Managing Director
Senior Clinical Nurse Specialist

Amanda brings to the role extensive experience of managing an NHS mental health and multi-professional team. As a Scottish Improvement Leader, she consistently demonstrates a strong passion for bridging the gap to improve the experience of those accessing healthcare services, primarily the need to value mental health equally to physical health. With women, there is growing evidence of stigma, misdiagnosis, and too often women feeling that their needs have not been listened to or met. She feels proud to be part of a team of professionals with a collective vision and to offer women the option to access specialist assessment and treatment for their mental health and overall well-being.

Amanda continues to combine her managerial role at Women First Healthcare with clinical work, as often as she can; this has always been important to her. As a dual registered nurse (RGN/RMN), she offers a holistic and whole-person approach to adult assessment, treatment, and recovery from a wide range of conditions.

Outside of work, she values quality time with family and pursues her love of travel when opportunities arise.

Medical Director
Consultant Psychiatrist

Fiona has been a consultant psychiatrist within the NHS since 2006, and for over seven years she was a full-time perinatal psychiatric consultant, working with women during pregnancy and the first year postnatally. During this time, she was one of the specialist panel developing the Scottish SIGN guidelines on perinatal mood disorder, which was published in 2012.

Out with her perinatal work, she has provided consultant care to adults both on inpatient mental health wards and in various community settings both within and out with the UK. She is also a qualified cognitive behavioural therapist (CBT), which helps her take a holistic approach with those accessing services.

As a doctor, she made the decision to specialise in psychiatry when she realised that it would mean more time listening to individuals and understanding their lives and their difficulties as fully as possible. She has been aware of the increasing pressures within healthcare services over recent years, and how this can make it harder to achieve a thorough approach for each individual. Her hope for Women First Healthcare is that it can be somewhere where women will receive the time and the expertise they need when things get difficult.

In her spare time, she likes nothing better than watching movies and relaxing with loved ones.

Director of Psychological Therapies
Consultant Clinical Psychologist

Ailish has been working as a clinical psychologist within the NHS for over 20 years and specialises in delivering evidence-based psychological treatments to adults with long-standing mental health difficulties. Ailish takes an eclectic approach to the therapies that she offers and believes that the most meaningful therapeutic changes come about when therapist and client work collaboratively, without judgement or shame. Ailish is committed to helping people develop a deeper understanding of themselves and their difficulties and will support her clients to bring about change so they can move towards the life they want to live. Ailish has been trained in a wide variety of evidence-based psychological interventions, including cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), trauma-focused CBT (TF-CBT), compassion-focused therapy (CFT), integrative family systems therapy (IFS), and eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing therapy (EMDR), to name a few.

Ailish is passionate about ensuring that women’s psychological needs are met, their experiences heard and understood, and their well-being upheld. She is delighted to be working in a team that is dedicated to the holistic treatment of women.

When she is not working, Ailish enjoys spending her time with her husband and daughters, walking her beloved dog, and enjoying the great outdoors.

Director of Nursing Services
Senior Advanced Nurse Practitioner (RMN)

Pauline is a multi-award-winning mental health nurse and senior advanced nurse practitioner who has extensive experience working within the NHS & private sector for over 23 years. Pauline has a real passion for advanced practice, and since taking up the role in 2011, she has been working tirelessly to promote and enhance the advanced practice within mental health services, evidencing the improvement to those who access care.

As the first senior advanced nurse practitioner working within a community mental health team in Scotland, she brings a wealth of knowledge in mental health assessment, diagnosis, prescribing, planning, and implementation of care for individuals presenting with various conditions, always working collaboratively in order to gain the right outcome for them.

Pauline is only too aware of the challenges women face in accessing healthcare to meet their needs and demonstrates an empathetic, caring, understanding, and considerate approach when working in partnership with others. She loves the concept of “women helping women” and, drawing from her own personal and professional experience, really understands day-to-day what this means.

When not at work, Pauline loves nothing more than spending time with her husband and three children; she is especially proud watching her son play football and her daughters dancing and being creative.