Expert webinars
Insights, strategies and support for parents and carers
Our online conference, ‘Navigating PANS and PANDAS’, brought to our community a range of experts dedicated to supporting lives affected by PANS and PANDAS. Each speaker delivered an informative and interactive webinar on various topics, all designed to support caregivers and families who are affected by the conditions.
Please use the buttons below to find out more about each topic and speaker, watch the recordings, and view their slides.
Please note, we are working hard to add subtitles and transcripts for each recording.
Topics:
Trauma, Healing, Talking therapy, Nutrition, Parenting strategies.
EHCPs, Neurodivergence, Sensory needs.
FII support, attendance, advocating for your child.
Benefit advice, Health schemes, Financial support.
Questions from our community, answered by young people affected by PANS or PANDAS.
Support
Talking therapy for young people
Lucy McDonald
Integrative Psychotherapist
Lucy McDonald is an Integrative Psychotherapist with a special interest in PANS, PANDAS and complex conditions. She is qualified to work with parents helping them manage their child’s anxiety and OCD. She hosts the PANS PANDAS podcast and advocates for a better therapeutic understanding of the illness.
In this webinar, Lucy discusses how talking therapy can help children and young adults, and how she can work with parents to support them as caregivers.
Trauma, understanding and healing
Naomi Fisher
Clinical Psychologist
Naomi Fisher is a Clinical Psychologist, trauma therapist and author. Naomi specialises in trauma, autism and alternative ways to learn.
This webinar explains what trauma is and how it relates to PANS or PANDAS. Naomi discusses how trauma affects the brain, what the signs of trauma are, and what families can do to heal.
Supporting healing with nutrition
Susie Rucker Nutritional Practitioner
Susie is an award-winning Nutritional Practitioner and the owner of Rucker Nutrition. Susie’s specialisation includes neurodivergence, autoimmune conditions, energy and mood imbalances, hormonal fluctuations and skin issues, as well as supporting children and young people living with distress, anxiety or eating disorders.
As a qualified nutritional therapist, Susie discusses how eating well can promote wellbeing, support the immune system and restore balance.
Parenting strategies
Dr Vicky Queralt
Clinical Psychologist
This webinar explores why experiencing PANS or PANDAS can feel so intense for both children and parents, and how compassion and practical strategies can help navigate “the storm”.
Vicky addresses the pressure parents often feel for their child to “return to baseline” and explores how to shift towards celebrating progress step by step, reducing pressure, and finding steadiness in the present. You’ll learn how to build skills for tolerating uncertainty and support your emotional wellbeing.
Vicky also shares compassion-focused strategies to reduce threat and over-drive while strengthening the soothing system — for both parent and child.
Education
Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCP)
Abigail Fisher Educational Psychologist
Children with PANS or PANDAS often unexpectedly develop special educational needs (SEN) and many go on to require an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP).
Although awareness of these conditions is slowly growing, many professionals have still not heard of them, which can make getting the right support harder.
This webinar briefly outlines the EHCP process, discusses some of the particular problems in these circumstances and offers some ideas to help.
Neurodivergence, PANS and PANDAS
Helen Edgar and Laura Hellfeld Autism Consultant and Nurse Consultant
Helen Edgar is an autistic advocate, author and consultant with extensive experience in teaching children and young people with profound and multiple learning disabilities.
As a Nurse Consultant, Laura has years of experience in creating inclusive spaces to ensure that communities of people, like neurodivergent and disabled, feel truly welcomed into those groups.
This webinar discusses the overlap between PANS, PANDAS and neurodivergence. Helen and Laura dispel myths, and provide practical tools for supporting children and young people at home and in education.
Supporting sensory needs in PANS and PANDAS
Beth Smithson and Michelle Newby
Occupational Therapists
This webinar discusses how to identify sensory challenges during flares and remission, practical strategies for parents to support their children, and empowers families with tools for everyday regulation.
Michelle is Clinical Director of Stepping Stones Therapy for Children and a registered occupational therapist with extensive experience in the field of paediatrics.
Beth is an Occupational Therapist, member of the SEND network and programme facilitator for sensory inclusive schools. She has extensive clinical experience in the NHS, social care and education, working primarily with children, young people, and families.
Safeguarding
Fabricated or Induced Illness (FII)
Kelly Jarvis
Head of Consultancy
Families dealing with complex medical conditions like PANS and PANDAS often face scepticism or misunderstanding from professionals. In rare cases, this can lead to serious allegations, including professional confusion regarding Fabricated or Induced Illness (FII). Kelly’s webinar explores ways to advocate for your child, how to communicate clearly and safely with professionals, and how to navigate FII investigations.
Previously the Head of a highly specialist residential school for Autistic children, Kelly has valuable experience in fulfilling EHCPs in order to ensure the best possible outcome. Kelly also trains school leaders and advocates in representing their educational establishments at SENDIST tribunals, and has been powerfully advocating for families at Sunshine Support since 2021.
Financial
Benefit advice
Robert Mandelstam
Benefits Advisor
Robert Mandelstam is a Welfare Benefit Advisor at the Maggie’s Centre at the Royal Marsden, a charity focused on providing financial, emotional and practical support to those living with cancer. Robert has been working in the field of welfare benefit advice for over 10 years in a range of different settings, namely, the NHS, local authority/housing providers and other third sector organisations.
Robert aims to break down the barriers which exist around accessing support for some of the most vulnerable people in society and is adept at providing advice from the initial stages of a claim, through to representation at benefit tribunals.
Financial worries
Julie Pike
Health
Co-ordinator
Financial worries affect many families living with PANS or PANDAS. Julie Pike is a Poverty Proofing© Health Co-ordinator with Children North East. She works with and supports children, young people and families experiencing poverty and disadvantage.
In this webinar, Julie discusses the ‘NHS Low Income’ and ‘Healthcare-related Travel Costs’ schemes, welfare grants and other financial support options for you and your family.
Community
Ask the experts
Our Youth Board
Our Youth Board comprises amazing children and young people whose lives have been affected by PANS or PANDAS.
To mark PANS PANDAS Awareness Day, the Board asked American, Australian and UK-based experts their questions about PANS and PANDAS.
Clinical experts include Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist Dr Kiki Chang, Paediatric Neurologist Dr Raj Gupta, Clinical Psychologist Vicky Queralt, Professor of Paediatric Neurology Dr Russell Dale and Nurse Practitioner Amy Smith. to answer questions about PANS, PANDAS and navigating the journey as a young person.
Questions include diagnosis difficulties, treatment and prognosis, future research, and how to explain PANS and PANDAS to children.
Ask the Experts – live!
Our Youth Board
Some of our youth board members held a live webinar with clinical experts, including Paediatric Neurologist Dr Raj Gupta and Clinical Psychologist Vicky Queralt, to answer questions about PANS, PANDAS and navigating the journey as a young person.
Topics include explaining PANS and PANDAS to family members, coping with flares, presentation in adulthood, IVIG and alternative medical treatment, seizures, finding support as a child or young adult and, most importantly, finding hope.
The additional text below has been provided by each specialist speaker:
Dr Victoria Queralt
Clinical Psychologist
Dr Vicky Queralt is an HCPC-registered Clinical Psychologist specializing in pediatric psychology, with over 20 years of experience supporting children, young people, and families across NHS, educational, and independent practice settings. She has a particular focus on PANS/PANDAS, neurodiversity, and helping children and parents manage procedural anxiety.
Vicky uses evidence-based approaches, tailored to individual needs and preferences, aiming to empower families with practical tools, emotional support, and confidence to navigate complex health journeys. She currently works with a digital health company to improve healthcare experiences for children and families, is a trustee for the PANS/PANDAS UK charity, and is the founder of her own independent practice supporting children, young people, and family wellbeing.
Julie Pike
Health Co-ordinator
I’m Julie, a Poverty Proofing© Health Co-ordinator with Children North East, a charity that works with babies, children and young people in their families, schools and communities to ensure they grow up to be healthy and happy. For much of my career, I’ve been involved in working with and supporting children, young people and families experiencing poverty and disadvantage. This involved setting up food and clothes banks, running children and youth groups and providing holiday activities for families as well as working with schools, local authorities and community organisations.
I’m a dedicated and passionate person who is committed to creating positive change and supporting those in need. As a Poverty Proofing© Health Co-ordinator I have the privilege of engaging with patients and staff to identify barriers and challenges people experiencing poverty face, reducing stigma and discrimination and enable equitable access to healthcare services.
