Supporting Children

Growing up can be a difficult and confusing time with many pressures from school, peer groups and family dynamics. Children (and sometimes teenagers & adults) tend to communicate stress through their behaviour & so counselling for children can be very different to counselling for adults. Although a child has the capacity to feel the same complex array of emotions as an adult, they do not always have such a sophisticated use of language to explain or make sense of them.

Relying on ‘adult’ language to communicate with a child about complex feelings can lead to misunderstanding and frustrations. It’s important when working with children to find creative ways to engage the child or teenager and allow them to express and communicate their difficulties in order to process them or reach a resolve.

How I can support your child

I only work face to face with children (not online). I usually require an assessment session first with one or both parents to learn about the developmental story of the child and understand more about the family dynamics and the parents thoughts and goals for their child. This assessment session is usually one hour and can be hugely beneficial in gaining perspective and understanding for many difficulties. Sometimes this session is enough on its own to implement changes and reframe a problem that had previously felt overwhelming. 

If we agree to continue the work we can arrange a session for your child. I usually work in blocks of 6 sessions and then review how the work is going and if goals have been achieved, however every journey is different and I’m happy to be guided by what we agree is needed. 

I have experience working with