Meet the team
Our clinical psychologists are trained to assess and provide support to patients from a number of services at University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust.Clinical lead
Dr Alison PearceLead consultant clinical psychologist
Alison is the clinical lead for the service and often meets with medical services within the hospital to help them think about how to work in ways that increase people’s wellbeing. Alison has worked within UHS since 2008 within different medical specialities. Currently she works clinically into the asthma and staff psychology services. Alison has previously worked as a clinical psychologist within services for people who have both physical and mental health problems of all age groups. Alison is also a registered systemic psychotherapist (which used to known as a family therapist) and registered EMDR practitioner (eye movement desensitisation reprocessing) which is a NICE approved therapy for working with trauma.
Our team
Dr Helen AistonPrincipal clinical psychologist
Helen has worked in the NHS for 15 years and in the team here since 2015. She works in haematology within bone marrow transplant (BMT), supporting people before, during and after transplant, working to improve patient experience and wellbeing throughout their journey. This includes working with people around adjusting to their diagnosis, managing ongoing treatment, managing the realities of life post-transplant and the ever-present fear of recurrence, amongst other things. She enjoys working with patients, families and team members to improve mental wellbeing and quality of life for patients with physical health problems and is passionate about improving the integration of psychological care into health services.
Michaela BaileyPsychological therapist
Michaela has worked for the NHS for the past 10 years and has mostly worked within mental health services. She now works across haematology and respiratory services within UHS. Michaela’s therapeutic work consists mostly of CBT (cognitive behavioural therapy) and EMDR (eye movement desensitisation processing).
Dr Laura DavisClinical psychologist
Laura has worked in the cystic fibrosis service since 2015 and in NHS psychology services since 2010. She has recently started to work in the primary ciliary dyskinesia service. She has worked with clients with a range of physical health, mental health, cognitive and learning needs. Laura has an interest in narrative and attachment approaches; focusing on the stories that people hold about themselves and their health.
Dr Anneliese DayClinical psychologist
Anneliese has worked in psychological services within the NHS since 2003, across Adult and Child Mental Health Services and Health Psychology. She has worked across a number of services within the General Hospital at UHS, and currently specialises with individuals suffering from severe and difficult to treat asthma. Anneliese's main therapeutic approaches draw upon Cognitive Analytic Therapy (CAT); Eye Movement Desensitisation Reprocessing (EMDR); Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT), and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). Anneliese values the importance of understanding an individual, helping them to recognise their own specific and unique unhelpful patterns that they have become stuck in and finding ways to address these in order to overcome their difficulties.
Olivia FerrieClinical psychologist
Olivia is a Newly Qualified Clinical Psychologist working within the Major Trauma Psychology Service at Southampton General Hospital. Throughout her training she has worked within various health settings including, palliative care and paediatric diabetes before undertaking a specialist placement in Critical Care Psychology. She is an advocate for Compassion Focused Therapy and often incorporates this in her therapeutic work. Outside of clinical practice, Olivia’s research has explored how we make sense of terminal diagnoses and the experiences of sex and intimacy after cancer from an LGBTQ+ perspective.
Laura FlowerPrincipal clinical psychologist
Laura has worked in the NHS since 2006 and has experience working with a variety of medical teams. Her current role at UHS is within diabetes and podiatry.
Laura’s main therapeutic approaches draw upon Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Compassion Focussed Therapy (CFT) and Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR).
Laura enjoys working with teams and individuals to improve identification, engagement and support for patients who experience psychological distress.
Dr Beth GeorgePrincipal clinical psychologist
With over 15 years NHS experience in both mental and physical health settings Beth joined the clinical health psychology service in 2020. She is the lead psychologist in gastroenterology where she provides individual interventions for patients as well as working with the medical team to provide holistic care. Beth uses her psychological training in CBT, compassion focused therapy, systemic therapy and EMDR to support patients based on their need.
She also provides a clinical service to the complex cancer and pelvic exenteration service at UHS SCCET which provides radial surgery as a treatment for cancer. Beth offers psychological support for patients both pre- and post-surgery as both inpatients and outpatients.
Xanthe GouldAssistant psychologist
Xanthe graduated from her clinical applications of psychology masters in 2022 during which she completed a placement in an early intervention in psychosis service. Since graduating she has been supporting the diagnosis of autistic adults in Dorset.
Xanthe is currently an assistant psychologist working in the haematology service at UHS. She is new to the team, joining in February 2024 and is looking forward to providing support to patients throughout their transplant and learning more about the psychological impacts of long term physical health conditions.
- Hannah Graydon
Counselling psychologist
Hannah works in the Southampton Mesh Referral Service, supporting women who have experienced long term implications associated with mesh implants and in the staff psychology service.
Hannah draws upon different approaches to support patients, using CBT and ACT and is trained in EMDR.
Heloise HuntClinical psychologist
Heloise has worked in NHS psychology services since 2009. Since qualifying, she has focused on working in a hospital setting, supporting people of varying ages with a variety of health conditions. She is currently working in the Adult Congenital Heart Disease (ACHD) service. She has specific interests in attachment theory and trauma and primarily uses Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR).
Samalie KigonduClinical psychologist
Samalie originally from Kenya, qualified as a clinical psychologist in 2010. Prior to joining the NHS in 2017, Samalie worked in a range of settings as a clinical psychologist including inpatient psychiatry in Nairobi, Kenya and the humanitarian field with Doctors without Borders ( Medicins Sans Frontieres, MSF) in crisis settings in South Sudan and Pakistan. Samalie has experience working across the lifespan, both in mental health and physical health settings. She uses a variety of psychological approaches to help people live meaningful lives and move towards goals that are important to them. Now with the UHS staff psychology team, she works to assist staff groups/teams or on a one-to-one basis. Samalie uses a range of integrative psychological approaches which includes ACT, CFT and EMDR. At the centre of her work is helping staff to find ways of cultivating greater levels of self-compassion.
Raminta PetrauskaiteClinical psychologist
Raminta works in haematology within the bone marrow transplant (BMT) team and the Wessex facial nerve service. She has experience working with a range of issues including anxiety, depression, trauma, stress, and difficulties coming to terms with long term conditions. Raminta aims to provide a compassionate and safe space whilst drawing on a range of psychological models, including Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT).
Dr Elizabeth PinkPrincipal clinical psychologist
Lizzy has worked in the NHS for over 20 years and here at UHS for over 10 years. She has extensive experience of working with adults and children in physical health settings and teaches on the doctoral course at the University of Southampton. She is a Lead in the Staff Psychology Service where she provides individual interventions for staff experiencing challenges at work as well as working in consultation with management and teams across the hospital. She also provides a clinical service to the Critical Care units at UHS and has an interest in working with complex physical health problems. Lizzy's work is underpinned by attachment theory and an understanding of trauma, she works systemically focussing on the stories people tell about themselves and is trained in EMDR and Attachment Narrative Therapy trained.
Judit Varkonyi-SeppChartered health psychologist
Judit works in the cystic fibrosis services and helps people take control of their health, to develop skills and self-confidence to live with cystic fibrosis and also to support and care for someone who lives with it. She uses a variety of approaches in her work including humanistic and positive psychology approaches and behavioural science-based approaches to help people improve their physical health. Judit’s work is helping people to connect with their own strengths and resources to identify their own solutions and to take control to make the change they want. Judit is also a research lead, working in partnership with people affected by or caring for someone with long-term incurable conditions to develop novel ways and services that support them to live as well as possible.
Dr Rachael WoodClinical psychologist and CBT therapist
Rachael recently joined the adult health psychology team, and is an experienced psychologist who has worked in NHS psychology services since 1998, spending the last 20 plus years mainly working in adult mental health across several different community teams in Hampshire. Rachael also has an interest in the links between mental and physical health and has worked with many people with a range of physical health issues. Over the time she has been a psychologist Rachael has developed skills in a range of therapeutic approaches including CBT, ACT, compassion focussed therapy and DBT skills. She uses these in her work to help people feel able to better manage the difficulties or challenges their health problems might bring and be able to do more of what is important to them. Rachael is passionate about working in the NHS and enjoys being part of health care teams and working with other health professionals to support people with living as well with and adapting to long term health problems and challenges. Rachael enjoys supporting others with their work and their own development by offering supervision and training. She also works as a CBT supervisor for the University of Southampton and is an accredited CBT therapist.