Dr Fiona Challacombe qualified as a clinical psychologist from the IoPPN, King’s College London in 2005. After working in clinical practice she gained a Peggy Pollak research fellowship from the Psychiatry Research Trust and completed a PhD at King’s College London in 2014.  

Her research examined the impact of perinatal obsessive-compulsive disorder on women and children. She conducted the first randomised controlled trial of CBT for postpartum OCD, investigating treatment effects on anxiety and parenting. She joined the Section of Women’s Mental Health at the IoPPN in 2017 and gained an NIHR fellowship to investigate treatments for perinatal anxiety disorders in 2018.

She is a senior clinician at the Maudsley Centre for Anxiety Disorders and Trauma (CADAT) where she has developed and leads a sub-service for parents with anxiety disorders.  She is author of the self-help book Break Free from OCD and a therapist treatment manual CBT for OCD.

Research interests

• Perinatal mental health
• Anxiety Disorders
• Cognitive Behaviour Therapy & Psychological interventions
• Parenting and mental health

Teaching

• Anxiety - Doctorate in Clinical Psychology
• Origins of anxiety disorders - Msc Affective Disorders
• Mother-infant interactions – MSc in Women and Child Health
• Anxiety Disorders, Psychological interventions; Fathers interventions- Women’s Mental Health iBSc
• Mother-infant interactions - Psychology BSc
• OCD - PGDip in CBT for Psychosis
• Perinatal mental health- PGDip in High Intensity Psychotherapy

Expertise and public engagement

Fiona is patron of the charity Maternal OCD which raises awareness of perinatal OCD amongst service users and professionals. She participates in service user conferences and events related to anxiety disorders and perinatal mental health.

She regularly provides teaching and training workshops on perinatal mental health to IAPT services and specialist perinatal mental health services nationally.