Dr. Aysha Begum, Clinical Psychologist & Systemic (Family/Couples) Practitioner

Hello my name is Aysha and welcome to my page.

My Approach
I am often described as open, warm and authentic. My primary concern is always your safety. I work in a collaborative way to build a trusting relationship whereby we can explore the difficulties together. I have a very non-judgmental and compassionate approach.

My Background
I have 18 years of experience working in mental health. I initially started my career as a Psychiatric Epidemiologist whereby I worked extensively in ageing mental health and neurodegeneration and have presented at national and international conferences and have published extensively in peer reviewed journals. I am an honorary research fellow at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience (IoPPN). I currently work entirely as a clinician/therapist in the NHS and in private practice.

Clinical Psychology
Clinical psychologists are particularly trained to provide evidence-based treatments and are trained to understand the scientific literature/research which demonstrate treatment effectiveness and efficacy. They have particular expertise in mental illness and can skillfully navigate statutory mental health services.

I am a Highly Specialist Clinical Psychologist registered with the Health & Care Professions Council (HCPC), in a NHS Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS). I also hold chartered registration and I'm an associate fellow of the British Psychological Society (BPS).

I work across the age span i.e. from childhood to older age, and with all types of emotional and psychological difficulties. I use a range of psychological therapies including Cognitive and Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Mindfulness-based CBT, Trauma-focused CBT, Narrative Exposure Therapy (NET), Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT) and Dialectic Behavioural Therapy (DBT). In my NHS role I co-facilitate the parent DBT group pathway and I am the clinical lead for the CFT pathway.

Systemic (Family/Couples) Practice
I am also a Systemic (Family/Couples) Practitioner accredited by the Association of Family Therapy (AFT). I provide specialist skills in working with children, adolescents, individuals, couples, families and organisations using attachment and systemic theories, this means I focus on relationships.

I use a range of systemic approaches including Narrative Therapy, Attachment Narrative Therapy, Brief Solution Focused Therapy, Strategic/Structural Family approaches, as well as Communication Models to support clients who are struggling with their relationships.

Systemic comes from the word system; this includes couples, families, organisations such as schools or the work place, as well as and the wider socio-political system. Systemic practitioners are trained to understand psychological and emotional distress by exploring relationships and communication. This means that they do not locate problems in the individual, but rather within the relationships and the system as a whole. They make hypotheses about the ways in which people communicate and interact with each other and how this may cause and maintain relational difficulties, leading to feeling stuck and emotionally distressed. These hypotheses are then explored together collaboratively.

Many couples and families (with or without children) come to systemic (family/couples) therapy because they may experience intimacy issues, sexual difficulties, infidelity, infertility, divorce, parenting struggles, mental illness within the family, addictive behaviours, behavioural and emotional difficulties with children, family illness and/or bereavement and many other external realities such as financial worries, school-based worries, employment issues and discrimination.

Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy: Attachment and Trauma
I am also a psychoanalytic psychotherapist (pre-reg), this means I am trained to focus on your early life experiences/childhood and how this shapes and impacts your current relationships and day to day life. As such; in addition to my existing experience in clinical psychology approaches to attachment and trauma, I also have 4 years of post-doctoral psychoanalytic training in attachment, loss/grief, identity, sexual/complex trauma and relational and personality difficulties. I am particularly influenced by contemporary object relations and the science of trauma when working psychoanalytically.

Child and Adolescent Mental Health
I have specifically worked with children, adolescents, neuro-developmental/learning difficulties and couples/families struggling with parenting and/or child mental health difficulties.

Alongside my private work I am employed as a senior clinician in CAMHS where I routinely practice systemically and have extensive experience providing professional consultations to schools, allied health professionals, and other third sector agencies/charities, as well as clinical supervision and expert neuropsychological assessments and reports.

Supervison and Consultation
I also provide clinical supervision and professional consultation.

I provide short-term goal focussed therapy as well as more analytical long-term open ended therapy.

Private Practice
Alongside my NHS work, I run a private practice called Blackheath Therapy. I see private clients from my home in Blackheath.

Please visit www.blackheaththerapy.co.uk for more information.