Hatel is currently working as a Counselling Psychologist within the Paediatric Liaison Service at St Thomas’s hospital. She has recently joined as the Psychologist within the Paediatric Sickle Cell team.
Hatel trained at City University in Counselling Psychology and since qualifying, she has been working in a number of Community Child and Adolescent Mental Health (CAMHS) services across London.
She is passionate about supporting children and young people, along with their families, who have sickle cell. She offers cognitive assessments, and individual and family therapy sessions for children and young people. These are used for developing coping strategies for pain, exploring patient’s feelings about their conditions and adjustment to this. She also provides therapy for associated psychological difficulties they may experience at home, school and in their social lives, as a result of their diagnosis
In addition, Hatel facilitates liaison and teaching with the medical team around communication and awareness of sickle cell, for other health care professionals.
Hatel has a special interest in working with multi-agencies, such as schools, and other health care professionals in the community to help provide holistic care for patients. She is also keen to explore cultural differences in families’ understanding of their child’s diagnosis, and experiences of using psychological therapies to help with the management of pain.