About
Dr Compton-Smith Clinical Psychology was founded in 2022 by Dr Emily Compton-Smith. We offer specialised assessments and psychological therapy to help support you and/or your family.
Meet our team
Our team brings a variety of experience but we all share the same compassionate, understanding approach. We're committed to providing you with thoughtful, individualised care that meets your needs.
Dr Emily Compton-Smith
Founder & Clinical Psychologist
Emily is a HCPC-registered Clinical Psychologist specialising in ADHD and Autism. She has worked across NHS and private settings and has spent several years specialising in neurodevelopmental assessment and support.
Many of the people Emily works with have spent years wondering why life feels harder than it seems to for other people. They often arrive carrying a lot of self-doubt, having spent years trying harder and wondering what they're doing wrong. Her work is about helping people make sense of themselves.
Emily has extensive experience in assessing and diagnosing ADHD and Autism and sees assessment as about far more than answering a diagnostic question. For many people, it is the first time their experiences have truly been understood, and the first time they have been able to understand themselves.
Her approach is neuroaffirmative and grounded in compassion. She is genuinely curious about people's experiences and the stories they tell themselves about who they are. Alongside her clinical expertise, Emily also brings lived experience of ADHD, giving her a personal understanding of some of the questions people are trying to answer about themselves.
Her approach is neuroaffirmative and grounded in compassion. Alongside her clinical expertise, she also brings lived experience of ADHD.
At the heart of her work is a simple belief: understanding yourself is far more powerful than trying to fix yourself. Her hope is that the people she works with leave feeling understood, with a clearer sense of who they are and the knowledge that they were never broken in the first place.
Qualifications
Doctorate in Clinical Psychology (DClinPsy) - University of Leicester, 2018-2021
UKAAN Diagnosis and Assessment of Adults with ADHD training - 2021
UKAAN Psychosocial Support and Skills Training for Adults with ADHD - 2021
Administration and Coding for the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADI-R, Hogrefe, 2022)
Autism Clinical Interview for Adults (ACIA) training (Newcastle University, 2025)
Dr Charlie Kelland
Clinical Psychologist
Charlie is a qualified, HCPC registered clinical psychologist. She has worked in the NHS since 2015 and continues to do so, currently working in a perinatal mental health team. Charlie is experienced in working with both adults and children presenting with a variety of mental health and other difficulties. She is passionate about supporting individuals through difficult life experiences and helping to improve their emotional well-being and overall quality of life.
Charlie has years of experience in assessing and treating common mental health difficulties, including depression, anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), trauma, adjustment disorder, eating disorders, and relational difficulties. She is trained to use a wide range of psychological models including Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), and trauma-focused therapies. Charlie uses a systemic approach to therapy, considering the impact of family, community, and societal influences on an individual's mental health.
At Dr Compton-Smith Clinical Psychology, Charlie offers psychological therapy to adults and children.
Qualifications
Doctorate in Clinical Psychology (DClinPsy) - University of Birmingham, 2020-2023
EMDR Therapy - Richman EMDR training LTD, 2024
MSc Developmental Disorders and Clinical Practice - University of York, 2014-2015
BSc (Hons) Psychology and Sociology - Sheffield Hallam University, 2009-2012
Dr Katy Hill
Clinical Psychologist
Katy is a HCPC registered clinical psychologist with over 20 years of clinical and academic experience across a wide range of mental and physical health services. She specialised in paediatrics and adult physical health in the NHS before moving into private practice in 2023 for a better work-life balance with her three neurodivergent children.
Katy’s fascination with psychology started as a teenager trying to understand herself and why things felt harder for her. However, it wasn’t until her children were diagnosed that Katy discovered that she is Autistic and has ADHD. Learning about neurodivergence has since become a full-blown special interest and she loves channelling that passion into her work as a neuroaffirming therapist. She feels it’s a privilege to help other neurodivergent adults to understand (and like) themselves more and build lives that work better for them.
In her sessions, Katy draws on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT), informed by specialist training on providing neuroaffirming care. She combines this clinical expertise with lived experience, warmth, and humour to help clients feel fully heard and supported as they learn to navigate challenges with greater self-understanding, confidence, and compassion.
Qualifications
Doctorate in Clinical Psychology (ClinPsyD) - University of Manchester, 2010-2016
PhD in Clinical Psychology - Bangor University, 2005-2009
MSc Foundations of Clinical Psychology - Bangor University, 2003-2004
BSc Psychology (Hons) - University of Leeds, 1999-2002
ADHD Assessment and Diagnosis Training in Adults - Oasis Psychological Services, 2026
Combined ADI-R and ADOS-2 Training - Autism Services Group, 2026
Autism Clinical Interview for Adults (ACIA) - 2025
Dr Emma Sibbald
Counselling Psychologist
Emma (she/her) is a qualified, HCPC-registered Counselling Psychologist. She has an extensive history working alongside and supporting neurodivergent people and families, drawing on both her clinical background and own lived experience of neurodivergence.
Emma feels most passionate about centring the voices of those she works with, and helping them make sense of their lived experiences, whether pre-diagnosis, considering an assessment, or having been diagnosed for some time. She also enjoys working with families, parents and carers, to understand how best to support their neurodivergent loved ones.
Emma currently holds a post in the NHS alongside her private practice, specialising in working with individuals with Long Covid, ME/CFS, and other post-viral conditions; which brings an appreciation of the complexity of co-occurring symptoms and experiences within the neurodivergent community.
Her work centres around building a therapeutic relationship, and ensuring that therapy is collaborative and client-led. She is trained in a number of therapeutic approaches, including person-centred, compassion-focused, and schema-informed therapy, and tends to take an integrated approach, blending therapeutic ideas and tailoring them to each person she works with.
Qualifications
Doctorate in Counselling Psychology (DCounsPsych) - Glasgow Caledonian University, 2022-2025
BSc (Hons) Psychology - University of Northampton, 2009-2012
Rowena Goodman
CBT Therapist
Rowena is a BABCP accredited CBT therapist with a neuroaffirming approach, with several years' of experience supporting adults experiencing a range of mental health difficulties, including anxiety, low mood, stress, overwhelm, low self-esteem and difficulties with coping and emotional regulation.
She works collaboratively with clients to understand what may be contributing to their difficulties and to develop practical strategies that feel realistic and meaningful for them. Her approach is grounded in CBT while recognising that neurodivergent people may experience the world, relationships and mental health differently.
Rowena supports clients who may be exploring or adjusting to an ADHD or autism diagnosis, as well as those experiencing mental health difficulties alongside neurodivergence. She aims to provide a space where clients can better understand themselves without feeling that they need to change who they are or to fit a particular expectation.
She focuses on helping people develop greater self-understanding, self-compassion and confidence, while building strategies to manage difficulties and move towards the things that matter to them.
Qualifications
Postgraduate Diploma in Cognitive Behaviour Therapy – Coventry University, 2023–2024
Postgraduate Certificate in Low Intensity Psychological Interventions – De Montfort University, 2017–2018
MSc (Hons) Forensic Psychology – Nottingham Trent University, 2014 – 2015
BSc (Hons) Psychology – Anglia Ruskin University, 2011 - 2014