastings, R 2023, 'Family-systems interventions for families of people with an intellectual disability or who are autistic: a systematic review', Journal of Intellectual Disability Research, vol. 67, no. 10, pp. 1003-1028. https://doi.org/10.1111/jir.13068

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