Dr Melita Ash - Percuro Psychology

Dr Melita Ash - Percuro Psychology Contact information, map and directions, contact form, opening hours, services, ratings, photos, videos and announcements from Dr Melita Ash - Percuro Psychology, Psychologist, Huntbridge Hall, Matlock Grn, Matlock, DE4 3BX, Matlock.

Consultant Clinical Psychologist

đź’« Specialist in anxiety & school avoidance in teens | Parenting support | Assessments | Therapy | Workshops
👤 Derbyshire & online
👇 Parent webinars

Email admin@percuropsychology.co.uk
Tel 07754 439891

This is such a common moment for parents.You go into a meeting with a sense that something isn’t quite right…and come ou...
28/04/2026

This is such a common moment for parents.
You go into a meeting with a sense that something isn’t quite right…
and come out wondering if it’s you.
Because when school say they’re not seeing concerns, it can chip away at your confidence in a way that’s hard to explain.
Especially when what you’re seeing at home feels so clear.
Often, this isn’t about disagreement.
It’s about different environments showing different parts of your child.
Many young people, particularly those who are anxious or neurodivergent, work incredibly hard to get through the school day.
And that effort isn’t always visible.
But the impact of it usually is.
And that tends to show up at home.
So if you’ve been holding that doubt…
it might be worth gently staying curious about what’s underneath.
You know your child in a way no one else does.
That perspective matters.

If your autistic teen’s anxiety seems to have intensified during adolescence, it can feel confusing and often quite frig...
25/04/2026

If your autistic teen’s anxiety seems to have intensified during adolescence, it can feel confusing and often quite frightening.
Especially if things once felt more manageable.
But this isn’t usually a sudden change.
It’s what can happen when:
adolescence brings rising expectations,
autism shapes how those demands are experienced,
and the environments around them don’t adjust at the same pace.
During this stage, the brain becomes more sensitive to social evaluation, uncertainty, and emotional intensity.
At the same time, many autistic teens are already working harder to process the world around them: navigating sensory input, social demands, and often the cumulative impact of masking.
When those internal and external pressures begin to outpace capacity, anxiety rises.
Not because your teen is failing.
But because their nervous system is overwhelmed.
Understanding this combination of factors, and how it uniquely shows up for your teen, is what informs meaningful, effective support.
Because when you understand what’s driving the anxiety, you can begin to respond differently.

If you’re trying to make sense of what’s going on for your teen, this is exactly the work I do.
You can book a Parent Power Hour via the link in my bio.

One of the hardest parts of parenting a teenager is often the distance you feel.The sense that the connection you once h...
15/04/2026

One of the hardest parts of parenting a teenager is often the distance you feel.
The sense that the connection you once had has shifted…
or loosened…
or, at times, disappeared altogether.

And that can bring up something many parents don’t say out loud:
A feeling of rejection.
A sense of helplessness.
A fear of “have I lost them?”

But adolescence isn’t the end of connection.
It’s a reworking of it.
Underneath the pushing away, the withdrawal, the unpredictability…
the brain is becoming more shaped by experience than it has been since early childhood.
Which means your presence, even now, still matters.

Not in a constant, all-access kind of way.
But in the small, often unseen moments:
Staying available
Repairing when things wobble
Holding them in mind, even when they don’t let you close

These moments accumulate.
Even when they don’t respond.
Even when it feels like it’s not landing.

This stage can feel like disconnection.
But it isn’t the end of the story.

You probably don’t say these thoughts out loud.But they’re there…in the quiet moments,in the middle of the night,when ev...
09/04/2026

You probably don’t say these thoughts out loud.
But they’re there…

in the quiet moments,
in the middle of the night,
when everything feels heavier.
Your mind reaching ahead…
trying to make sense of where this is all going.

And when things feel uncertain now,
the future can start to look fixed.
As though this moment is the whole story.

But it isn’t.

What you’re feeling makes sense.
When you care this deeply,
when you’re holding this much,
of course your mind tries to fill in the gaps.
Of course it worries.
Of course it wonders.

And underneath all of that…
is a parent who hasn’t given up.
Who is still there.
Still thinking.
Still showing up, even when it’s hard.

There is more to come than this moment.
More growth.
More understanding.
More shifts that you can’t yet see.

The story isn’t over yet.

If you’re carrying this quietly…
you’re not alone.

There’s something about the term “pathological demand avoidance” that doesn’t sit comfortably with me.Not because the pr...
09/04/2026

There’s something about the term “pathological demand avoidance” that doesn’t sit comfortably with me.

Not because the profile isn’t real, it absolutely is. I see it often in the young people and families I work with.

But because of what that word pathological implies.
When we describe something as pathological, we subtly place the problem within the child.

Something disordered. Something to fix.

And yet, when you slow things down and really look beneath the behaviour, what you often see is a nervous system under strain.

A young person who is:
– overwhelmed
– uncertain
– needing a sense of control
– already operating close to their limit

So when a demand is placed… their system responds.
Not with calm engagement, but with protection.

Avoidance, refusal, distraction, shutdown.

These aren’t signs of a child being difficult.

They are signs of a child whose system doesn’t feel safe enough, predictable enough, or manageable enough in that moment.

That doesn’t mean we remove all expectations.

But it does mean we shift our lens.
From:
“What’s wrong with this child?”
To:
“What is this behaviour trying to protect?”

Because that’s where the real work begins.

If you’ve found yourself second-guessing everything lately, you’re not alone.One of the hardest parts of parenting an an...
03/04/2026

If you’ve found yourself second-guessing everything lately, you’re not alone.

One of the hardest parts of parenting an anxious (and often neurodivergent) teen is that the old markers of “am I doing this right?” start to disappear.

What used to reassure you no longer works.
Advice conflicts.
And the pressure quietly builds.

So many of the parents I work with don’t actually need more strategies.
They need orientation.

They need space to think clearly again.
They need support that helps them understand what’s underneath their teen’s behaviour and what matters most right now.

That’s where confidence starts to come back.

Not from doing more.
But from understanding more deeply.

And that is the space I offer in my Parent Power Hour.

If this sounds like something you need right now comment or DM me”Power Hours” and I’ll send you the details 👍

When a child is struggling with school attendance,the conversation can quickly become about getting them back in.Targets...
26/03/2026

When a child is struggling with school attendance,
the conversation can quickly become about getting them back in.

Targets. Percentages. Plans.

But often, what’s missing is space to ask:

What is making school feel unmanageable right now?

The current guidance talks about working together,
about understanding barriers,
about putting support in place.

And in many schools, that is happening.
But in others, parents are still finding themselves in conversations
that feel focused on attendance first, and understanding second.

This is where it can help to have a few steady phrases to come back to.
Not to challenge or confront,
but to gently guide the conversation back to what matters.

Because for many young people,
attendance improves when the environment becomes more manageable.

Not when the pressure increases.

If you have a school meeting coming up,
you might want to save this to come back to.

And if you’re in this space right now, trying to make sense of things,
advocate for your child, and hold it all together, you’re not alone in it.

Masking is hard work, no wonder your child is letting those emotions out in the safe place of home! You’ve created an en...
24/03/2026

Masking is hard work, no wonder your child is letting those emotions out in the safe place of home! You’ve created an environment where they can BE, just be! Just as they are, truly.
You’re doing an amazing job ❤️

When your teen is overwhelmed, it’s so instinctive to reach for questions.We want to understand.We want to help.We want ...
21/03/2026

When your teen is overwhelmed, it’s so instinctive to reach for questions.

We want to understand.
We want to help.
We want to fix it.

But in that moment, their system isn’t always able to process questions, even well-meaning ones.
And what they often need first isn’t problem-solving.
It’s a sense of:

👉 “I’m not alone in this”
👉 “I don’t have to explain myself right now”
👉 “I’m safe enough to settle”

This is one of the smallest shifts I share with parents —
but it can change the whole dynamic in those intense moments.

You don’t have to get it perfect.

Just being alongside them is more powerful than you think.

We talk a lot about helping young people “cope”.But far less about what they are actually coping with.Because if the env...
19/03/2026

We talk a lot about helping young people “cope”.
But far less about what they are actually coping with.

Because if the environment still feels overwhelming,
no amount of strategies will override a nervous system in threat mode.

And this is where I see things get stuck.

The focus stays on the young person:
👉 manage your anxiety
👉 use your skills
👉 push through

Without fully understanding the demands being placed on them.

And when that doesn’t work, the pressure doesn’t disappear.

It just shifts.

Onto the young person.
And onto parents.

This isn’t about lowering expectations.

It’s about asking a better question:
What is this young person’s nervous system responding to right now?

Because when we start there,
we move away from blame…
and towards something that actually helps.

I see you ❤️
17/03/2026

I see you ❤️

Recent comments from Uta Frith suggesting that the autism spectrum may have become “too broad” have sparked a lot of dis...
12/03/2026

Recent comments from Uta Frith suggesting that the autism spectrum may have become “too broad” have sparked a lot of discussion.

As a clinical psychologist working with adolescents, I find myself reflecting on this from the perspective of the families I meet every week.

For many years, autism research was built around a relatively narrow profile - largely boys with more externally visible presentations. That early model shaped how autism was recognised, diagnosed and understood.

What we are seeing now is not the spectrum becoming diluted. It is the field beginning to recognise the diversity of autistic experiences that were always there but often overlooked.

Many teenagers I work with managed to hold things together in primary school. When adolescence arrives, with its increased social complexity, sensory load and academic pressure,the coping strategies that once worked can become much harder to sustain.

From this perspective, the increase in identification doesn’t mean the spectrum has become “too broad”.
It means our understanding is evolving.

For many families, the issue has never been over-identification.

It has been years of their child struggling before anyone fully understood why.

Address

Huntbridge Hall, Matlock Grn, Matlock, DE4 3BX
Matlock
DE43FD

Opening Hours

Monday 4pm - 7pm
Tuesday 9am - 5pm
Wednesday 9am - 5pm
Thursday 9am - 8pm
Friday 9am - 5pm
Saturday 9am - 5pm

Telephone

+447754439891

Website

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