Dr Vanessa Griffin completed her bachelors in Psychology at the University of Sussex and her Doctorate in clinical psychology at the University of Essex, an integrative training including psychodynamic teaching delivered at the Tavistock Clinic. Dr Griffin has multiple years experience working with parents, children and families in child and adolescent mental health services in the NHS as well as with adults in private practice.
She integrates Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Compassion Focused Therapy, and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, depending on the needs of clients, and draws on systemic and narrative approaches. Dr Griffin is an accredited Video Interaction Guidance practitioner (helpful for improving child- parent/carer relationships) and is trained in Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) for trauma.
She has experience working with a range of child and adolescent mental health and behavioural problems including depression, anxiety, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), emotion regulation and family relationship issues. Dr Griffin has expertise in adapting therapy according to neurodiversity and can offer Autism assessment using the ADOS and cognitive assessments. She is interested in attuning to children and families’ unique shared and individual strengths and resources to enable them to move through challenges and flourish.
Dr Griffin has experience of teaching and supervision of clinical psychology doctoral research in the area of socio-economic inequality and its impact on mental health and has published in this area.