01785 616081
About Us
Abacus Psychology Service was founded by Dr David Ankers, Registered Clinical Psychologist, in 2018 with a vision to provide excellent quality, timely and compassionate care for children, families and individuals experiencing distress and poor mental health.
Our well experienced Clinical and Counselling Psychologists are all registered with the Health and Care Professions Council to ensure the delivery of quality, bespoke psychology services.
We work in a truly person-centred and collaborative way, recognising every person's unique circumstances and context, to provide a safe, confidential and non-judgemental space.
We provide specialist psychological assessment and therapy, as well as services for schools, children in care, adoptive and foster parents and residential care settings throughout Staffordshire and surrounding areas.
Our Services
We offer a range of high-quality, timely and effective psychological services for children, parents, adults, families and organisations across Staffordshire and surrounding areas.
Our qualified and experienced Clinical and Counselling Psychologists offer specialist psychological assessment and therapies for a range emotional, relational, mental health and behavioural difficulties.
We offer bespoke training, consultation and supervision to schools, working with staff to support the emotional, mental health and behavioural needs of pupils.
We work with various local authorities and private providers to support children in residential and foster care, and adoptive parents.
Meet Our Team
We are a group of well experienced registered and chartered Clinical dnd Counselling Psychologists with a common goal to provide high quality, specialist, person-centred and bespoke psychological services to improve the emotional and mental wellbeing of the people in our local communities.
Dr David Ankers
Clinical Psychologist and Director
Dr David Ankers is chartered and registered Clinical Psychologist specialising in the area of children, adolescents and families. He is currently working in private practice providing clinical assessment and therapy to children, young people, families and adults with a range of mental health difficulties including depression, anxiety, behavior concerns, attachment difficulties and developmental trauma. He also provides support and consultations to residential care homes and schools.
He has worked with children, adolescents and adults with mental health presentations and developmental disorders. He has worked in various settings including CAMHS, specialist autism services, children’s disability services and services for children and young people in care. He specialises working with complex cases as well assessment of Autism and Learning Disability.
He has held clinical and leadership roles in both the NHS and private healthcare. He has worked as a qualified psychologist for over 15 years within a range of settings including Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services, children’s disability services, services for looked-after children, a specialist Autism assessment and support service and mental health in schools services.
He has also worked as a UK-based trainer for an internationally recognised organisation, delivering training on evidenced-based parenting interventions for professionals across the UK.
Dr Monika Ankers
Clinical Psychologist
Dr Monika Ankers is a chartered and registered Clinical Psychologist specialising in work with children, adolescents, parents and carers, families and adults, with a range of complex clinical needs and presentations. She has 20 years of experience working in the NHS in various clinical settings prior to independent practice. She is currently working in private practice continuing to provide these specialist psychological assessments, formulation and interventions.
She has worked with children, young people, families, parents and carers, and adults with various complex clinical mental health presentations including anxiety, depression, psychosis, PTSD, attachment and relational difficulties, developmental trauma and behavioural concerns. As a qualified Clinical Psychologist, she has worked in various settings including Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services, Early Intervention Psychosis, Youth Custody Service (YOI) and perinatal mental health (Mother and Baby Unit). She has also worked collaboratively with schools, residential settings, physical health clinics and in a maximum-security hospital.
Her work is informed by and integrates a range of psychological models and theories including attachment, cognitive, behavioural, systemic and narrative approaches, to offer a truly person-centred and bespoke approach for complex clinical presentations and systems. She has a particular interest in clinical applications of attachment theory across the life span, trauma-informed ways of working and relational and developmental trauma.
Dr Elicia Boulton
Counselling Psychologist
Dr Boulton is a registered Counselling Psychologist who specialises in working with neurodivergent adolescents and young adults, their families and the systems they are part of. She is currently starting work in private practice to provide clinical assessment and therapy to young people, families and adults presenting with a range of mental health difficulties (e.g., anxiety, depression, trauma, self-harm, OCD, attachment difficulties).
Dr Boulton has worked with a range of client presentations in a variety of settings (e.g., NHS CAMHS, specialist college, pupil referral units, mainstream schools and colleges, autism assessment service, NHS staff counselling service). She has twelve years experience of working with neurodivergent clients in a therapeutic capacity and are extremely passionate about providing a neurodivergent affirming service.
She has a number of years experience working in schools and colleges, and alongside education staff to advocate for the needs of young people and their families. Being involved in EHCP meetings/reviews and providing input to support young people has been a regular part of Dr Boulton’s roles to date.
Dr Helen Walls
Clinical Psychologist
Dr Helen Walls is a Clinical Psychologist with specialist expertise in clinical assessment and therapy with children, young people and families. She works with a range of mental health difficulties including depression, anxiety, attachment difficulties and developmental trauma.
She is deeply passionate about emotional well-being across the population, with a particular focus on the younger generations. She has had extensive experience of assessment and psychological intervention to support children, young people and families to help them understand and overcome psychological adversity and achieve their potential. She is highly organised and diligent whilst maintaining a warm and empathic approach, essential for engagement with some of the most vulnerable members of our society. She is registered with relevant regulatory bodies.
Ms Lisa Dale
BABCP CBT Therapist and CBT Supervisor and Accredited EMDR Therapist in child and adult
Lisa is a fully accredited CBT Therapist and Accredited EMDR Therapist specialising in providing services to children and their families as well as adults. Lisa has over 18 years’ experience of working across the NHS and Local Authority in leadership roles as well as working in the independent sector. Lisa has worked in a Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service since 2008, offering parenting interventions, CBT, EMDR and specialist services for Looked After Children. If you would like to find out more about EMDR treatments click here.
Lisa has extensive experience of working with children, young people and adults who experience low mood, anxiety, self-harm, stress, social anxiety, panic disorder, emetophobia, general phobias, obsessive compulsive disorder, separation anxiety, generalised anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Lisa is also trained in Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy, Dialectical Behaviour Therapy and the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS) and Autism Diagnostic Interview ADI-R (Autism assessments)
Lisa also offers training and supervision to trainee and qualified Therapists. Lisa views therapy as a collaboration and strives to build a warm, empathic relationship based on a shared understanding of a client's issues.
Dr Cheryl Watkins
Counselling Psychologist
Dr Cheryl Watkins is a registered counselling psychologist currently working in independent practice. She has extensive experience of working with mental health and trauma as well as neurodevelopmental assessment. She has many years experience working with different client groups in the voluntary sector and in private practice. Cheryl offers assessment and intervention for adults, children and families in relation to a range of psychological needs.
Cheryl specialises in providing psychological assessments and therapeutic intervention to children and adults with a range of presenting needs in relation to difficulties such as: Anxiety, Attachment, Adjustment, Behavioural Problems, Bereavement, Depression, Emotional Distress, Personal Injury, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Work related difficulties.
Cheryl has worked in a range of different settings including Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services, Youth Justice Services, Autism Diagnostic and interventions Services, secure settings, education facilities and residential care settings. Her areas of specialism relate to neurodevelopment assessment and interventions, trauma focused interventions and those individuals that have experienced adverse experience leading to forensic involvement or presenting with reduced emotional wellbeing or attachment difficulties.
Cheryl utilises an integrative approach across different therapeutic modalities, incorporating Eye Movement Desensitisation Reprogramming, Dialectical Behaviour Therapy, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Solution Focused Therapy and Motivational Interviewing, centred through a Person Centred approach. Cheryl is trained in Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS) and Autism Diagnostic Interview ADI-R (Autism assessments).
Cheryl is a passionate in optimising individual’s wellbeing, through creating a safe, secure and warmth empathic space to facilitate personal growth for her clients to build on their individual skillsets and develop resiliency.
Our Story
Abacus Psychology Services was established by Dr David Ankers, a Clinical Psychologist based in Stafford. After many years of working in various child and family services within the NHS and independent sectors, in both clinical and leadership roles, David became passionate about wanting to offer high quality, effective and timely psychological services to people within the local community.
Since setting Abacus Psychology up, David has grown the service to work alongside and in association with other Psychologists and multi-disciplinary professionals to establish the service as an important part of the local community, working with local schools, NHS services and Social Care.
We have grown into a small team of "hand-picked" clinical and counselling psychologists who share some core values about what is important to people and families, and about the nature of distress and how best to support the people who use our services.
We all believe that relationships are fundamental to healthy, supportive and trusting ways of working to optimise helpful outcomes, and ensure that the service we offer has been negotiated and agreed with the people who use our services.
We appreciate that life is often complicated and its not always clear why things feel hard or what might help. Together we can usually find a way forward.
Care you can trust...
At Abacus Psychology all of our Psychologists have up to date DBS checks and are registered with the Health and Care Professions Council - the regulatory body for Practitioner Psychologists.
Contact Us
Burnden House, 150 Weston Road, Stafford. ST16 3RU
01785 616089