About

This is what I look like. Photo by Esme Buxton.

I am a consultant clinical psychologist, researcher and author. I love to share psychology ideas. 

I have worked in a mixture of NHS, third sector and freelance roles since I qualified as a clinical psychologist in 2008. I currently hold a clinical academic fellowship at the University of Bath, funded by the National Institute of Health Research. Together with the help of people with lived experience of working on or being cared for on mental health wards, I’m making an intervention to help reduce compassion fatigue in staff who work on mental health wards for teenagers. Our hope is that this will be good for staff and also improve the compassionate care on those wards. I’ve written three books on psychology and I love to share psychology ideas through writing, audio and other media.

I can offer:

  • Training for healthcare staff

  • Freelance writing

  • Media interviews

  • Public speaking

  • Free resources - see my resources page, blog and sign up for my newsletter

A few facts

  • I trained as a clinical psychologist in London and lived there for 13 years

  • I live in Bristol now and my research is based at Bath University

  • I love learning, I’m studying for a PhD at the moment

  • I’ve published three psychology books, two for adults and one for children

  • I care about young people getting good quality mental health care

  • I care about healthcare staff being looked after so they can provide good quality care themselves

A bit more detail…

I qualified as a clinical psychologist from UCL in London in 2008. Since then I worked in the NHS for 13 years, mostly in adolescent inpatient settings. I then spent five years working for Action for Children (an adoption and fostering agency) and as Senior Clinical Advisor for the British Association of Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies, where I produced the podcast Let’s Talk About CBT. I’m now a clinical academic fellow at Bath University and as part of this I have half a day a week working with teenagers through Oxford Health NHS Trust. I also sometimes work with healthcare organisations to help their staff feel better-supported in their roles, in order to provide best possible care.

In my clinical work I have mostly specialised in working with children, young people and their families, although I have also worked with young adults, in particular university students, and also with healthcare professionals experiencing work-related stress and burnout. I use talking therapies to try to help with dilemmas that people may be struggling with. I believe in using evidence-base and offering choice to work out together what the best approach is for any individual.  I mostly use cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) which is a family of talking therapies based on the idea that thoughts, feelings, behaviours and how our bodies feel are all interlinked. CBT suggests that by changing one of these things we can change the others. I also sometimes draw on other types of therapy including narrative therapy, mindfulness-based therapies and dyadic developmental psychotherapy. You can see my qualifications below.

I have lectured for several universities, including the Anna Freud Centre, The Tavistock, UCL, IOPPN and Royal Holloway, on different aspects of child development and clinical work with children and young people, on compassion fatigue in the helping professions, and on science communication.

I have a longstanding interest in science communication and love to share psychology ideas. I have written for a range of publications including The Guardian, Prospect, Mosaic and Science magazine. I have written a book for adults called Blueprint: How Our Childhood Makes Us Who We Are and a children’s book on mental health called What is Mental Health? I produce and present a podcast called Lets Talk About CBT.

Qualifications

  • BA (Hons) in Psychology, Philosophy & Physiology from University of Oxford

  • MSc in Neuroscience from Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience

  • MSc in Organisational Psychology from Birkbeck College London

  • Doctorate in Clinical Psychology from University College London

  • Accredited Cognitive Behavioural Therapy Practitioner, Trainer and Supervisor with British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies

  • Chartered Psychologist with British Psychological Society

  • Health & Care Professions Council registered

  • Institute of Narrative Therapy (levels 1 & 2)

  • Dyadic developmental psychotherapy (levels 1 & 2)

  • .b Mindfulness in Schools training

  • Further specific training in a range of areas including expert witness work, mentalisation based therapy, compassion focussed therapy, acceptance and commitment therapy, supervision and training.

  • I regularly keep up to date with professional development through memberships with the Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health, the British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies, and other training opportunities.

Contact Me

If you would like to know more, please click on the links above to explore, and feel free to get in touch through the contact form below for queries relating to clinical sessions, training or media. For book related queries my agent is Kate Barker  

If you want to find me on twitter I am @lucy_maddox and on instagram I am @drlucymaddox.