Bryony Moore 1957-2023

It was with great sadness and a great deal of shock to learn of the sudden and untimely death of clinical psychologist, Bryony Moore.

Bryony's career started her training as a social worker before deciding to switch to psychology.  She worked as an assistant psychologist at Lea Hall Hospital in Bromsgrove before obtaining a place on the clinical psychology masters course at the Liverpool university in 1981. After graduating, she worked in Adult Mental Health in Warwickshire before moving to work in a forensic setting at Reaside Clinic in Birmingham. She quickly established herself as an authoritative and well-respected psychologist and developed Reaside's reputation for training input on a variety of forensic issues. Alongside her work as a team psychologist, she set up a number of training courses for non-psychologists in forensic settings and published a book on risk assessment; Risk Assessment: A Practitioner's Guide To Predicting Harmful Behaviour. For several years, Bryony played a key role in Reaside's contribution to clinical psychology training in Birmingham, teaching risk assessment and supervising final year trainees who were on specialist forensic placements. As a supervisor, she was rigorous, wise and witty as well as generous with her time. She was regarded by colleagues as 'a big personality, great fun to be around, unconventional yet brilliant'.

Sadly, she developed chronic fatigue syndrome, which cut short her career and she was unable to continue working. As her health improved, she became involved in fostering and was planning to develop courses for foster parents.

She was regarded by colleagues as 'a big personality, great fun to be around, unconventional yet brilliant'.

Aside from her work Bryony was a keen gardener and a talented photographer. Regularly winning prizes for her flowers, photographs and produce at her local agricultural show. She was also artistic and creative. She will be remembered as a very strong and unique personality with a wicked sense of humour. One of her favourite poems was Jenny Joseph's When I am old I shall wear purple, about a woman contemplating defying conventions when she reaches old age. Sadly, Bryony did not live to experience old age but she did defy conventions and the world was a richer place as a result.