I am a Consultant Clinical Psychologist and HCPC registered Practitioner Psychologist working with children, young people and their families. I have over 20 years of experience working within the NHS and have spent the last 16 years working in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS). I am passionate about working with children and young people to understand and reduce the difficulties and distress they are experiencing and to bring about change at such a fundamental stage in their lives and development. I also strongly believe in the importance of young people being able to access evidence-based treatments that are known to be the most effective intervention for a particular difficulty.

My clinical practice is informed by Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, Dialectical Behaviour Therapy, Compassion Focused Therapy alongside psychotherapeutic and systemic approaches and attachment theory. I offer an initial assessment which will usually take place over 1-3 sessions and then create a therapeutic treatment plan which I discuss with the young person and their parent or carer. My aim is to create a shared understanding or formulation of the difficulties the young person is experiencing and agree an intervention plan together. Consent and confidentiality are essential so I will always discuss this with the young person and parent/carer. I will also outline the limits of confidentiality and how this is managed. I work with young people up to the age of 25 so parental involvement and communication would be informed by the age of the individual. I offer both short (6-12 sessions) and longer-term therapeutic interventions based on the clinical need and difficulty they are experiencing. Any therapeutic intervention that we agree together, would be reviewed on a regular basis to ensure it is feeling supportive and effective.

I also offer Clinical Supervision to Clinical Psychologists and Training and Consultation into schools and other agencies as required.

During my career I have worked with children and young people across many community settings including children in the care system and those being adopted, young people on the edge of the criminal justice system and for the last 12 years I have specialised in working with adolescents with a variety of mental health difficulties. I am currently a Consultant Clinical Psychologist and Clinical Lead for a Dialectical Behaviour Therapy team within an NHS CAMHS service in London.

I previously set up a small private practice in London for children and young people prior to relocating to the area. In private practice I work with young people experiencing a range of difficulties including low mood, anxiety, phobias, stress, self-esteem, emotion regulation difficulties, trauma, self-harm and family or peer related difficulties. My work with young people and young adults might also include wanting a safe space to process and make sense of difficult life experiences they have had.