Ahmed Tohamy

Ahmed is an Australian Clinical Psychologist based in Abu Dhabi, holding dual master’s degrees in psychology – a Master of Psychology (Clinical) from the Australian Catholic University and a Master of Professional Psychology from Western Sydney University. He is registered with the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency with a clinical endorsement, is a Psychology Board of Australia Approved Supervisor and has over a decade of clinical experience across a range specialist mental health services in Australia.

At NSW Health’s Prevention, Early Intervention and Recovery Service, where he worked for nearly six years, Ahmed delivered individual and group psychotherapy to young people aged 16 to 25 at high risk of suicide, self-harm and psychiatric relapse – many with forensic or child protection involvement – across presentations including anxiety, psychosis, complex trauma, OCD, personality disorders and severe mood disorders. He served as a DBT therapist and lead group facilitator, developed Schema Therapy as an alternative treatment modality within the service, established a peer supervision group to build team-wide capacity, worked within a specialist OCD clinic, provided supervision to provisional psychologists, and championed the integration of family systems thinking across the team.

He was also a researcher and clinician on the Unwired trial – an Australian-first study using wearable biosensor technology and AI machine learning to detect physiological markers of relapse in young people with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and borderline personality disorder – with two peer-reviewed publications and a feature on ABC News.

At the Child, Adolescent and Youth Mental Health Service (CAYMHS) in the Illawarra, Ahmed held a specialist school refusal role, leading a significant shift in the service from child-focused to family-based intervention. He implemented the Parent Hope Project as the primary treatment framework, built capacity by mentoring colleagues and facilitating staff training in family systems approaches, introduced family therapy into the adolescent inpatient ward, presented at the School Link Conference, and initiated a research trial now being conducted by the University of Wollongong evaluating the Parent Hope Project as a treatment for school refusal. He also led his own specialist Schema Therapy private practice before joining Maudsley Health Abu Dhabi in 2025.

Ahmed has presented at conferences and schools across Australia and the UAE, appeared on the Parent Hope Project podcast discussing family therapy in the context of school refusal, and is currently lead researcher on a pilot study evaluating the Parent Hope Project in a UAE CAMHS setting.

Ahmed’s primary clinical specialty is Bowen Family Systems Therapy, with a particular focus on working with parents and families. Difficulties are not viewed in isolation – they are understood in the context of interactions, relationships, and family systems. Informed by clinical neuroscience and philosophy, and using the Parent Hope Project as a structured family intervention, he works with families navigating a broad range of complex emotional and behavioural difficulties in children and adolescents, from school refusal, severe anxiety, self-harm and ADHD to entrenched conflict, defiance and mood disorders. The goal: helping parents develop the clarity, steadiness and leadership that allows their children to grow in resilience and independence.

Drawing on attachment theory, he also specialises in individual Schema Therapy for older adolescents and young adults with significant emotional and relational struggles. The goal: to heal the deep-rooted patterns formed in early life that quietly shape how we see ourselves, relate to others, and respond to the world.

He is an accredited parent coach in the Parent Hope Project – an Australian-first family intervention grounded in Bowen Family Systems Theory – and is completing accreditation as an ISST-certified Schema Therapist.

Beyond his specialist work, Ahmed sees children, adolescents, young adults, and parents across a broad range of presentations – stress management, anxiety and mood struggles, ADHD, trauma, OCD, bipolar, and other emotional and behavioural challenges such as oppositional behaviour – drawing on behavioural parent training therapies, CBT, DBT, ACT, and other evidence-based modalities.

Nationality: Australian
Spoken Languages: English