Dr Naomi Fisher is a clinical psychologist, author and EMDR-Europe Accredited trainer. She specialises in trauma, autism and alternative ways to learn.
She has a doctorate in clinical psychology from Kings College London (Maudsley), a PhD in developmental cognitive psychology also from Kings College (IoPPN), and a degree in Experimental Psychology from the University of Cambridge.
Naomi is registered with the Health and Care Professionals Council (HCPC) as a clinical psychologist and is accredited by EMDR-Europe as an EMDR consultant and trainer.
Whilst in the NHS, Naomi worked in primary care and specialist trauma services in London, as well as neurodevelopmental services. She has worked for the Metropolitan Police and third sector organisations. She now works in private practice with adults, adolescents and children. She runs self-help webinars for parents on how to help their children with common mental health difficulties.
Naomi is the author of several books on psychology, mental health and alternative education. She speaks regularly at conferences and events on topics such as trauma, neurodiversity, alternative ways to learn and low demand parenting.
Naomi has been using EMDR therapy since 2005 and has been supervising EMDR therapists since 2012. She has published research on how EMDR is used with autistic people and how EMDR works online. She became an EMDR-Europe Accredited Trainer in 2023.
Whilst I was growing up, I went to eleven different schools in four countries on two continents. I discovered that they do not all work in the same way, and in fact, something which one school might regard as completely essential, another school would see as trivial or insignificant.
This experience left me with an urge to question everything which has never stopped. I am always asking Does it have to be this way? and if the answer is Yes it does, then the question is Why?
I’ve carried that into my career and work. I went to university intending to be a doctor. I had a place to study medicine and I put in two years of hard slog learning anatomy, physiology and biochemistry. Then I had the chance to do an intercalated year in Experimental Psychology. I quickly discovered that I found psychology much more interesting than medicine and haven’t looked back. I left medicine and went to do a PhD in developmental cognitive psychology (autism) at the Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Research Centre at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience (IoPPN), Kings College London. Next I did a doctorate in clinical psychology, also at Kings College. There, I learnt how to apply psychological theory and therapy to help people with their mental health.
When I completed my doctorate, I went to work in the NHS. I worked in primary care in Lewisham initially and then in specialist trauma services in London. I specialised in EMDR, a form of trauma therapy. I worked for the Metropolitan Police for a while. I then had my own children and went off on another path, that of alternative education.
As I saw my children learning, I kept thinking about the psychology I had learnt – and thinking about how the way in which many schools thought about learning wasn’t how a developmental psychologist thought about learning at all. Whilst my children did sports classes, I would swim up and down and try to make sense of what I was seeing. Those hours of thinking lead to my first book Changing Our Minds, published in 2021, and then the second one, A Different Way to Learn, published in 2023. Both are about how children can learn in ways which are quite different to learning at school.
Our choices around our children’s education led us to many different places (literally, we moved to France for a while and then to Hove and Devon), and I started to work remotely as a result. I now work remotely with parents and young people, as well as supervising EMDR therapists. I run webinars for parents and EMDR training for professionals. And I am in the process of writing several more books.
Dr Abigail Fisher is an educational psychologist, qualified teacher and forthcoming author. She has a doctorate in educational psychology from the University of Bristol and a Postgraduate Diploma in Psychology from the Open University. She is a qualified teacher and taught for 4 years, in inner London and Malawi and has a Postgraduate Certificate of Education from University of East Anglia. She has completed EMDR training with adults and children, although she is not currently practising as an EMDR therapist. She has just co-authored When School’s Not Working with Naomi Fisher and Eliza Fricker. As well as her career in psychology, she also has a strong interest in the creative arts. Her first degree was in Music from the University of York and she has also completed a Foundation Diploma in Art and Design.
After working as a teacher, Abigail worked in local authorities in southern England for 8 years and now works independently with children and adolescents. Her forthcoming book The Essential EHCP Guide for Parents and Carers will be published by Jessica Kingsley in 2025. She has special interests in helping parents navigate complex and confusing SEN processes, through providing clear, digestible information, and sharing experiences. She is also particularly interested in supporting parents to look after themselves so they can better care for their families. She currently runs two webinar series, one focusing on SEN and EHCP processes, and the other focusing on parent wellbeing.