Philippa Fibert

After studying English and Education at Cambridge University, Philippa worked as a special needs teacher and early years family adviser. Whilst her own four girls were young, she trained as a homeopath and was startled by the effectiveness of homeopathic treatment for some of her former pupils. So she amalgamated her two professions specialising in the homeopathic treatment of children with neurodevelopmental and behavioural disorders.

Trying to understand the evidence issues surrounding homeopathy, and how to improve outcomes for struggling children, she completed a BSc in Homeopathy (Thames Valley University); an MSc in Research Methodology in Psychology (Goldsmiths University of London); and a PhD in public health (University of Sheffield). During these she conducted a consecutive comparative case series of homeopathic treatment for children with ADHD; and a pilot pragmatic three armed RCT comparing the effectiveness of treatment by homeopaths or nutritional therapists for ADHD with treatment as usual. For this trial she used the TwiCs design (Trials within Cohorts).

Philippa is dedicated to providing good quality, real-life research evidence with the aim of improving health outcomes, and works with therapists, academics and trialists to this end. She is a Research Fellow at St Mary’s University where she teaches on the ‘Chronic Disease Management’ MSc; is currently managing a trial of Kefir for ADHD; and is developing a research-ready cohort of families with ADHD – the STAR (ST Marys ADHD Research) cohort.

She is excited to join the GAPS research consultant team, having wanted to start documenting the effectiveness of GAPS ever since she trained as a GAPS practitioner in 2015.