I am a BACP registered psychotherapist and I have experience working for charities, the NHS and privately, in the UK and abroad. I am also an accredited ontological coach.
I have experience working with a variety of issues, including anxiety, grief, depression, and low self-esteem. I also have experience with issues arising from sexual orientation, ADHD, cultural and identity issues, climate anxiety, motherhood, and chronic pain. I am passionate about helping people overcome their struggles. I believe that we all have the ability to grow, heal and thrive. Therapy is a step forward to a more fulfilling life.
I work with clients that have behaviour problems (ADHD/conduct disorder), or family members that struggle to understand, care and support someone with behavioural difficulty. Sometimes, family members need a non-judgmental space to understand their own needs and wants.
As an immigrant by choice, I am passionate to work with people that have migrated. There is a lot of interest in the psychological effects of forced emigration but very little attention to those who have immigrated by choice. Immigration by choice is accompanied by many psychological factors that are important to explore.
My Professional experience
I completed my undergraduate psychology degree in Mexico City. During my studies, I worked with young people in young offender institutions providing assessments and counselling to individuals with complex psychological trauma.
I wanted to deepen my understanding of the development of our behaviour and I decided to pursue an MSc in Neuroscience at King’s College London with the goal of understanding more about how our brain works and how it influences what we do.
I then pursued a PhD at the University of Southampton that looked at brain differences between boys and girls with behavioural problems (conduct disorder and ADHD). Although I found the research fascinating, I felt that our humanity is too complex to be understood by only studying brain processes and needs to be complemented with an understanding of our subjective world experience. I wanted to understand what makes us human on a more subjective level.
Thus, I started my Doctorate in Counselling Psychology at the New School of Psychotherapy and Counselling. As part of this programme, I have learned to work as a psychotherapist using an existential-phenomenological perspective. My current research is on the impact of the climate crisis on our mental health, and specifically on women that chose not to have children because of climate change. The journey of women choosing how and whether to mother can feel exhausting. Those that have climate concerns can cause feelings of extreme anxiety and hopelessness about the future resulting in a choice not to mother.
My qualifications include:
- Undergraduate degree in Psychology at Universidad Iberoamericana
- Masters in Neuroscience – King’s College London
- PhD in neurodevelopmental psychology – University of Southampton
- Ongoing Doctorate in Counselling psychology and psychotherapy – New school of psychotherapy and counselling and Middlesex university
- Ontological Coaching- Newfield Network Institute
My Academic Publications include:
González-Madruga, K., Rogers, J., Toschi, N., Riccelli, R., Smaragdi, A., Puzzo, I., . . . Fairchild, G. (2019). White matter microstructure of the extended limbic system in male and female youth with conduct disorder. Psychological Medicine, 1-10. doi:10.1017/S0033291718003951
Sidlauskaite, J., González-Madruga, K., Smaragdi, A., Riccelli, R., Puzzo, I., Batchelor, M., … Fairchild, G. (2017). Sex differences in risk-based decision making in adolescents with conduct disorder. European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, pp. 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-017-1024-9
Smaragdi, A., Cornwell, H., Toschi, N., Riccelli, R., Gonzalez-Madruga, K., Wells, A., … Fairchild, G. (2017). Sex Differences in the Relationship Between Conduct Disorder and Cortical Structure in Adolescents. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 56(8), 703–712. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaac.2017.05.015
Raschle, N.M., Menks, W., Fehlbaum, L., Steppan, M., Smaragdi, A., Gonzalez-Madruga, K., Rogers, J., Clanton, R., Kohls, G., Martinelli, A., Fairchild, G., De Brito, S., Konrad, k., Freitag, C., Stadler, S. (2017). Callous-unemotional traits and brain structure: sex-specific effects in anterior insula of typically developing youths.Neuroimage:Clinical.
Puzzo, I., Smaragdi, A., Gonzalez, K., Martin-Key, N.A., & Fairchild, G. (2016). Neurobiological, Neuroimaging, and Neuropsychological Studies of Children and Adolescents with Disruptive Behavior Disorders. Family Relations, 65(1), 134-150. doi:10.1111/fare.12182.
Oldenhof, H., Jansen, L., Ackermann, K., Baker, R., Batchelor, M., Baumann, S., Bernhard, A., Clanton, R., Dochnal, R., Fehlbaum, L. V., Fernandez-Rivas, A., Goergen, S., Gonzalez de Artaza-Lavesa, M., Gonzalez-Madruga, K., Gonzalez-Torres, M. A., Gundlach, M., Lotte van der Hoeven, M., Kalogerakis, Z., Kapornai, K., … Popma, A. (2020). Psychophysiological responses to sadness in girls and boys with conduct disorder. Journal of Abnormal Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1037/abn0000524
Book Chapter
González-Madruga, K., Staginnus, M., & Fairchild, G. (2022). Alterations in Structural and Functional Connectivity in ADHD: Implications for Theories of ADHD. In S. C. Stanford, & E. Sciberras (Eds.), Current Topics in Behavioral Neurosciences (pp. 445-481). (Current Topics in Behavioral Neurosciences; Vol. 57). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/7854_2022_345