Psychotherapy for Children (aged 5 - 12)
The developmental pathway from childhood to adulthood can be a bumpy journey for many children and their parents and carers who support them. It is a journey full of challenges that change as children and young people grow and develop. Many children and young people come to therapy when their parents feel their child's development has become stuck or regressed. Other difficulties might relate to their child finding the more ordinary experiences of growing up too much to manage. There may also be different dynamics that contribute towards the child or young person's difficulties, such as complex family relationships, educational pressures, bullying, or bereavement.
The child or young person may begin to exhibit very challenging behaviour or become silent and withdrawn, which causes those around them to worry. These feelings and behaviours might also impact other aspects of their lives, such as hindering their capacity to learn and engage in education. Sometimes parents also feel stuck and are unsure how to help their child and seek professional support.
Child psychotherapy can help with a range of difficulties and conditions.
With children and young people this includes (but not limited to):
- Family relationships (e.g., sibling rivalry, adjustment to divorce and family break up, reconstituted/blended families)
- Difficulties at school, e.g., separation anxiety, school refusal, challenging behaviour, concentration, learning difficulties, attending boarding school
- Peer relationships, e.g., making friends, bullying
- Psychosomatic symptoms
- Anxiety, fears and phobias, obsessive-compulsive behaviours
- Depression
- Low mood
- Low confidence, low self-esteem, intense shyness
- Eating disorders, disordered eating
- Adverse childhood experiences, e.g., the impact of trauma, abuse, neglect
- Self-harm and destructive behaviour
- Suicidal thoughts
Child psychotherapy offers a safe, reliable space where the child can explore and work through their feelings with the therapist using a combination of undirected play, drawing, and talking. Through this process, the child is helped to put their feelings into words rather than act them out. They are helped to make sense of their experiences and understand how these impact their behaviour and emotional well-being. The child may then begin to feel less anxious and better equipped to build and sustain their relationships with those around them while developing their individuality and potential.
I offer individual psychoanalytic psychotherapy sessions for children and young people. Child psychotherapy can be short or long-term, depending on clinical needs and available resources. Children and young people can be seen between one and four times a week for fifty-minute sessions.