ABOUT ME/BIO
I am a Neuropsychologist and DHA-licensed Psychologist with over 18 years of clinical experience in the UAE. My work focuses on assessment and support in the field of neurodevelopment and neurodivergence across the lifespan.
My clinical experience spans public and private healthcare, hospital, paediatric, educational, and neurodevelopmental settings. Working with children, adolescents, young adults, and families across a wide range of developmental, learning, cognitive, emotional, and behavioural profiles has shaped my understanding that a person's needs can rarely be understood through one test, one setting, or one perspective alone.
My approach brings together clinical rigour and the person's own experience of everyday life. Understanding neurodivergence, as I see it, is neither about idealising difference nor reducing someone to a diagnosis. It is about recognising strengths, acknowledging genuine difficulties, and making sense of experiences that may not always be visible or easily explained.
When carefully paced and guided by evidence-informed practice, this process can offer a more balanced understanding of the person, create space for self-compassion, and inform meaningful choices about learning, relationships, support, and everyday life.
HOW I CAN HELP YOU
Individuals seek professional guidance for different reasons. Sometimes there are questions about autism, ADHD, learning differences, attention, or cognitive development. At other times, there may be longstanding difficulties that have not been fully understood, uncertainty about the next steps, or simply a wish to better understand oneself or one's child. My work includes consultations, comprehensive assessments, and support following assessment, depending on each person's questions, circumstances, and needs.
. Consultations
A space to explore questions, concerns, or uncertainty with professional guidance. Consultations can help clarify what may be contributing to current difficulties and whether assessment, therapeutic support, educational adjustments, parent guidance, monitoring, or referral to another professional may be most helpful.
. Assessments
A carefully paced, detailed, and structured process to understand a person's individual profile. Depending on the questions being explored, assessments may examine cognitive abilities, learning, attention, executive functioning, social communication, emotional regulation, and adaptive functioning, alongside developmental history and everyday experiences.
Assessment may lead to a diagnosis, clarify alternative explanations, or provide a better understanding of strengths, difficulties, and support needs. The aim is to bring these different pieces together into a coherent and meaningful picture of the person.
. Support After Assessment
Understanding does not necessarily end with an assessment report. Support may involve helping children, adolescents, or young adults make sense of their own profiles, develop self-awareness and self-advocacy, and recognise what helps them navigate everyday demands. It may also involve working with families and educational settings to translate findings into practical support, revisit recommendations, and respond to changing needs over time.
WHAT I SAY TO PEOPLE WHO FEEL NERVOUS OR HAVE CONCERNS ABOUT THERAPY/ASSESSMENT
I recognise that seeking an assessment can bring uncertainty, difficult questions, and sometimes concerns about what the findings may reveal.
I often remind families that while tests and clinical measures provide valuable information, they can never tell the whole story. Some of what matters most about a person may not be easily measured or immediately visible.
My aim is not to minimise difficulties or the significance of a diagnosis, but to approach both with care and perspective, bringing together a holistic, strengths-based and balanced understanding that, above all, remains true to the person.
WHAT MEASURES I USE IN ASSESSMENTS
I use a broad range of standardised, evidence-informed assessment tools, carefully selected according to the individual's age, developmental profile, language, and the questions being explored.
These include cognitive and intellectual assessments (WISC-V, WPPSI-IV, WAIS), academic achievement measures (WIAT), neuropsychological assessments (NEPSY-II, D-KEFS), autism-specific assessment tools (ADOS-2, MIGDAS-2), and measures of attention, executive functioning, emotional and behavioural functioning, and adaptive skills (Conners-4, BRIEF-2, BASC-3, Vineland-3).
For French-speaking children and adolescents, I also use appropriate French-standardised assessment measures.
The choice and interpretation of measures are guided by clinical judgement, developmental history, and the individual's linguistic and cultural context.
