Dr Melina Throuvala is an HCPC-registered counselling psychologist and academic specialising in neurodiversity, behavioural addictions and the psychological impact of physical health conditions. She offers compassionate, neuroaffirmative assessment and therapy informed by clinical experience and international research.
Melina helped establish one of the UK’s first NHS Gambling Harms Clinics and has supported children, young people and families within NHS paediatric psychology services. Her research has contributed to the evidence base informing the World Health Organisation’s work on gaming disorder. She has also contributed to Royal College of Psychiatrists guidance on technology use and mental health and UK guidance for paediatric respiratory psychology services.
She led the development and validation of the first ever scale to measure distraction from smartphone use, the Smartphone Distraction Scale (Throuvala et al., 2021), now used in international research. Her practice helps people understand their experiences, recognise their strengths and work towards meaningful change.