Child & Adolescent Mental Health

This involves meeting with parent(s)/caregiver(s) to acquire a thorough developmental history and understanding of your child’s current needs. You are welcome to bring your young person along to the initial appointment.

This session is an opportunity for me to work directly with your child to assess their mental health.  This involves discussion, observations and completion of questionnaires and activities to begin to explore and understand their inner world and experiences.   This is done in a child-centred manner and at their pace.

Following the assessment, I will share my recommendations and propose a care plan with you and your child.  Recommendations will be based on identified needs and the goals of the young person and parent/caregiver.   Holistic support is very important, thinking about  your child’s needs across contexts, such as behavioural support, in-school support strategies, strategies for the home, interpersonal skills strategies to support healthy peer relationships and emotion regulation strategies. If we feel therapeutic support would be helpful, we can look to scheduling sessions, with regular reviews and feedback pencilled in with parents to support the therapeutic work (this will be explained to you in detail during the initial  consultation).

* It might be that 90 minutes is too long for some young people, or that we may need additional time to complete the assessment – this can be discussed with parents during the initial meeting and/or to update parents on progress following the initial assessment if more time is required.

Individual sessions are offered in person and online. Therapeutic interventions are discussed with the young person and family which are selected to address their mental health needs and therapeutic goals, with regular reviews to track progress.  I draw on the following treatment modalities; Narrative therapy, Systemic therapy, CBT and Person-centred therapy and have received additional training in Play therapy, DBT and EMDR.