I am a compassionate Clinical Psychologist committed to serving clients by listening to concerns and guiding them in approaching behavioural and emotional problems. I have significant experience working with adolescents and extensive knowledge of psychological models ranging from psychodynamic to cognitive behavioural. I currently work within a Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) where I have developed a specialist interest in obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and anxiety-based presentations.
Whilst I work with all clinical presentations, OCD is my speciality. I am the author of two books on the subject, Intrusive Thoughts and Compulsions in Adolescent OCD: A Psychoanalytic Framework for Treatment and the forthcoming When Your Teenager’s Mind Gets Loud: Understanding Intrusive Thoughts and OCD in Adolescents, and How You Can Help (both Routledge). For OCD referrals, I can provide a more comprehensive clinical letter drawing on this specialist expertise; this is offered at a different fee.
I would encourage adolescents and their families to read this personal letter. Although fictional, I hope it offers something meaningful and powerful to young people experiencing intrusive thoughts:
https://www.bps.org.uk/psychologist/what-if-thought-means-im-bad
I am practiced in interviewing individuals to identify psychological needs and providing accurate clinical formulation. I am well-versed in various psychological techniques, including cognitive behavioural skills and emotion-focused therapies. When I deliver psychological interventions, I use the best evidence base practice as a guiding principle but I also place great emphasis on adopting an individualistic and holistic approach tailored to the psychological development of all my clients. Whilst there are many psychological approaches and techniques that I can work in, I strongly believe that the therapeutic relationship is the vehicle of change. Consequently, I do my best to cultivate a safe and containing therapeutic space where I am continuously and actively monitoring the therapeutic relationship.
Whilst the majority of my work tends to be with adolescents from 13-18 years, I can work with latency age children who present with obsessive compulsive symptoms.
In the first instance of seeing me I offer extended assessment sessions (2-4 sessions which are 50 minutes in duration). These sessions are an opportunity for me to know the parents / primary carers and meet the young person individually who is seeking psychological support. After this assessment session has been completed, I provide a brief assessment report which is sent to the client highlighting what I feel the problem is along with a clinical formulation (i.e. how and why has this distress occurred and what keeps the distress going) and a prospective treatment plan. There is no obligation to complete the treatment with me, conversely, families are welcomed to find someone else to carry out the recommended work. In some instances, an assessment report is sometimes enough for families to understand their difficulties without requiring further intervention. However, I am more than happy to carry out both long and short-term psychological work based on my clinical formulation.
