About Us

Enabling people to find a place on the ‘riverbank’ of their lives means finding a sense of hope and safety from which to respond to troubles, trauma or hardship.

We are a team of highly experienced and dedicated clinical psychologists and educational professionals working with practitioners, teams and organisations to promote mental health and resilience. We believe that resilience is not just a mindset or a quality we possess as individuals but is connected to our social context and is built through our connections with others, the important people in our lives and the networks of support around us. We offer training, supervision and coaching underpinned by Narrative Therapy, an approach to community practice that pays attention to people’s social and cultural experience as well as their emotions and behaviours. We do this by working collaboratively and in partnership with people, building stories which emphasise their personal agency and the resources available within their relationships, families, school or workplace and local communities.
What is Narrative Therapy?

Dr Vicky Eames is consultant clinical psychologist and co-founder of Riverbank Psychology. She studied and worked as a clinical psychologist within adult mental health services in London before moving to Cheshire & Wirral Parnership NHS Foundation Trust in 2002, where she worked for many years within both adult and child & adolescent mental health services.   Having worked within the mental health field in the NHS and independently for 30 years she is passionate about exploring ways of responding to trauma and developing resilience within community settings. Inspired by the work of David Denborough, Vicky trialled the Team of Life Collective Narrative Practice approach in schools and mental health services on the Wirral, leading to the development of the Team of Life Resilience Programme and Facilitator Training. 

Mariangels Ferrer is a clinical psychologist and co-founder of Riverbank Psychology. She qualified as a psychologist in Spain in 1993 and has lived and worked in the UK for over 20 years including ten years in NHS inpatient and community paediatric settings. Alongside this she has completed master's degrees in both Systemic Family Therapy and Narrative Therapy and Community Work. Mariangels offers training and supervision of practitioners in narrative and systemic practice across the UK as part of the teaching faculty of the Institute of Narrative Therapy. She has delivered groups in schools in Trafford utilising the 'Tree of Life' and is engaging genetic counsellors from different parts of the UK with narrative ideas through supervision, group intervention and training. She has been instrumental in the development and delivery of the Team of Life training, particularly helping to tease out the narrative therapy framework behind the programme. 

Robin Johnson has an undergraduate degree in psychology as well as a PGCE in mathematics. He has spent over 25 years teaching maths in secondary schools, alongside pastoral care and senior leadership positions and experience delivering whole school training. He has been a form teacher for most of his teaching career as well as a  Head of Year, Head of Department and Assistant Headteacher. He is also the author of a children’s novel called Red Sky at Night in which ginger children save the world from alien invasion. He recently completed his Level One Narrative Therapy Training, which was a bit of a departure from his day job teaching maths but very relevant to his pastoral work. He has been involved in the development of the Team of Life programme from the outset, bringing his teaching and pastoral experience to ensuring the feasibility of delivery in schools.