About | Dr Catherine Knibbs

Most people in this field come from one side or the other. The technology, or the people. I have a foot in both, and that is the whole of it.

I trained as an engineer in the Military many moons ago, in mechanical, electrical and electronic engineering, and went on to work in technology, data protection, cybersecurity, information security and IT. So I know how these systems are actually built, not just how they are described.

Then came almost two decades in the clinical chair as a Consultant Child and Adult Trauma Psychotherapist and supervisor, working with people from tiny children through to adults in their seventies. I use technology inside sessions, mostly gaming apps and biofeedback, and I talk endlessly with children, young people and grown-ups about what they do online and what it costs them.

That combination is unusual, and it is why the work holds up in a boardroom and in a therapy room. I am, above all, a voice for children and young people when they need one.

Dr Catherine Knibbs speaking at an event

"Always several steps ahead of the curve… someone I would turn to for advice without reservation."

The credentials

What sits behind the work

PhD in children & online violence/gore

Consultant Child & Adult Trauma Psychotherapist

Cyberpsychologist

Online Harms Consultant

Functional Health Practitioner

Supervisor

7 published books

Peer-reviewed researcher

Journal editor, Frontiers (Cybersecurity in Digital Mental Health)

TEDx speaker

Engineer (mech/elec/elect), Military-trained

Mum

The research

The children who had already decided adults weren't safe to tell

My doctoral research examined children aged 7–10 who had viewed violence and gore online, and how they communicated that through their drawings rather than through direct questions, because asking a child to describe what they saw can re-traumatise them and still miss the truth.

Nobody else in the world has done this research. What it showed is the finding that drives everything else I do: those children had already concluded adults were not safe to tell. Not because the adults did not care, but because they did not know what to do with it, and children can tell the difference.

That is why I developed CYBERTRAUMA™ theory: to give professionals a rigorous, trauma-informed way to understand human behaviour in digital spaces. Not moral panic, not tech-worship, but the middle lane where children actually live. It is now a published, peer-reviewed definition.

See the CYBERTRAUMA™ Recognition System Read the published definition

The academic position

An Interpersonal Neurobiological Practitioner

That is the formal term for what I do. In practice it means integrating a number of disciplines rather than working from any single one:

The Social Shaping of Technology · Actor Network Theory · Philosophy · Neuroscience and Neurobiology · Child Development and Attachment theories · Transactional Analysis.

I also use Functional Medicine in my practice, which lets me understand trauma at a cellular and DNA level rather than only a behavioural one. Put together, it means I can explain why something happens in a body and a nervous system, not just describe that it did.

"Catherine is the real deal when it comes to understanding human behaviour online."

"The range, breadth and depth of knowledge Cath had for the subject, as well as her ability to discuss complex issues in a way that anyone can understand… Cath is always the first person I turn to for advice and guidance."

The difficult topics

The conversations most training avoids

I worked as a relationships and s*x educator, and now specialise in training around children who view p*rn.

I have specialised in child s*xual abuse and exploitation online, grooming, s*xtortion, p*rn viewing by children, and violent and graphic media. That work produced a number of research studies, one of which became my PhD.

I name these things plainly on purpose. A large part of what I do now is helping professionals feel less embarrassed, less shamed and less shy when they approach these subjects, because a practitioner who cannot say the words is a practitioner a child will not tell.

I also cover the harms nobody puts on a poster: hidden cyberbullying, eating disorders driven by health and fitness content, what children absorb from watching the adults around them use technology, and the risks in voice-enabled platforms and games.

Advisory work

Who I've advised

I have consulted with VR and AI services building products that children actually use, advising on child safety, on how to communicate with young users, and on how to give them routes to report and get help.

Spirit VR

Mental Health VR (MHVR)

X Reality Safety Intelligence (XRSI), Child Safety Initiative

Sway.ly

White Lens

"Impressed with the hands-on guidance Cath provided for our project, as well as her knowledge, passion and pursuit for impact in the domain of online wellbeing of children."

Recognition

Awards

National Cyber Awards 2025Winner of the Cyber Awareness Award, for work sharing cyber and online harm issues with the public.

The Real Cyber Awards 2023Winner of the Cyber Impact Award, for contributions to the online harms and cyber industry.

Top 20 Most Inspiring Women in Cyber 2026Recognised for work at the intersection of cybersecurity and human harm.

And off the clock

The rest of it

I am a qualified youth football coach and a martial arts instructor, though I no longer have time for either. I do have an extremely good sleep protocol, which is how everything above gets done. And I am a mum, which is the qualification that reframes all the others.

Embodied, not memorised