Dr Athina Zakynthinaki

Dr Athina Zakynthinaki is an experienced and compassionate consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist and founder of Child Psychiatry Consultancy (https://childpsychiatry.uk/), a CQC-registered independent CAMHS service providing specialist neurodevelopmental and psychiatric assessments for children and young people aged 4 to 18 across the UK. She specializes in the assessment and diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), as well as broader child and adolescent mental health conditions including anxiety, depression, OCD, PTSD, and tic disorders. With nearly two decades of clinical experience, she is widely recognised for her thorough and nuanced approach to the assessment and diagnosis of complex neurodevelopmental and mental health conditions in children and adolescents.

Dr Zakynthinaki graduated in Medicine from the Medical Faculty of Cluj-Napoca in Romania and completed her specialist training in child and adolescent psychiatry in Greece. She holds full specialist registration with the General Medical Council (GMC No. 6161141) and is a Member of the Royal College of Psychiatrists (MRCPsych), the Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health, and the British Association of Psychopharmacology. She has worked as an NHS consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist for 15 years and currently holds a substantive NHS consultant post within a children and young people's neurodevelopmental CAMHS service, bringing the rigour and standards of NHS practice to her independent work.

Over the course of her career, Dr Zakynthinaki has completed more than 3,000 autism assessments and a significant volume of ADHD assessments, using gold standard diagnostic tools including the DIVA-5 for ADHD, and the ADI-R and ADOS-2 for autism spectrum disorder. She also offers QbTest as part of her ADHD assessments, providing objective measurement of attention, activity, and impulsivity to enhance diagnostic accuracy. Where clinically indicated, she is able to prescribe directly — including controlled medications — within a robust medicines management framework, meaning families can receive assessment, diagnosis, and ongoing medication management from the same consultant psychiatrist.

Dr Zakynthinaki's clinical approach draws on advanced postgraduate training in dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT), eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing (EMDR), and systemic family therapy. While Child Psychiatry Consultancy does not offer standalone psychological therapies, this breadth of training informs a richly contextualised approach to psychiatric assessment — one that considers the young person within their family system and takes account of emotional regulation, trauma history, and relational dynamics alongside diagnostic formulation.

Through Child Psychiatry Consultancy, Dr Zakynthinaki offers fully remote assessments via secure video consultation, making specialist CAMHS expertise accessible to families across the UK. She works closely with families, schools, and GPs throughout the process, providing detailed clinical reports suitable for educational, medical purposes. Dr Zakynthinaki consults in both English and Greek.