Consultation for Professionals
Are you a professional working with infants, children, teenagers or young people, who has concerns about their emotional development or mental health? I offer consultation to professionals working with children aged 0-25 in health and social care, and education.
Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy is a core NHS profession in CAMHS and CYPS. Psychoanalytic psychotherapy is effective in treating a wide range of emotional and mental health difficulties in children and young people. Child psychotherapists are trained to provide intensive treatment for deep-seated complex difficulties.
I provide individual therapy to children and young people, and their families and carers. I also aim to promote integration and education across all children’s services. I support a positive understanding of issues which contribute to psychological well-being and healthy development.
Clinical Practice
My clinical practice has evolved within a multi-disciplinary environment. I am experienced in working with multi-agency colleagues within partnership organisations. Child Psychotherapy approaches are informed by psychoanalytic, developmental and systemic principles, as well as attachment theory. My practice is also informed by attention to current understanding of neuro-developmental functioning.
I work collaboratively with psychiatry, psychology, family therapists, occupational therapists, clinical nurse specialists, CAMHS therapists and art and music therapists. Within NHS CAMHS, I liaise with teams who work with young people in Crisis, with eating disorders, early onset psychosis, learning disability and challenging behaviour. I am familiar with pathways into Autistic Spectrum Disorder, ADHD and other diagnostic fields.
Looked-after children and young people in care
I have worked extensively in specialist mental health services for looked-after and adopted children and families. For many years I’ve worked within multi-agency systems, with other professionals linked to children’s services. I promote the practice of Integrated Therapeutic Networks organised with the focus on understanding the child’s mental health needs.
I provide consultation to social workers in support of care-planning, including foster-placement matching, life-story work and issues of contact with birth parents or siblings when a child’s needs are particularly complicated.
I am able to provide mental health advice and guidance for a wide range of issues affecting children-in-care.
A child or young person may exhibit ‘challenging behaviour‘ which is causing significant concern. Often, recognising behavioural disturbances as manifestations of emotional states can redirect care responses. Working together with parents and carers, we explore and seek to understand how a child’s emotional experiences may manifest as challenging or worrying behaviours. Difficult behaviours often reduce, or disappear, when their meanings (the child’s underlying feelings and anxieties) are understood.
One of the key aims of this work has been to support the development of secure attachment relationships and increase placement stability.
Further information about psychotherapy with fostered-and-adopted-children
Schools and Educational Provisions
If you are a professional working in schools and education with children and you have concerns about the mental health of a child, I welcome your enquiry.
I have a special interest in helping infants, children and young people when there are indications that their emotional and mental health difficulties impede their learning and development and hamper their flourishing in educational environments.
I have worked extensively within educational organisations across developmental stages Including: nursery schools; primary schools; mainstream secondary schools; further education colleges and special educational needs provisions.
Having worked within mainstream education for ten years I have a strong interest in the relationship between children’s learning and their emotional experiences. My professional background is particularly useful in the sharing of understanding about how educational environments, processes and systems impact upon the emotional experiences of children and their families.
Contacting Me
As a practitioner I work with close attention to risk, safeguarding and issues of child protection and prioritise sensitive and cautious management of confidential communication.
Online communication about specific children should be sent through an encrypted link which we can discuss prior to sending. Please contact me initially to enquire.