My Approach with children, adolescents and families
I love that in my private work I get to provide therapy to people of all ages. In the NHS, clinical psychologists tend to work in age specific services, even though we are trained to work with young children all the way through to the more experienced end of the life span. I really enjoy working with children and adolescents. The work is based on the same models we use with adults (CBT, ACT, Family Therapy), but I adapt them to be more accessible to the child, or adolescent I work with. This means that I make the therapy more playful, enjoyable and fun to help engagement.
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In our first session I will meet with the parents to gather as much information as possible. Following this session I will meet with the child or adolescent to start building rapport with them. I will then recommend how therapy will proceed and together, we will agree if this is how you would like to take things forward.
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Sometimes it is more helpful to work with the parents in the therapy room. In these sessions we will work together to find out what the main difficulties are and how you, as parents, can find new ways to deal with them. Often this work is based on Behavioural therapies, but I also include ACT ways of working, so that your parenting fits with your values.