Chartered clinical psychologist Dr Caroline Boyd has over 10 years’ experience working in the NHS and mental health settings, and she supports parents from pregnancy to childbirth and beyond. Caroline is the author of Mindful New Mum, and her published research explores mothers’ experiences of intrusive thoughts about their babies. Caroline is an Ambassador for UK perinatal mental health charity, PANDAS, and her work has been featured in You magazine, Grazia, and BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour.
Caroline specialises in supporting parents around anger and anxiety in her independent psychology practice, Parent Therapy Hub. She shares psychology ideas on Instagram and in the media to help parents feel more connected – to themselves and their children – and less alone.
Dee Bell is a registered Midwife, International Board Certified Lactation Consultant and Specialist Tongue-tie Practitioner. She worked within the NHS for over 16 years before leaving to specialise in Infant Feeding and Tongue-tie in private practice. She then founded Birth, Baby & You (a feeding support service for new families) in order to offer a more bespoke service to her clients and give them the expert support and time they so desperately need. Dee has supported thousands of families with Infant feeding and have carried out literally thousands of tongue-tie releases over the past 13 years. In 2021 Dee fulfilled a dream and founded The Infant Feeding Academy in other to teach other practitioners what she does.
She qualified from the British Association of Psychotherapists and worked for many years at the University College Hospital (UCH), London, helping children and their families understand and cope with illness, surgery and chronic disease. During her time at UCH, she was involved in the training of paediatricians, nurses and radiology staff, helping to improve communication with their young patients.
She also has extensive experience in NHS Child and Family Psychological Services, schools, special needs provision and in private practice working with wide range of child and adolescent difficulties. These include anxiety, depression, psychosomatic and eating disorders, as well as children with learning difficulties. Rachel has a special interest in helping kids with everyday worries, and also works extensively with children with social communication problems.
During her time in the USA, she qualified as a Movement Therapist at Hahnemann Medical University, Philadelphia, (M.A. Creative Arts in Therapy) which focused on using non-verbal and creative therapies in child and adult psychiatry. She was part of the innovative team at the Laban Centre London, extensively lecturing and supervising trainees, and helping to establish the first accredited Master’s degree course in Movement Therapy in Europe in 1985.
Rachel is an accomplished radio broadcaster for the BBC in the UK since 2001 and also had a popular weekly radio show ‘Kids In Mind’ on World Radio Switzerland for many years.
Her unique approach of understanding the child whilst offering simple and practical ideas to try has helped and supported numerous parents and carers around the world.
Dr Virginia Lam is a social and developmental psychologist focused on examining children’s bilingual development. She is the coauthor of the textbook “Developmental Psychology” with two editions and an Italian edition, published by Pearson. Virginia is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Roehampton London.
Professor Jo van Herwegen is an Associate Professor in Developmental Psychology at University College London. Her research focuses on improving educational outcomes, especially for students with special educational needs. She is an internationally recognised expert on development in Williams syndrome and Down syndrome. Leading from her research on neurodiverse populations, she has focused her expertise to mathematical development in also typical populations and those with learning difficulties such as dyscalculia. She is the Head of Research at the Institute of Education Psychology and Human Development.
Dr Jeanne Shinskey is a Senior Lecturer at Royal Holloway University and Director of the Royal Holloway Baby Lab. She is a developmental psychologist and examines how babies learn, especially from picture books and educational apps. Her work has been published in scientific journals as well as in the popular press.
A Chemistry graduate from Imperial College in London, Fiona held several senior marketing roles at Coca Cola and GlaxoSmithKline before a change in direction beckoned. She graduated from the Montessori Centre International (MCI) and committed to a new career direction as a leader in Montessori teaching. Fiona is the founder and head of Sheen Montessori Nursery in London since 2010.
Professor Helen Ball is the Director of the Infancy and Sleep Centre at Durham University. She examines infant and parent-child infant sleep and pioneers the translation of academic research on infant sleep into evidence for use by parents an healthcare staff.
She serves as an Associate Editor of the journal Sleep Health, and is on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Human Lactation. She is Chair of the Lullaby Trust Scientific Committee and a Board Member or the International Society for the Study and Prevention of Infant Deaths (ISPID). In 2013 Helen received an award for Outstanding Impact in Society from the Economic and Social Research Council and in 2018 she was awarded the Queen’s Anniversary Prize for her research and outreach on parent-infant sleep.
Dr Ayten Bilgin’s research is in the area of developmental psychopathology particularly focusing on the following topics: early regulatory problems (excessive crying, sleeping or feeding problems), preterm birth (i.e., birth before 37 weeks of pregnancy), infant-parent attachment, and parenting.
Ayten uses large-scale longitudinal data to investigate whether and how early regulatory problems have an impact on the development of mental health problems. In addition, she is interested in understanding the long-term outcomes of being born preterm, specifically regarding social relationship skills, well-being, and emotional and behavioral problems.
Dr. Ayten Bilgin is a lecturer at the University of Essex.
Dr Tara Porter is a Clinical Psychologist and writer. She has worked in the UK public healthNHS for 25 years, mainly in child and adolescent mental health. Now she works privately, writes and speaks about mental health.
Dr Sarah Good qualified as a dentist from Guy’s Dental Hospital in 1997. She then took up hospital posts in oral and maxilofacial surgery and oral medicine; prior to a period in general dental practice in London. During this time, she achieved her Membership of the Faculty of Dental Surgeons of the Royal College of Surgeons and Physicians of Glasgow. Sarah qualified as a Specialist Orthodontist in 2003, achieving both a Master of Science degree in Orthodontics and a Membership in Orthodontics from the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. She is on the General Dental Council’s list of Specialist Orthodontics. Keen to continue her career development, Sarah took a three year position as a Senior Registrar in Orthodontics at the Royal London Hospital and the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children, enabling her to achieve a Fellowship in Orthodontics from the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. Sarah now works as a Consultant at Guy’s and St Thomas’s Hospital and lectures on the London Postgraduate Orthodontic Teaching Programme. She is a member of the British Orthodontic Society.
Dr Elisa Back is an Associate Professor in Developmental Psychology at Kingston University London and a chartered Psychologist (CPsychol). She obtained her PhD in Psychology from the University of Nottingham in 2006. In 2007, she was awarded with the Neil O’Connor prize by the British Psychological Society’s Developmental section for her research about inferring mental states from facial expressions in autistic children. Her postdoctoral research was related to Theory of Mind and she carried this out at the University of Birmingham in 2006-2008. Dr Back joined the Department of Psychology at Kingston University in 2008. Her research area is social-cognitive development in typical and atypical populations across the life-span. Dr Back’s current research focuses on how autistic children perceive and interpret the world and the impact this has on daily life using a range of methodologies including eye-tracking and virtual reality.
Dr Back is the course leader for the MSc in Child Psychology and the director of the Developing Minds Lab at Kingston University.
Dr Paula Corcoran is an academic in the Psychology Department at City, University of London. She previously worked in drug and alcohol services for over ten years supporting young people and adults who live with drug and alcohol addiction. She has been in a full time academic post for the past thirteen years. Current ongoing research projects focus on addiction recovery and what is meant by ‘recovery’. She is also the proud parent of a teenage child.
Dr Bettina Hohnen works as a Clinical Psychologist with children, parents and communities to help strengthen relationships between adults and young people, by translating rapidly developing neuroscience into practical and actionable strategies. She believes that relationships are at the heart of wellbeing. Her academic achievements include two doctorates and she is a senior teaching fellow at UCL, lecturing widely at graduate and post-graduate level. Read her books (The Incredible Teenage Brain: everything you need to know to unlock a teen’s potential, 2019 and How to Have Incredible Conversations With Your Child, 2021) to understand how to create an environment that balances the need to protect young people and provide fertile ground for growth and development. Bettina is the mother of two children, now in their early twenties.
Sophie Ricard, MsEd, NT, is a registered child nutritionist helping kids to thrive at school.
Her work addresses how the food our children eat fuels their bodies and brains. She helps parents discover the right nutrition to feed their kids’ brains, and the strategies to help incorporate these foods into their lives with ease.
In addition to her nutrition training, Sophie has extensive experience in education and feeding support for children. She combines this knowledge to share strategies to guide parents step by step to help their child to feel their best so they can thrive at school.
Her website, FeedMeFocused.com is packed with expert advise, resources and tools for parents.
Sophie is a registered member of the British Association for Nutrition and Lifestyle Medicine and the Complementary and Natural Healthcare Council.
Dr Caspar Addyman is a developmental psychologist interested in learning, laughter and behaviour change. He is mostly interested in babies and what makes them happy. For many years he was the director of the Baby Laughter Project at Goldsmiths University examining why babies laugh and why laughter is important for their cognitive and emotional development.
Caspar is the author of ‘The laughing baby: The extraordinary science behind what makes babies happy’.
Harriet Tenenbaum is Professor in Psychology at the University of Surrey. She is an expert on children’s and adolescents’ social and emotional development. She received a PhD from the University of California, Santa Cruz. She has received funding from the Leverhulme Foundation, the British Academy, NICHD, and the EU. Presently, she is an investigator of the Marie-Curie funded ITN, G-Versity examining gender diversity. She is the co-editor of the British Journal of Developmental Psychology.
Dr Lindsay Malloy received her PhD in psychology and social behaviour from the University of California, Irvine. She completed postdoctoral training in Applied Developmental Psychology at the University of Cambridge (UK). Her research examines children’s and adolescents’ disclosure of negative or traumatic experiences, children’s memory and narratives, and investigative and interrogation techniques. Her research has been published widely and has been supported by grants from the U.S National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. She received the Salem Shah Award for Early Career Excellence in Psychology and Law from the American Psychology-Law Society.
Paul is Professor of Psychology, Cognition, and Creativity at the University of Winchester and a Visiting Professor at the University of Surrey. He is also an Associate of the Institute of Business Creativity, Ecole Hoteliere de Lausanne, Switzerland. His research focuses on understanding the cognitive and affective mechanisms of creative thinking and processes and how they can be influenced and enhanced in domains from business to education. His work has been funded by a wide range of funders including Arts Council England, the British Academy, the NHS, the ESRC as well as commercial organizations.
Helen is a Professor Emeritus and Director of the UK Observatory for the Promotion of Non-Violence at the University of Surrey. Her research focused on bullying in schools, universities, and the work place. She is an expert in strategies to counteract school bullying, including peer support as an effective intervention that empowers children and young people to take action themselves to help other young people who are experiencing social and emotional difficulties. Her widely-used training manual Peer Support in Action, influenced practice across the UK.
