Treatments

Psychotherapy

Child and adolescent psychotherapists treat a range of emotional and behavioural problems not easily addressed by other methods of treatment. They are also specialised in working with patients, where there are a number of difficulties present at the same time and working to address the underlying causes of these difficulties, for enduring long term benefits. 

Therapists are trained to carefully observe the person and respond to what they might be communicating through their speech, the subtext of what they are saying (or omitting), as well as their behaviour and (with younger children) their play. They also help their patients to understand how they are feeling, how they manage their feelings, patterns in their relationships and help them to make links to better understand where these feelings and ideas come from in order to develop healthier ways of engaging with themselves and others.

If psychotherapy has been recommended as a treatment, this will usually begin with a psychotherapy assessment. This is a course of three once-weekly psychotherapy sessions, over three weeks, followed by a review to discuss. 

These sessions will feel exploratory, but quite different to the initial assessment. The therapist will let you lead the sessions, rather than asking lots of questions. The will try to get to know you in much more depth over these three weeks and also let you get a sense of what psychotherapy sessions really feel like, so that you can decide whether or not this approach feels a good fit for you at this time. 

During the review, the therapist will explore with you how you have experienced the psychotherapy assessment both during the sessions and in between sessions. They will feedback on what they have learned about you and will make further recommendations to do with the type of help that would be best for you at that time.

Recommendations might be for: 

  • once weekly psychotherapy 
  • short term psychotherapy 
  • intensive psychotherapy 

Other treatments either instead of or alongside psychotherapy e.g. psychiatry. 

Find out more about Child & Adolescent Psychotherapy and how it can help: https://childpsychotherapy.org.uk/resources-families/how-child-and-adolescent -psychotherapy-can-help

colored pencils on a table
colored pencils on a table

Therapeutic Parent work

Parenthood can be extremely challenging and anxiety provoking, particularly when children have emotional, behavioural or relational difficulties. We have specialist

training in supporting parents in their relationship with their child, understanding and managing difficulties and finding ways to have a more balanced and fulfilling family life. 

Where children are in therapy, there are often changes to mood and behaviour during the process. Therapeutic parent work alongside a child’s therapy, helps parents in understanding and managing these changes at home and helping them to adapt to the evolving needs of their child. 

Therapeutic parent work can also be very helpful as a treatment on its own, particularly for parents of very young children or for parents of teenagers who are reluctant to access help themselves.