Lizette Nolte

Clinical Psychologist and Systemic Psychotherapist
University of Hertfordshire
Email: l.nolte@herts.ac.uk
Web: https://researchprofiles.herts.ac.uk/en/persons/lizette-nolte/

Lizette Nolte is Associate Professor at the University of Hertfordshire Doctorate in Clinical Psychology programme. She completed her clinical psychology training at University of the Free State, South Africa and her systemic training at the Institute of Family Therapy, London, UK. She went on to complete a Doctorate in Systemic Psychotherapy at the Tavistock Clinic in London where her doctoral research was on how families communicate about and make meaning of parental mental health concerns. Her research and teaching focus on relational and family wellbeing (particularly where families are engaged with the care system, within the contexts of psychological crisis in the family, or at times of loss and bereavement) and on approaches to care and support that is humanizing, inclusive and equitable. Her work draws on social constructionist, dialogical and narrative theory and practices and qualitative research methodologies, and she holds a commitment to collaborative ways of working that acknowledges the complex contexts of people’s lives, but also their unique responses and sustaining connections.

Lizette is member of research and practice groups and networks that support her learning, develop her thinking and sustain her practice, including the INSPIRE international research group on spirituality and existentiality, hosted by VID Specialized University in Oslo; a Narrative Collective; and an international Politics in Practice group. She is series co-editor (with Gwyn Daniel and Charlotte Burck) of the Routledge Systemic Thinking and Practice Series and is on the editorial board for the Journal of Family Therapy.

Lizette was born in South Africa and trained and worked there, first as occupational therapist and then as clinical psychologist. Being South African, both in relation to a world view and way of living, and as someone of white heritage growing up in under the apartheid system and its demise, has powerfully shaped how she chooses to live in the world. It was within her first role as newly qualified practitioner that she joined a vibrant journal club where she was introduced to social constructionist, dialogical and narrative thinkers, and this has shaped her work ever since. Upon relocating to the United Kingdom, she worked for many years in the National Health Service before moving more fully into academia. Her current clinical practice is within a school and in private practice. She lives in St Albans in the East of England with her partner and has two adult sons.