Meet the Nottingham team

Paediatric Renal Clinical Psychologists specialise in working with children with chronic kidney disease and their families. We aim to help make sense of the situation and find helpful ways forward. We work alongside medical teams but we are not medical doctors so we do not prescribe medicine or give physical examinations.

Psychologists can offer self-help resources, skills workshops, groups, and individual assessments and sessions to support people.

Dr Frances Massey, Clinical Psychologist

Frances worked at Birmingham Children's Hospital in general paediatrics as a trainee before qualifying and joining the Paediatric Renal Team at Nottingham Children’s Hospital in 2025.

The Paediatric Renal Clinical Psychology service sees children and their families who are under the care of the children's kidney team and whose mental health or emotional wellbeing is impacted by living with a kidney condition.

Psychology can help with:

• Adjusting to a diagnosis and the impact on families
• Coping with symptoms, treatment and/or side-effects of treatment
• Difficulties following treatment/diet/fluid regime
• Feeling low, anxious or angry about illness or treatment
• Fears of medical procedures (for example: blood tests)
• Making decisions about treatment including kidney donation
• Difficulties with family or personal relationships related to having a serious illness
• Assessing readiness and preparing for transplantation
• Body image issues
• Addressing and working through traumatic experiences