About Us

Abacus Psychology Service was founded by Dr David Ankers, Registered Clinical Psychologist, in 2018 with a vision to provide excellent quality 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.

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 Elicia 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 Elicia 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.

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.

Where will I be seen?

We have our clinic rooms in Stafford, but we also see some families at home or even online if that suits. We try and be as flexible as we can. We cover Staffordshire and surrounds.

We value our relationships

A few of our clients ...

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.