Dr Debbie Sischy
Dr Debbie Sischy
Principal Clinical Psychologist specialising in working with children, teenagers and families.
Dr Debbie Sischy is one of our most senior Clinical Psychologists in the team. She has 20 years of experience working in different NHS child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS). She has lots of experience working with children, young people and families from a diverse range of backgrounds, presenting with a wide range of complex social, emotional and mental health difficulties. She has led entire teams in the NHS as a senior clinician and particularly specialises in complex mental health difficulties and neurodiversity (e.g. autism and ADHD).
With Harwood Child Psychology, Debbie supports families across both our therapy pathway and neurodevelopmental assessment pathway.
Debbie is warm and empathic, collaborative and creative in her approach and is very skilled at engaging and talking to children and young people, particularly those who might not easily trust professionals.
Debbie has extensive experience of working with children and young people presenting with a range of emotional, behavioural and mental health difficulties and learning needs. This includes working with children and young people presenting with depression, anxiety, social difficulties, OCD, bullying, emotional regulation difficulties and developmental trauma. Debbie also specialises in working with children and young people who have mental health difficulties and neuro-diversity including those who have ADHD and/or Autism and has a lot of experience in carrying out neurodevelopmental assessments.
In addition to working with individuals, Debbie has a wealth of experience in carrying out parent work, and has a strength and passion in offering therapy with families, where, for example, there are difficulties and complex dynamics including sibling rivalry, parental mental health, separation and divorce and bereavement.
Debbie really enjoys supervising and managing trainee psychologists in the NHS, and has a real strength in leadership, including being the lead psychologist in the neurodevelopmental team in Hammersmith and Fulham CAMHS for 15 years. Prior to this, Debbie worked in other CAMHS settings in London.
Debbie works closely with schools and other professional agencies involved with the child and young person, offering consultation, advice and guidance, to ensure there is always a joint up and collaborative approach to supporting the child and their family.
Debbie is passionate about involving children and young people in all aspects of their care and has led the service user involvement forum in CAMHS, embedding user participation and co-production into the service to improve families care, for which she was nominated for an award. Debbie always works collaboratively and regularly reviews her clients care and uses their feedback to adapt the treatment accordingly. She also feels strongly about building on the child and young person’s strengths, resources and resilience, in addition to working with their difficulties to ensure the best possible outcomes in therapy.
In addition to completing her doctorate in clinical psychology, she has additional training and diplomas in Interpersonal Therapy for Adolescents with depression (IPT-A) and family therapy.
