Dr Amy Stewart
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About me
Hello, I am Dr Amy Stewart, thank you for looking at my profile.
I am a Health Care Professions Council and British Psychological Society registered Clinical Psychologist working in both independent practice and for the NHS in Buckinghamshire. I qualified as a Clinical Psychologist in 2015, after completing a three-year Doctorate in Clinical Psychology at the University of East London and Camden and Islington NHS Trust. Before that, I worked as an Assistant Psychologist for three years at Guy’s and St Thomas’s NHS Trust.
Through my experiences, I have had lots of opportunities to work together psychologically with children, young people, and adults. I work individually and with couples, families, teams, and organisations. If you choose to work with me, then my hope is that you will find a space for us to work in partnership, focused on what is important to you and your psychological wellbeing. My clients tell me I am an approachable and friendly psychologist (and person), who can create a safe space to talk and think about things that can at times be hard to talk and think about. I aim to work in a way that positions you as the expert on your own life and me as a professional who brings with them a “psychological lens” of skills, ideas, and expertise that I have gained through clinical training, work experiences, and the evidence-based psychological theories and therapies that I am trained in.
I currently offer walk and talk and remote psychological assessment and ongoing therapy sessions to children, young people, and adults. I also offer Autism assessments for children and adults. Sometimes people will come on their own to therapy and sometimes they come with someone else who wants to work together with them. For children and young people, a parent or carer can be present if they and the young person agree this would be helpful but can otherwise join at the start and end when needed. I also work with families as whole, or with parents of children and young people who may be encountering some challenges, but it is not the right time for them to be attending therapy sessions.
Therapy sessions are generally 1 hour long (50 minutes of talking and 10 minutes post-session admin). I offer walk and talk sessions when appropriate in Loudwater, Buckinghamshire but also meet clients digitally or over the phone.
Training, qualifications & experience
When choosing someone to work with psychologically, it is so important to check that the professional you have identified is appropriately trained/qualified and registered with the relevant regulatory bodies. In the same way you wouldn’t see a dentist who wasn’t qualified to take your teeth out, it is important to check that anyone you meet with to talk about psychological wellbeing is appropriately trained to do so. A quick way of checking for yourself is to see if the professional is registered with the Health Care Professional Council (HCPC) and has undertaken appropriate training in the therapies they are offering. Below is a list of my relevant trainings, qualifications, and details of the regulatory bodies I am registered with.
Training & Qualifications
- Assessing ADHD in Children & Young People, Jo Steer, 2023
- GDPR Advanced Module for Private Practice, Become Psychology, 2022,
- ADOS Autism Disorder Observation Schedule Training, Pearson, 2021
- DNA-v: The Youth Model of Acceptance, Mindfulness, and Positive Psychology, Praxis, 2019
- Narrative Exposure Therapy, Oxford Health, 2019
- Supervisor Training, Salomons Centre for Applied Psychology, 2017, 2018
- ACT for Chronic Health Conditions, Contextual Consulting, 2016
- Family Partnership Model, South London and Maudsley, 2016
- Children and young persons IAPT Outcome Monitoring, CYP IAPT, 2016
- Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy Level 1, Adoption Plus, 2015
- Doctorate in Clinical Psychology, University of East London, 2015
- Good Clinical Practice Training, Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Trust,2014
- Healthy Eating and Lifestyle Programme- Solution-Focused and Narrative Therapy, Provider Training, University College London, 2012
- BSc Undergraduate Degree in Psychology, University of Surrey, 2009
Membership of Professional Bodies
- Member of the Health and Care Professionals Council ~ Practitioner Psychologist, Pin: PYL32222
- Member of the British Psychological Society
Experience
The psychological theories and therapies I am trained and experienced in include:
- Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), ACT for adolescents (DNA-V) and Mindfulness approaches
- Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)
- Attachment-based family therapies including Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy (DDP)
- Narrative Therapy and Systemic Approaches
- Narrative Exposure Therapy (NET)
- Solution Focused Therapy (SFT)
I tend to draw on a mix of these therapies in a way that is tailored to your needs and what brings you to appointments with me.
Some of the reasons my clients come to therapy (and which I am experienced in working with) include:
- Mental health and wellbeing difficulties such as depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress and obsessive compulsive disorder, as well as challenges with confidence and self-esteem.
- Adjustment to chronic health conditions (e.g. chronic pain, fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome) and neurological (e.g. epilepsy, dementia and migraine) and neurodevelopmental conditions (e.g. Autism Spectrum Conditions, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). I offer assessments for Autism for adults and children.
- Adjustment to relationship changes and life challenges, for example through bereavement, separation, fostering and adoption, exam and work stress. I have been approved to work with families by the Adoption Support Fund.
I also work regularly with educational establishments, including schools and Universities, offering liaison, consultation, supervision and training individually and in groups. I currently deliver teaching on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) to the University of Exeter at both their Exeter and Reading campuses and have previously offered this training to Salomons institute for Applied Psychology. I also have experience of offering mindfulness and wellbeing sessions to colleagues in various NHS Trusts.
Member organisations
Being registered/accredited with a professional body means an individual must have achieved a substantial level of training and experience approved by their member organisation.
The HCPC are an independent, UK-wide health regulator. They set standards of professional training, performance and conduct for 16 professions.
They keep a register of health professionals who meet their standards, and they take action if registered health professionals fall below those standards. They were created by a piece of legislation called the Health Professions Order 2001.
Registration means that a health professional meets national standards for their professional training, performance and conduct.
Areas of counselling I deal with
Therapies offered
Fees
£140.00 per session
Free initial telephone session
Health Insurance/EAP
Additional information
As a clinical psychologist, I have undertaken extensive training to doctoral level, over a number of years in order to allow me to work flexibly with you, drawing on a wide range of therapies and theories and with a wide range of psychological needs. My fees are set to reflect this level or training and expertise, while taking into account the “going rate” in the local area. As a paid for service, I do ensure that if there is a free NHS or voluntary sector organisation available that could offer you what you are looking for, that I will signpost you to them before offering to work with you privately myself. Additionally, if I feel another professional, charging less, could work with you on what is important to you just as well as I could, then I will signpost you to them.
My current hourly rate is £140. I can offer a 10% discount for block bookings of 6 sessions, paid for in advance, if following an assessment, we agree that this many sessions are needed. I ask that appointment fees are paid 48 hours in advance of sessions to secure the appointment.
There is no “set number of sessions” that I typically offer when working with an individual. Some people I work with may only come once, for assessment and others may come for a lot longer depending on the things they have identified as important to them to work on and the psychological approaches our sessions are informed by. Some therapies, such as CBT, will have National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE) guidelines that recommend a certain number of sessions, whilst other therapies do not. Following an assessment session, we can agree on what might be useful to you in your specific circumstances.
When I work
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I mainly work online, but offer a limited number of "walk and talk" appointments to individuals where this feels an appropriate forum to meet.
Further information
Getting Started
If you would like to consider working with me further then please email me at dramystewart@gmail.com and we can arrange a free initial 15 minute conversation.
Who do I share information with, what do I share and why?
Most clinical psychologists will start their first appointment with you by letting you know about confidentiality. Confidentiality, in the work that I do, means that what we speak about remains private and between us, with just a few caveats.
The main caveat to this is if I was worried about your safety, or someone else’s. In this case, I may need to share information with third parties in order to keep you or someone else safe. Under these circumstances, I will only ever share what I absolutely have to and no more and where possible I will always speak with you about this first and talk through what I have to share.
Secondly; I will let your GP know that we have commenced sessions together. I do not need to give them great detail about what we are working on together unless you and I agree this would be helpful. I let your GP know that we are working together to ensure that I have a professional point of contact should I need to use it to keep you or someone else safe. It can also be very useful if signposting you to other services (especially NHS ones which may require a GP referral) if your GP has some information available to them to support them and myself with this process. For these reasons, I will ask that you are registered With a GP before I am able to offer you any appointments.
Thirdly, I may speak about themes from our work together in my own clinical supervision. This is my own professional learning space which allows me to reflect on the psychological work I am offering. In this setting, I would not share any personal details, but only the required information to orient my supervisor to the case so we can think together about my work and to ensure I am offering the best standard of care to you possible.
I will discuss each of these areas during our first appointment and will also give you some written information on the above to read through and sign if you are happy to proceed.
