Staff profiles

Gráinne Parish (née Boyle) – Head of Department

Gráinne is passionate about providing services not only to the individual, but also to families, schools and the community. As a Psychologist Practitioner, Gráinne specialises in the assessment of needs related to social
communication and autism spectrum across the life span. She is a qualified and experienced administrator of the ADOS-2, an assessment that is widely considered as ‘gold standard’ for the administration of assessments related to these needs. She is passionate about neurodiversity, and keen to ensure that people are supported with the knowledge and tools that they want or need to lead full, happy and functional lives.
In addition to managing the team and clinic at Insights, Gráinne sees a small case load of children, adolescents and adults for psychological assessment of learning needs related to Dyslexia, Dyscalculia, Dyspraxia, ADHD, Developmental Language Disorders, Autism, Executive Function Needs, Intellectual Disabilities, and other neurodevelopmental learning profiles of need.
Gráinne is a registered Psychologist with the Community Development Authority Dubai and the Health Care Professionals Council (UK). She is also a chartered psychologist of The British Psychological Society (CPsychol). In her spare time, she is a founding board member of All Children Included, a CDA registered non for profit agency supporting the inclusion of children of determination in our community. 

Kelly Pugin

At present, Kelly is working solely on psychological assessments, and she is a trained administrator of a wide range of assessments including Developmental and Psycho-Educational assessments such as WPPSI-III, WISC-V, WAIS-IV, WIAT-3, CTOPP-2, BASC-3, Conners-2, Beery-VMI, ADOS-2 and Griffiths III among others. Assessments she offers are for psychological assessment of learning needs such as Developmental Delays, Dyslexia, Dyscalculia, Dyspraxia, Dysgraphia, Autism, ADHD, executive function needs, Intellectual Disabilities and other neurodevelopmental learning profiles for ages ranging from early childhood through to adulthood.

Kelly is focused on providing comprehensive, thorough assessments in close collaboration with students, families and school support staff when appropriate. Through the assessment process, she aims to support, not only the family members and teachers, but also the person themselves, towards understanding their needs, but also their strengths and unique personal value. Her recommendations are personalised, honest and kindly delivered.

Jolene Palmer

Jolene is an Educational Psychologist, with professional registration in both Dubai and South Africa. She has over ten years’ experience of working with families, students and children in South Africa, the USA and the UAE. Jolene has a strong belief that everyone has the right to an education regardless of what difficulties they may be facing.

Psychology Assessments: Jolene has extensive knowledge in Developmental assessments, Psycho-Educational assessments and assessments of neurodiverse profile related to Autism and ADHD. She works with children, adolescents and young adults. She has worked extensively with children and families of children who present with general learning difficulties and Specific Learning Difficulties; including Dyslexia, Dyscalculia, Autism, ADHD, Auditory Processing Disorder, Sensory Processing Disorder, delayed communication skills, delays in fine and gross motor development, emotional regulation difficulties, behavioural difficulties as well as complex genetic disorders.

Counselling and Therapy: In addition to Psycho-Educational assessments, Jolene provides Social, Emotional and Behavioral support for families, children, adolescents, and young adults through regular counselling and therapy sessions.

Dr Claire Lewis

Dr. Claire has expertise in working with a range of clinical and nonclinical conditions including anxiety, depression and stress as well as alcohol and drug use. She is particularly interested in helping clients who are experiencing distress in the context of significant life events, including traumatic experiences and the impact of major life transitions such as childbirth, separation, illness, retirement and bereavement. She works within an individual therapy model as well as offering couple therapy and family interventions.

Working collaboratively with the people she sees to find the right therapeutic ‘fit’ for them. Claire is able draw on a range of therapy models. She has experience and training in a range of evidence-based treatments including Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT) and mindfulness-based therapies. She also has training in trauma-focused interventions (Cognitive Processing Therapy) in addition to providing psychoeducation and skills training. Claire has trained to Level 2 with the Gottman institute for couples therapy.

Claire’s work is informed by many years of experience. During her Doctoral training she gained experience working within a range of services including Child and Family Services, Learning Disabilities Services, Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Adult Mental Health Services and Forensics. She has been able to draw on these various aspects of her training throughout her career, initially working as a Clinical Psychologist within the NHS and later practicing as a Clinical Psychologist in the Pacific, the Caribbean, and most recently working for five years as a Clinical Psychologist in Australia. Over the course of her experience she has also worked in the corporate setting developing and running workshops aimed at improving employee’s well-being and resilience to stress in the workplace.

Ben Viljoen

He has worked at different levels of support provision on his journey to Insights, including working as a learning support teacher (both within a special educational needs center and mainstream school in Dubai), as a School Counselor, as a Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCO) and as an Educational Psychologist. All of these different roles have helped him to appreciate the nature of difficulties that children and young adults experience within their home, school and social systems and how these all interact to impact learning and behavior. Ben strongly believes in inclusion and the utilization of an eclectic approach in order to find solutions and methods that best support the individual.

Leyli Afsari

Leyli uses the Person-Centred approach in sessions to offer a safe, warm, and confidential space for individuals to be able to speak freely and explore their experiences without judgment. Through the counseling relationship she hopes you can discover your inner strength to be able to manage life’s challenges and difficulties and reach your fullest potential.

In addition to graduating with a Masters Degree, Leyli has additional training and experience in using a CBT approach for counselling. She has worked with individuals with trauma, abuse, loss, and anxiety and other mental health needs. 

Although Leyli is happy to see a range of age groups including children, adolescents and adults, Leyli often sees clients at Insights that consider themselves as Neurodiverse. She has training and experiencing in working with individuals on the autism spectrum, people with ADHD and other differences. She has additional training in such concepts as Social Thinking, The Superflex Programme, Executive Function, Working with Hard to Reach Children and Working with Adults on the Autism Spectrum. 

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Lindi Nhlapo

Lindi's interests including working with clients that present with mental health needs, including, but not limited to, the following presentations:

Anxiety and stress
Depression and low mood
Emotional regulation needs
Obsessional thoughts
Trauma
Grief
Challenges with self-esteem, self-confidence and executive function skills

Lindi is trained in Smart Choice Parenting, a course that has proved effective in addressing parent-child relationships. She has an interest in facilitating communication skills between parents and their children with an aim of equipping them with necessary parental skills to improve their relationship.

Lindi is experienced in working with children, adolescents and adults that consider themselves neurodiverse, in supporting their mental health needs. 

Leanne O'Brien

At Insights, Dr. Leanne is an assessment specialist. The majority of her caseload consists of diagnostic psychological assessments for a wide range of neurodevelopmental differences including, but not limited to: ADHD, Autism, SPLDs (Dyslexia; Dyscalculia), Developmental Coordination Disorder (Dyspraxia), Developmental Language Disorder, and Global Developmental Delay. She is a trained administrator of a wide range of assessments including but not limited to WPPSI-III, WISC-V, WAIS-IV, WIAT-3, CTOPP-2, BASC-3, Conners-2, Beery-VMI, ADOS-2 and Griffiths III among others.

Dr. Leanne also sees a small caseload of clients for psychological therapy work. She specialises in harmful sexual behaviours and she has extensive experience in working with children and teenagers with behaviour difficulties that are supported through nuture group provision.

Drawing on her experience from working for local authorities in the UK, Dr. Leanne seeks to work collaboratively with families, schools, medical professionals and other referral sources that seek to support a person through either assessment and/or psychological therapy therapy.

Leanne’s work is underpinned by the BPS code of ethics and conduct with regard to respect, competence, responsibility and integrity which support the value, dignity and worth of all persons as well as being honest, clear and accurate in her delivery of information.

Jacqui Lawson

Over the last 17 years Jacqui has gained experience in a variety of settings including clinics, schools and hospitals.

Jacqui is registered with the British Psychological Society and the Australian Counselling Association.

She has helped clients of all ages, backgrounds and nationalities.

Jacqui has supported clients in a clinical setting, as well as via online therapy. Interventions have addressed different challenges such as anxiety, panic attacks, depression, ADHD, anger management, social communication difficulties, grief and learning difficulties. Having worked extensively in international schools, Jacqui also conducts psychological and educational assessments using tools such as the WISC-V, WIAT-III and WAIS IV. Jacqui uses an integrative approach to
counselling combining elements of Mindfulness – based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT), Acceptance and
Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Solution – Focused Therapy (SFT). Jacqui recognizes the individuality of each client and thus tailors therapeutic interventions to suit specific needs. She enjoys working with clients holistically and discovering their unique strengths.

In addition to counselling and assessment, Jacqui has offered staff training on a variety of mental
health topics, such as: anxiety and stress management, resilience, growth mindset, post traumatic growth, executive functioning skills and behavioural, social and emotional difficulties. As a mother of two, Jacqui also enjoys delivering workshops to parents and teachers, such as teaching children coping skills, self - regulation strategies and mindfulness.

Jacqui’s ultimate goal is to help her clients gain insight and to equip them with practical and necessary tools, to feel empowered to make their own choices and positive changes.

Sarah Wedel

Sarah is experienced in assessing and providing interventions for children with a broad range of speech, language and communication difficulties including; Developmental Language Disorders, Language Delay, Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), Social Communication Disorders and Speech
Sound Delays/Disorders.

Sarah has a specialist interest in working with children and adolescents with social communication difficulties and autism.

Sarah is a key member in multi-disciplinary teams and her work focuses on collaborating with relevant professionals to assess, diagnose and provide specialist intervention plans.

Sarah’s clinical trainings include:

• Hanen ‘More than Words’
• SCERTS
• Michael Palin Stammering Training (school aged children)
• DIR Introduction to Floortime Therapy
• Auditory Processing Disorder
• Makaton
• Parent Child Interaction Therapy
• Social Thinking
• PECS
• ADOS - II
  
  

Natalie Reed

Natalie enjoys working within a multi-disciplinary team to provide bespoke, holistic assessment and intervention for children and adolescents. She is passionate about parent and caregiver involvement, education and empowerment and this is a key focus in her therapeutic approach. Her practice is client-directed and in addition to focusing on specific therapeutic goals, Natalie aims to unlock each individual’s intrinsic motivation, sense of achievement and enjoyment. She believes that growth and progress occur best when clients are engaged, having fun and presented with the ‘just-right’ challenge. Natalie holds the hearts of her clients and their families at the centre of her professional practice.

Areas of special interest include Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD), executive function, emotional regulation, Dyspraxia and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).

Natalie’s clinical training includes:

• Ayres’ Sensory Integration
• The SCERTS Comprehensive Education Framework for Autism
• Griffiths III Scales of Child Development
• ADOS-2
• Social Thinking
• The Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS)
• Makaton
• Friends Resilience

Ann Irving

With over 30 years’ experience working with clients across the age range in United Kingdom and Dubai, Ann is a specialist in in autism diagnosis, intervention and support for children and adults.

Ann has worked in clinic and school settings both in mainstream and special education and is trained and experienced in a range of therapeutic interventions and approaches for children and adults with speech language and communication needs. 

Ann’s clinical trainings include:

Hanen ‘More than Words’

Learning Language and Loving It

Teacher Talk

Makaton

PECS

ADOS - II

Attention Autism

DIR Floor Time 

DISCO

Sensory Integration

SCERTS

Leah Karacinski

Leah has extensive experience in administering assessments and providing intervention to children with a wide range of diagnosis with varying levels of ability.  

To support each child in reaching their potential, Leah is a strong advocate of involving parents, caregivers and relevant professionals in the therapy process. She is passionate about providing training and collaborative working to achieve positive outcomes. 

Training includes:

Hanen - It Takes Two to Talk.

PROMPT

Lidcombe

PECS

DIR Floortime

Ashely Green

She has created many resources for educators and parents to share with children to encourage them to flourish. She has also recently published a children’s book which focuses on supporting children to discuss feelings and emotions.

Ashley believes that the absence of mental illness is not conducive to wellness; everyone can go beyond and flourish in life.

Areas of specialization include; primary education, positive psychology and coaching towards personal goals of clients.

Swimmu Zacharias

Swimmu has been living in the UAE since 2014, and she has been working with Insights since August 2018. She is a friendly, approachable member of the Insights team. She works from Sunday to Thursday at the Insights office in Dome Tower, JLT. You can call her or visit reception with any enquiries, and she will always be willing to help.

She deals with new client enquiries, client relations, payments and insurance receipts. Swimmu speaks English, Hindi, Malayalam and Tamil. In her spare time, Swimmu is likes cooking, baking and keeping fit, always with a smile on her face.

Jeniffer Posas

She has been in UAE since 2012 and has been working with Insights since March 2020. She has worked as a customer service in her previous job and is confident to be able to deliver assistance to everyone with a smiling face. She mainly assists Psychologists at Insights and deals with Insurance forms, pre-approval letters and basic admin.

Whenever she is not working, she enjoys playing ukulele and guitar and watching movies/series.

Claude Elemos

Claude has been in the Middle East since 2015 and has been working for Insights since January 2021. She is primarily supporting the paediatric therapists’ appointments including – OT, SLT, CBT, and Group therapies. But along with the daily admin activities for the team, she also manages requests for insurance letters and forms.

In her free time, she enjoys trips to the beach and immersing herself in music and art.

Muna Al Khezam

At insights, she supports the Educational Psychologists in specialist assessments for children with neurodevelopmental differences and learning disabilities.
Muna is trained in Mental Health First Aid, Pranic Healing and The Superflex Programme. She is a crisis text liner and plans to become a Clinical Psychologist in the future.