Get to Know Us
We wholeheartedly believe in the healing power of the parent-child relationship, and that parents always do the best they can for their children with the resources and skills available to them. Unfortunately, we find ourselves living in a society in which parents are blamed for their children’s struggles, in which emotional avoidance is accepted and – wait – even celebrated, and in which experts, services, organisations … regularly and routinely exclude the most important asset and support a child has – you, the parent or caregiver.
We became The Family Psychologists as we intuitively wanted to offer a different kind of support. When we were introduced to an effective and evidence-based psychological model that fully met our deepest values, we set out to spread the word and work differently. We place the caregiver at the centre of everything we do, and believe that you have the internal wisdom and love to help your child, regardless of their age or difficulty. You may just need some help to reconnect with your parental self-confidence and learn new skills – we can help with just that.​
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Dr Nici Gideon
BSc Hons, D Clin Psych
My clinical psychology training and 15 years of experience has provided me with knowledge and skills to support people across a vast spectrum of difficulty at any age. During this time, I have gained extensive expertise in supporting people and their families affected by eating disorders. I have experience of delivering individual evidence-based approaches for the treatment of eating disorders, such as CBT-E (Cognitive Behaviour Therapy-Enhanced), CBT-T (a 10-session model of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy for eating disorders), MANTRA (an integrative and specialist therapy for adults suffering from Anorexia Nervosa) and CBT-AR (Cognitive Behaviour Therapy for Avoidant and Restrictive Food Intake Disorder), as well as interventions that serve and include the family system, such as FBT-AN/BN (Family-based Treatment for Anorexia Nervosa/Bulimia Nervosa) and EFFT (Emotion-Focused Family Therapy).
Dr Victoria Wallis
BSc Hons, D Clin Psych
My 15 years of experience has been within specialist NHS, Paediatric, and Social Care Family Services. I have worked with families with a spectrum of traumatic life experiences and mental health difficulties. This work has often been very complex in nature and within complex systems. In my leadership roles, I have provided extensive consultation and training to mental health and non-mental health professionals. I predominantly work using more systemic models, for example Emotion Focused Family Therapy (EFFT), Multi-Systemic Therapy (MST), and Adaptive Mentalisation Based Integrative Treatment (AMBIT). However, I also incorporate tools and techniques from Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) and Compassion focused approaches (CFT). I am also a trainer in Storm Self Harm and Suicide Prevention Training. My strength is in leaving people feeling heard, making sense of complex situations, and targeted emotional support.
Our Approach
As trained and experienced Clinical Psychologists we draw on multiple models and therapeutic approaches. However, our professional and personal values are most closely aligned to Emotion-Focused Family Therapy (EFFT), which serves as the foundation of our support. EFFT has been developed by our Canadian colleagues Adele Lafrance and Joanne Dolhanty. Please see Adele’s website for more information on EFFT https://mentalhealthfoundations.ca/home
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We have found that many children struggle to respond to traditional behavioural parenting approaches. These approaches assume that children choose to act in certain ways, and neglect to acknowledge neurobiological factors that may have contributed to a child’s behaviour. We have also seen many parents being unable to apply newly learnt skills as feelings of helplessness, self-blame and low confidence in their parenting abilities can get in the way. EFFT provides us with a model to reduce caregiver self-blame and fear whilst increasing confidence in supporting their loved one through difficulties. It further offers caregivers specific skills training to become their loved one’s emotion coach to help overcome unhelpful behaviours and replace them with positive ones. What we really value about this model, is that EFFT can complement the skills caregivers are already using, and can be embedded alongside any therapeutic modality that a loved one is already engaged with.
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On a personal level, we have both hugely benefitted from our knowledge of EFFT when parenting our own children despite our extensive experience working clinically.
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Unlike many mainstream mental health services, we place parents and caregivers at the centre of our support. We will help you reconnect to your internal wisdom about your child and combine this with our knowledge of mental health difficulties, attachment theory, and neuroscience to help you get through difficult times or prepare you for them. You, the caregiver, will be the one that will bring about the change for your loved one, and we will help you along the way. Sounds daunting? Get in touch with us, we can help!
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Quality Assurance
We are both HCPC (Health and Care Professions Council) accredited practitioners and follow and abide clinical and professional guidelines as set out by the BPS (British Psychological Society). We participate in regular clinical supervision and continuing professional development practices to ensure the quality and standard of our clinical work. We both have extensive experience (over 15 years) of working and practicing in the NHS, including senior and leadership roles. We are trained and qualified EFFT workshop facilitators and accredited by the International Institute for Emotion Focused Family Therapy. We are proud to be one of few accredited practitioners in the UK (see https://efftinternational.org/workshop-facilitators).
Why choose to be supported by a Clinical Psychologist?
We are both qualified Clinical Psychologists and we have set our fees in line with professional recommendations to keep our rates as low as possible. Our professional background means that we have more extensive and varied training than other mental health professionals. Our training pathway required us to have a first three-year degree in Psychology recognised by the BPS. We also had to acquire substantial work and research experience to demonstrate our readiness for this career before being accepted onto a three-year Doctorate Programme. We have been trained in a variety of treatment approaches, therapeutic modalities, and settings across the lifespan. We believe that our training enables us to examine and evaluate the evidence base of current treatment approaches and help us draw on multiple perspectives and models if needed.