Dr Lisa de Rijk
Dr Lisa de Rijk is a Registered General Nurse and UKCP Accredited Psychotherapist with a PhD in Psychology focusing on mental health in marginalised groups. As a world leading psychotherapist in Neurolinguistic Psychotherapy, she is clinical expert in a novel trauma therapy at King's College, London, where she is a Visiting Research Fellow. Lisa is developer of FIRST® PTSD protocol and is Clinical Expert for researching this protocol at King's College London, leading it through a series of clinical trials with Armed Forces veterans and Health Service personnel.
At the start of the recent war in Ukraine, and pro bono, Lisa brought together a team of clinicians from the UK, Ireland, Poland and the United States to provide clinical training in brief trauma therapy to psychologists on the ground in Ukraine. This upskilled more than 50 therapists to ensure that returning military personnel, civilians and those released from occupied territories were able to get access to a rapid form of trauma therapy. Subsequent to this, Lisa worked with the Ukraine Ministry of Defense and other Government Departments to develop a strategy of integrated services to support Torture Survivors as they returned from the front lines or occupied regions.
Lisa is Honorary Fellow of UKCP having served as Chair and Vice Chair of UKCP (United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy) in a voluntary capacity and was instrumental in working with the UK Government and Dept of Health on the statutory regulation of psychology, psychotherapy and counseling, and the White Paper on the regulation of non-medical professionals. She worked closely with Skills for Health in implementing the groundwork for the development of National Occupational Standards for Psychotherapy. She also challenged the notion of a therapeutic mono-culture for psychotherapy and provided researched based evidence within the Dept of Health and House of Lords to counter the drive by the Dept of Health to exclude equally effective forms of psychotherapy.
Lisa authored the first depth book on Neurolinguistic Psychotherapy through Routledge's Advancing Theory in Therapy Services and has also lead a team of clinical researchers in providing a published evidence base for NLP approaches for mental health conditions – the Clinical Effectiveness of Neurolinguistic Programming in 2012, and a further updated publication in 2022. Each of these publications has enabled the wider acceptance of NLP as a useful methodology for certain mental health conditions.
Through her Business, Awaken Consulting and Training Services, Lisa and Professor Neil Greenberg, through March on Stress, have implemented training, supervision and a Service Evaluation for 10 Psychologists in Australia to provide FIRST to Australian Military Veterans. Lisa's extensive consultancy experience includes the Department of Health in the UK and a number of Health and Local Authorities. Lisa has worked closely with the NHS Modernisation Agency in implementing the national Clinical Governance Framework for medical and pharmacy contracts. Her work in the public sector included the development and design of an innovative training programme for Cardiff City Council working with youngsters at risk of offending behaviour. She has worked with Cardiff City Council and Cardiff University Health Board on the development of an Integrated Partnership Board. This programme involved multi agency representation across public and third sector organisations and resulted in the development of work streams with lead officer involvement to deliver key priority areas. Service user representation was included in the reporting activities.
Lisa has published a number of clinical academic books and authored over 30 clinical, research or leadership published articles, some under her former name Lisa Wake.