About Dr HANNAH PUDDEPHATT
A little about me
I am a HCPC registered Clinical Psychologist and EMDR practitioner with 14 years of experience working across NHS and independent settings.
The ethos of my practice has always been that “at some level it all makes sense”. We develop our own ways of navigating life based on our own unique stories. These ways of being usually made sense at one point in our lives but later can start to feel problematic or misaligned with the person we want to be. My work with people usually involves a combination of deeper exploration alongside practical methods to test out new ways of being.
How I got here
My journey into psychology started in 2012 as a support worker on an acute inpatient mental health ward offering very practical frontline support to individuals experiencing severe mental health crises. Prior to completing my doctoral training at Newcastle University, I worked in a variety of teams as an assistant psychologist ranging from working directly with children and families, adults with Learning Disabilities and indirectly with direct care staff supporting individuals with mental health and disabilities.
My clinical training placements provided a variety of experience across the lifespan in both inpatient and community settings with individuals, groups and direct care staff facing a wide range of difficulties.
After qualifying in 2018, I worked across a range of Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services, working both directly with young people and their families and developing new NHS mental health services including school-based wellbeing services and specialist transition pathways between CAMHS and adult services.
I completed doctoral research into psychological risk factors for anxiety disorders including attachment and intolerance of uncertainty. These theories and the idea of common underlying psychological processes have stayed with me throughout my career and are at the heart of my practice.
My current practice
I founded Enlighten Minds psychology in 2021 offering specialist psychological assessment and therapy to adults who quite often appear to be coping on the outside. However, they have reached a point where the ways they learned to navigate life are no longer serving them. This may show up as anxiety, difficulties in relationships, burn-out, low self-esteem, emotional disconnection or a sense that the same patterns keep repeating without understanding why.
Why I do what I do
It is an incredible privilege to be trusted with another person’s story and help them piece together their experiences into a picture that finally makes sense. It is deeply rewarding to witness the quieter, more nuanced journey of someone’s growth whether that be an increased sense of self-compassion or self-acceptance, a moment of clarity, a behavioural change that once seemed impossible or a sense of peace around an experience that has been waiting many years to be processed.
People often describe me as warm, authentic, human and passionate about the journeys of the people I work with.
If you're thinking about starting therapy in Clapham or online and wondering whether my approach might be the right fit for you, you're welcome to get in touch.