Why choose Psychotherapy?
▪ Because you are worried about your child or adolescent
▪ You may have tried other approaches and feel that nothing seems to help.


How can Psychotherapy help?
Psychotherapy develops understanding in a way which makes difficulties seem less overwhelming for all concerned.

The child or young person begins to feel more able to understand frightening feelings and conflicts. If children or adolescents are less burdened by emotional conflicts, they are more able to engage in rewarding interests.

Parents are likely to gain confidence as the child or adolescent begins to feel better.


How does it work?
Child Psychotherapists are trained to work in a unique way, observing how the child or young person relates, noticing all the ways they communicate or play, listening to dreams and finding ways to understand deeper thoughts
and feelings.

In the safety of the therapy room the child or young person is free to express their most troubling emotions. Confused, frightened, hurt, angry or painful feelings can gradually be put into words rather than actions.

This process may take quite a long time but it allows children and young people to develop ways of managing themselves through the thinking they do with the psychotherapist.

Psychotherapy is not a magical process. Hard work, patience and trust are essential ingredients for a successful outcome.


Therapeutic Consultation
The aim of the consultation is to establish whether the child or young person could benefit from a psychotherapeutic approach and begin to understand the factors inhibiting development. The session also provides a brief experience of psychoanalytic thinking.


Brief Psychotherapy
This usually lasts for less than one year and can involve 4-5 sessions. It can take the form of

- Parent/Infant or Parent/Young Child Work
Thinking and talking with a child psychotherapist can throw light on difficulties which previously may have seemed insoluble. Parents can recognise their own capacity to manage confusing situations. The child may or may not be present.

- Young Peoples Counselling
Four sessions is often enough in itself as the young person can achieve a lot with a little assistance. Brief counselling for adolescents helps gain perspective whilst confusing developmental processes and challenging experiences are taking place. Sometimes further sessions can be offered or other areas of help identified.


Longer Term Psychotherapy
The aim is to enable the child or adolescent to explore and understand their conflicts and to better manage their everyday life. Sessions may take place one or more times per week. Because everyone is an individual and as therapy is a
process which develops over time, the length of treatment will vary. Therapy may last from several months to two or more years.