Fiona Yassin is the International Program Director at The Wave, holding multiple credentials including being a registered Psychotherapist and Accredited Clinical Supervisor in both the U.K. and UNCG (Registration number #361609 National and International Council of Psychotherapists). She is EMDR trained (EMDRIA) and practices as a Trauma therapist (Registration number #10000054651).
Fiona’s expertise includes being a member of the International Chapter of IAEDP, with training in CBTe (Oxford Group), FREED (King’s College, London), TF-CBT, RO-DBT, and GPM. Her specializations cover the treatment of Eating Disorders and Borderline Personality Disorder, as well as families in High Conflict Divorces and Psychiatry across the female lifespan.
Additionally, Fiona holds the distinction of being a Fellow of APPCH, a senior accredited Addiction Professional, and a member of The Association of Child Protection Professionals. She is also trained in MBT (Child and Family and Adult) and Reflective Parenting with The Anna Freud Centre for Children and Families, and is a Member of The Australia and New Zealand Eating Disorders Association.
Fiona holds an MSc in Neuroscience and Mental Health awarded by King’s College London, where she received The Dean’s Award. She is currently completing an MSc in Psychiatry at Cardiff University Medical School and is a PhD Candidate in Mental Health Research at Lancaster University. Outside of her professional pursuits, she enjoys spending time with her three cats, going for long walks on the beach, and appreciating the beautiful animals in her garden.
Young people with OCD experience obsessions and compulsions. Obsessions are unwanted and intrusive thoughts, feelings, and impulses that lead to distress and anxiety. Compulsions are actions that young people carry out to try and cope with or stop their obsessions.
When young people experience sexual harassment, it can affect how they perceive themselves, their appearance, and their bodies. It may cause them to place more of their self-value on their appearance or their body shape and weight. They may become increasingly dissatisfied with their bodies or ashamed of the way they look.
Experiences of trauma are common among children, and possibly even more so among adolescents. Young people may experience different forms of abuse, violence, and accidents, or survive wars and disasters.
Adolescence is a time of change. Some of these changes are outside a young person’s control, but others require making decisions. That might be what to do after leaving secondary school, which subjects to study, or decisions about relationships with others.
Chronic pain is common in young people. Between 11% and 38% of children and adolescents may cope with chronic pain as part of their everyday lives. Chronic pain is often invisible and unseen by others, an unrecognised challenge that affects a young person’s emotional, physical, and social well-being.
Eating disorders often control a young person’s life. They can dictate their decisions and choices, overpowering other goals, dreams, and values. At the same time, starvation affects the brain’s ability to think clearly, make reasoned decisions, and be resilient to external and internal challenges.
People often talk about depersonalisation and derealisation together, but they actually refer to different things. Depersonalisation is when someone feels detached from or outside of their body or mind. In periods of derealisation, a person feels like their inner world, body, or surroundings are unreal, dream-like, or altered in some way.
Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a serious mental health condition that usually develops during late adolescence. BPD affects the way that young people see themselves and relate to others around them.
Eating disorders are serious mental health conditions that are common among young people. The good news is that, with professional support, most young people can make a full recovery, reclaiming their physical and mental well-being.
Family-based therapy (FBT) is the most established treatment for anorexia nervosa among children and adolescents. FBT empowers family members to engage in the treatment process and focuses on restoring the physical health of a young person.
Despite the prevalence of teen drug use in the UAE, widespread prevention strategies are still lacking. Both adolescents and experts highlight the need for school-based prevention programs and parental support to help young people stay safe and identify and support young people who may be using substances harmfully.
In this blog, we offer some information about the impact of compulsive sexual behaviours on children and the family system as a whole. We outline The Wave Clinic’s pioneering family and child intensives that offer unique and valuable support for young people affected by sex addiction.
Dialectical behavioural therapy is a type of talking therapy originally designed for adults with borderline personality disorder. Since then, it has been adapted for treatment among adolescents and offered for a wide range of mental health concerns, including eating disorders, self-harm, and emotional dysregulation. Usually delivered in outpatient settings, studies have shown that DBT is highly effective in improving young people’s mental health symptoms and quality of life.
