Dr Olivia Payne

Dr Olivia Payne is a Chartered Clinical Psychologist who has worked within NHS child and adolescent services for over 15 years. Alongside her work within IPC, she is currently the Autism Lead within the NHS Children and Young People’s Gender Service in Bristol, having previously worked across a range of services including specialist multi-disciplinary autism assessment services, gender services and CAMHS. 

Olivia provides specialist input into IPC’s Child and Adolescent, Gender and Neurodiversity Services. She is experienced in helping young people and their families to cope with a range of mental health challenges including low mood, stress, anxiety, adversity and trauma. She has worked with gender questioning children and young people for many years, supporting young people and families to explore and facilitate identity development, for example, around gender and sexuality.  Olivia also has extensive experience of working with neurodiverse young people.  

Olivia has a warm and approachable style, and works to build a safe and containing relationship, from which to explore and make sense of young people and families’ experiences. She is skilled at building collaborative relationships with families and the people who support them, working with a wide range of professionals across health, education and social care settings to develop shared understandings of young people’s strengths, needs and how best to support them. Her work draws upon systemic, psychodynamic, cognitive, behavioural and developmental models across both individual sessions and family work. 

In addition to direct work with families, Olivia provides supervision to trainee and qualified Clinical Psychology colleagues. She has enjoyed providing training to networks of Clinical Psychologists and other practitioners across the UK on topics such as mental health, autism, and supporting young people who are gender diverse. She is co-author of a MindEd online learning module, commissioned by NHS England, for Education Professionals: Supporting Children and Young People with gender-related questions or distress in education settings. 

Further info:
Health Care Professions Council