Adopted and Looked-After Children
Children go into the care system when their parents or primary carers can no longer look after them. Many looked-after and adopted children have a history of being physically, emotionally, or sexually abused and neglected. They may have witnessed domestic violence, substance misuse, or parental mental health issues. The breakdown of their primary caring relationships and the trauma they experience often leave looked-after children feeling confused and conflicted about the adults and their world around them.
Foster care and adoption provide new relationships and opportunities for recovery, but life in the care system can also bring prolonged uncertainty and disrupted relationships for the children. These cumulative traumatic experiences can lead fostered and adopted children to develop defensive ways of responding to people, and their behaviour may present as challenging and difficult to understand.
Psychoanalytic psychotherapy can help with a range of difficulties and conditions.
With fostered and adopted children this includes (but not limited to):
- Low mood and depression
- Suicidal thoughts and self-harm
- Loss and bereavement
- Anxiety and low self-esteem
- Trauma-related difficulties
- Attachment and relationship difficulties
- Sexualised behaviour
- Eating disorders/disordered eating
- Toileting, soiling, and enuresis
- Difficulties at school and emotional aspects of learning
- Attention difficulties/hyperactivity
- Behavioural problems
- Conduct problems/defiance
- Risk-taking behaviour
I offer psychotherapy sessions to looked-after and adopted children and young people. The work is usually a minimum of a year and longer-term where the child presents with complex difficulties. Where possible, the carer or adoptive parent will also access therapeutic services for supervision to support the carer's capacity to manage the child and their therapy.
It can also sometimes be helpful to work with the child and carer or adopted parents together. This provides a space to explore the relationship and dynamics between them and think about how the child's past relationships and experiences might be impacting the present. To access these support services, referrals would need to be received via your local authority social work team or an OFSTED registered adoptive support agency.
I also offer a range of specialist therapeutic services to the professional network involved in the care of adopted and looked-after children. For further details, please click here or refer to Services for Professional Networks.