Dipali Malik Bhatnagar| Family and Systemic Psychotherapist

Areas of Expertise:

• Adolescents

• Family Therapy

• Eating Disorders

Availability:

Thursdays

Dipali is an experienced Systemic Family Psychotherapist with over 14 years of experience in counselling psychology and psychotherapy. She works with children, adolescents, adults, couples and families and has worked across NHS, private and community settings in both the UK and India.

Alongside her work at The Family Treatment Service, Dipali works at the Maudsley Centre for Child and Adolescent Eating Disorders (MCCAED) at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, where she provides specialist family therapy to young people with eating disorders and their families.

Eating disorders are an important area of Dipali’s expertise, but her experience is much broader. She works with difficulties including anxiety, low mood, neurodiversity, relationship and communication difficulties, parenting challenges, life transitions and families or couples who find themselves caught in repeated patterns of conflict, misunderstanding or disconnection.

Dipali’s approach is warm, thoughtful and collaborative. She is interested not only in the difficulties someone is experiencing, but also in their relationships, family experiences, culture, identity and the wider circumstances of their life. Rather than locating the problem within one person, she helps individuals and families understand patterns that may have developed over time and creates space for different perspectives to be heard without blame or judgement.

Her practice is grounded in Systemic Family Therapy and informed by attachment-based ideas. She also draws on specialist approaches including Family Therapy for Anorexia Nervosa (FT-AN), Family Therapy for Bulimia Nervosa (FT-BN), Attachment-Based Family Therapy (ABFT), Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT) and Non-Violent Resistance (NVR). Dipali adapts her approach to the needs, relationships and circumstances of each individual, couple or family, rather than using a one-size-fits-all approach.

Dipali has a particular interest in eating disorders, adolescent mental health, neurodiversity, relationships and parenting. She values helping people recognise strengths that can become difficult to see when relationships are under pressure and supporting them to develop greater understanding, connection and more helpful ways of relating to one another.

Dipali completed her MSc in Systemic Family Psychotherapy at King’s College London and also holds a Master’s degree in Counselling Psychology.