With nearly four decades of experience in mental health — beginning at Ashworth Special Hospital in 1988 — Stephen Taylor brings a rare combination of clinical depth, therapeutic expertise, and lived understanding to his work with people affected by ADHD and neurodevelopmental conditions. That lived understanding is more than professional. Stephen is himself late-diagnosed as neurodivergent, and knows first-hand what it means to spend years searching for answers that finally make sense of a lifetime of experiences.
Stephen trained and worked across some of the UK’s most respected NHS and specialist settings, including South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, and West London Mental Health Trust, where he held roles ranging from Clinical Nurse Specialist to Team Manager. He also served as a therapist with the British Army, delivering Cognitive Analytic Therapy and EMDR to soldiers, and spent a decade as an honorary lecturer at the University of West London, teaching both pre and post-registration mental health nursing students.
His academic journey has taken him across several institutions — completing his RMN Diploma at the University of Lancaster, his Postgraduate Diploma in Cognitive Analytic Therapy at Sheffield Hallam University, and his ongoing doctoral studies at the University of West London, where his research explores the role of compassion, attachment, and the therapeutic relationship in nursing practice.
In 2014, Stephen was nominated by a service user and recognised as first runner-up in the Mental Health Practitioner of the Year award by the Depression Alliance — receiving his award at Kensington Palace. In 2017, he was appointed a Florence Nightingale Scholar, travelling to Melbourne, Australia to study an innovative psychotherapy service.
In private practice since 2017, Stephen founded The ADHD Specialists — a service built on the belief that every person deserves a thorough, compassionate, and properly informed assessment. As a qualified Independent Prescriber, Cognitive Analytic Therapist, EMDR practitioner, and trained CAT Supervisor, he offers something genuinely integrated: the ability to assess, diagnose, prescribe, and provide therapy, all within one trusted relationship.
Central to Stephen’s practice is a robust framework of ongoing clinical supervision. He is regularly supervised by a Consultant Adult Psychiatrist, a Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist, a Cognitive Analytic Therapy Supervisor, and a Consultant Psychologist specialising in autism — ensuring that every assessment and treatment decision is held to the highest clinical standards. Stephen also gives back to that supervisory culture by running a monthly ADHD supervision group for a multidisciplinary group of twelve doctors, nurses, and therapists — sharing his expertise and helping to raise the standard of neurodevelopmental care more broadly.
His specialist training includes the UK Adult ADHD Network (UKAAN) programme — the leading clinical training for ADHD practitioners in the UK — as well as ADOS and ADI-R, the gold-standard tools for autism diagnosis. This breadth of training reflects the reality that ADHD and autism frequently co-occur, and are often missed when assessed in isolation.
For Stephen, this work is never just clinical. It is personal.