Young People & Adolescents
Working with Young People
I offer psychological therapy from 13 years upwards using art, creative materials and music to support young people to explore and express themselves. I help them build their understanding of self and their world and recover from difficulties such as anxiety, depression, attachment issues, bullying, loneliness and isolation.
I have a particular interest in supporting young people to be safe online and to learn how to manage their health in terms of the developments in technology today.
When working with younger teenagers, the first session will often be a parent/ guardian session, followed by one session with parents and the young person. After this, I generally work one to one with the young person and invite parents to join for family sessions at relevant points in therapy.
Overall my aim is to support the whole system around the young person and therefore where appropriate I also liaise with school/college.
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.
