Liz Gillett

Dr Gillett is the Founder Director of Phoenix Psychology, establishing the independent practice in 2006 and having actively facilitated its growth, direction and value base since its inception.

She has held clinical and management positions within the public, voluntary and independent sectors for over 25 years including being a senior clinician in NHS services for People with Learning Disabilities and Child and Family services across the Midlands.  She has also engaged in a wide range of training and consultancy activities with statutory and voluntary sector organisations.

Her clinical practice focuses on specialist assessments of children and families with complex presentations, whether due to multiple needs in the family group, co-existing difficulties and / or contexts such as child protection.  She also has a special interest and expertise in training, service development and consultation to teams and organisations offering assistance to vulnerable children and families.

She is a practising Expert Witness within the Family Court across England and Wales, but also offers her expertise to courts / services in British communities beyond the UK, including the Channel Islands and Falkland Islands. She has provided evidence to all levels of proceedings and has been involved at the strategic national level via her Ministerial appointment as the Child Mental Health specialist on the Family Justice Council, a non-statutory advisory, non- departmental public body sponsored by the Ministry of Justice (2008 to 2015).  She continues to regularly input into a number of national forums and to present at a range of Family Justice Board activities as well as providing training via the Judicial College.

She is a tutor on the University of Birmingham and Universities of Warwick and Coventry Doctoral programmes in Clinical Psychology providing workshops and placements to doctoral students.

Training and Qualifications:

  • Doctorate in Clinical Psychology (DClinPsy)
  • M.Sc. Organisational Psychology / Level A and B intermediate in Occupational Testing
  • B.Sc. (Hons) Psychology

Accreditation to Professional Bodies:

  • Registered with HCPC (Health and Care Professions Council)
  • Chartered Clinical Psychologist (CPsychol) within the Clinical Psychology Division of the British Psychological Society (BPS)
  • Associate Fellow (AFBPsS) of the British Psychological Society (BPS)

Publications

  • Articles in peer reviewed professional journals as well as substantial involvement in the development of professional guidance such as the British Psychological Society’s Guidance on Working with Parents with Learning Disabilities (2011) and Psychologists as Expert Witnesses in the Family Courts in England and Wales: Standards, Competencies and Expectations (2016).
  • Dr Gillett was also the Chair of the Steering Groups for two Department for Education research papers, Decision Making Within a Child’s Timeframe (2012, Ward and Brown) and Assessing Parental Capacity to Change when Children are on the Edge of Care: An Overview of Current Research Evidence (2014, Ward, Brown and Hyde-Dryden).