Dr Liza Messing
Consultant Clinical Psychologist, 
Founder & Clinical Director of WTP 

About Me

Introduction

I bring my lived experience to my work. I am a mother of two teenaged children living in a heterosexual partnership, and have negotiated my way through finding my creativity and power whilst being available to play the roles I have chosen of partner and mother.  This has been a huge source of challenge, learning and growth.  I have learnt how to see my own internal patriarchal programming and have been stunned at the energy and possibility that has unfolded for me as a consequence.  

My Experience

I qualified as a clinical psychologist in 1999 with a doctorate in clinical psychology and have worked in the NHS for 27 years.   Throughout my career I have specialised in working with relational difficulties in adult mental health.  My last post was as a Consultant Clinical Psychologist responsible for leading, managing and directing psychological provision within adult services in a large ethnically diverse London borough.  I am very proud of having created psychologically informed and led services for hard-to-reach clients whose needs had been poorly served previously.  I won an award for this work, and am proud that this service is still running. 

I have a further training in Cognitive Analytic Therapy (CAT) and am accredited by ACAT as a therapist and senior supervisor in this model.  I have also contributed to CAT training courses as a lecturer, marker and tutor and have taught CAT in clinical psychology training courses. In addition to CAT I have undertaken elements of training in psychoanalytic psychotherapy, and group analytic approaches and have substantial experience working with and supervising cognitive behavioural therapy. 

More recently, I have been taking academic and experiential courses in feminism and the impact of patriarchy on women's embodied lives, and am integrating trauma-informed somatic tools into my clinical practise. 

Qualifications 

Doctorate in Clinical Psychology:  University of East Anglia 1999.                                                                                                                                                       

Cognitive Analytic Therapist : Association for Cognitive Analytic Therapy: 2009.                                                                                                                    

 Cognitive Analytic Therapy Supervisor: Association for Cognitive Analytic Therapy: 2012 

Professional Registrations 

Health Care Professions Council :Practitioner Psychologist 

Association for Cognitive Analytic Therapy: Registered and accredited CAT therapist & senior supervisor.