Children & Adolescents
Working with children
I offer psychological therapy from 5 years upwards using play therapy, art, creative materials and music to support children to explore and express themselves. I help them build their understanding of themselves and their world and recover from difficulties such as anxiety, depression, attachment issues, bullying, loneliness and isolation.
The first session will usually be a parent/ guardian session, followed by one session with parents and the child. After this, I generally work one to one with the child and invite parents to join for family sessions at relevant points in therapy. I also often run parent sessions alongside the child sessions.
Overall my aim is to support the whole family system and therefore where appropriate I also liaise with school. Mainly, due to the use of creative materials, sessions for children take place in my clinic or online, but occasionally an outside walk and talk session may be appropriate for older children.
Working with adolescents
Teenagers are welcome to bring a parent along to their first session or sessions until they feel comfortable with meeting me one to one. Adolescence can be a challenging period of development, with a young person forming themselves as an individual moving towards adulthood. Sessions are tailored to suit the communication style of the young person; so sometimes artistic materials are used for expression and other times sessions are more verbal.
Overall the work aims to support this fundamental stage of development and therapy often looks at the core question of WHO AM I? I help teenagers work through a range of challenges including anxiety, depression, relationship difficulties, grief and loss, trauma, gender and sexuality issues and also with developing a sense of identity as they move towards adulthood. Sessions can be online, face to face in my clinic or out and about in my Walk and Talk sessions.
I offer a wide range of practical techniques for helping with emotional difficulties and I tailor these to suit each individual, often making bespoke recordings of practices for young people to work on outside therapy. Where appropriate I encourage movement and offer grounding and re-stabilising practices to help adolescents get ‘off their phones, out of their thoughts and and into their bodies’ so that they can feel a grounded sense of self.
Family Therapy
Therapy work for children and young people very often benefits from other family members, parents or guardians attending some or all sessions, depending on the nature of the work. I offer Family Therapy sessions and I welcome young people to bring whoever feels relevant along to their sessions.
I have deep respect for families who enter the process of therapy. I aim to hold a nurturing space for parents / guardians whilst also protecting the confidentiality of the young person so that they know they are safe to bring all the relevant material to therapy, however tricky it might feel.
