How I work
I focus on building a trusting, empathic relationship with each client, so they feel safe enough to express their fears and worries. I work in an integrative way, which means that I access a wide variety of approaches that best suit each client, being flexible and adaptable in my style. For some clients, this may be through talking, but for others, it might be through play, art or other forms of creativity. Here, they can work through conflicts and traumas they are holding onto, in a way they are comfortable with, when words may be difficult to access. Therefore, throughout my work, I aim to meet each client in their world, helping them to process and make sense of their feelings in a way that feels right for them.
The Therapy Process
When you first contact me, we can arrange for a brief telephone appointment to discuss the initial reasons for referral. If I feel that I am not able to offer the most appropriate support for you or your child, I will signpost you to where might be more suitable. If we decide to go ahead, we will then book an initial assessment session.
For adults, the initial assessment session gives us the chance to discuss any reasons for referral and any background information that may be relevant, giving me an opportunity to understand you better, helping me to formulate a diagnostic picture of you. This initial assessment also gives you an opportunity to ask any questions and to decide whether this is right for you. Following this assessment session, if it is decided that the work will go ahead, we will arrange a regular weekly session.
For children, this assessment session, depending on the age of the client, will just be for the parent/carers, so we can discuss the reasons for referral and other background information that will help me to understand your child. For some adolescents, it may be more appropriate for them to attend the assessment session, together with the parent/carer, whereas older adolescents, depending on age and ability to provide consent to the work, may prefer to attend without the parent/carer assessment session at all. This will be considered on an individual basis, which we can discuss in our initial phone conversation.
Following the initial parent/carer assessment, I will then arrange to see your child for their own assessment session/s, and in this we will explore their own perspective of having therapy and I can introduce myself to them and give them a flavour of how we could work together.
Following the assessment sessions, if we all decide to go ahead with the work, we will arrange a regular weekly session where I will meet with your child.
I also offer parenting sessions for parents/carers of children, where we can think together in more depth about your child and ways to support them.
