Liz Searle

Dr Searle has been a Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist since 2012. She is experienced in the assessment and treatment of the full range of child and adolescent emotional, behavioural and mental health problems, including depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, OCD, tics and Tourettes, and trauma. She has a special interest in neurodevelopmental disorders, particularly high-functioning autism spectrum condition (ASC), and associated comorbidities including ADHD. She takes a holistic approach to management, taking into account the young person’s wider social and family environment, and also believes in applying research evidence to clinical practice. She has experience of working with culturally and socially diverse patient groups in a broad range of settings, and with a range of complexity. She provides treatment drawing on various therapeutic approaches, including psychodynamic, systemic and cognitive behavioural therapy. She uses medication where appropriate.

She is also trained in eye movement desensitisation reprocessing (EMDR), having completed Level 3 training, as well as specialist child training in the use of EMDR. She also has level 1 accreditation in dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT). She has experience of medicolegal expert witness work in both civil and criminal cases.

Dr Searle completed her medical training at UCL Medical School followed by SHO psychiatry training at the Royal Free Hospital and higher specialist training in child and adolescent psychiatry at the Great Ormond Street and Royal London Hospitals rotation.
She currently works in the NHS at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust in Camden community CAMHS, where she has been a Consultant since 2012.   She has been Associate Director for Clinical Governance and Quality Improvement (QI) at the Tavistock since 2016. She completed a Masters in leadership at Ashridge Business School through the prestigious GenerationQ leadership programme in 2019. In 2021, she became Associate Clinical Director for Camden CAMHS. Prior to studying medicine, she completed a degree in Developmental Psychology.

Dr Searle has publications in developmental neuropsychiatry, autism spectrum disorder and brief psychotherapy. She takes an active role in medical education, teaching medical students from Royal Free and UCL medical school and is a trainer for higher specialist trainees in child and adolescent psychiatry. She is on the GMC specialist register and is also registered with various health insurers including Axa.