The young person and Psychotherapy
My central aim is to support young people's positive health and well-being and relieve their distress and suffering. All the work I attempt to achieve focuses on the nature and needs of children rather than on a particular theory or approach. As a Psychotherapist, I can communicate with children through observation to understand their non-verbal language, identify their developmental needs, and offer guidance to parents, carers and fellow professionals where needed.
I want to make a difference in young people's lives, influencing the next generation's mental health and well-being. It can be profoundly rewarding to witness children’s self-esteem, and confidence grow. Facilitating change and development can be inspirational, helping children to cope with challenges and recover from trauma, mental health difficulties or life crisis. It can also be very satisfying to accompany young people as they go on to fulfil their potential.
Young people are often responsive, engaging, and willing to build a nurturing and sustaining therapeutic relationship based on trust with a well-trained professional who can understand the world through their eyes. Therapeutic approaches value young people’s participatory voices and help support them in achieving the changes they want to make in their lives. My practice is young people-centred, and my approach is ethically informed and grounded in the rights and best interests of the child. As a Psychotherapist, I can provide the conditions and resources to support young people in healing from the hurt and pain they have experienced. Providing opportunities, exploring the inner life, and enabling the way to tell their story can be a transformative process which opens a world of new possibilities.I am able to support parents and families can also be a rich and meaningful process where relational difficulties can change over time to strengthen young people’s quality of life, well-being, and potential. I hope my work will also ripple into broader communities, impacting the environments where children live, learn and play. I also provide psychoeducation for professionals and organisations making systemic and cultural changes in different settings.
Being a safe and and a reliable role model for young people is essential, so it is vital I offer a trustworthy and I am dependable. The qualities I offer include the ability to be open-minded, sensitive to others, empathic and inquiring, the capacity to play, respect the voices of the children, and the ability to find ways of listening and understanding their unique lived experiences.
I believe it is important to be tenacious and resilient in managing young people’s problems alongside them, supporting their agency, and having compassion when faced with troubling experiences. Many young humans exposed to trauma and adversity have emotional and behavioural difficulties that require awareness, careful thought, reflection, analysis, and insight to ensure their communications can be understood.
Maintaining professional boundaries with young people, parents, and professionals is vital in ensuring disciplined and mindful therapeutic care concerning safeguarding, interdisciplinary communication and multi-agency practice. Being an emotionally available adult in a child’s world requires knowledge and skills applied with self-awareness, personal reflection, and professional accountability. Therefore, I believe it is essential that all therapeutic work I participate in does include elements of personal development, review and personal therapy.
Adult Psychotherapy
I also care for selective adult individuals who are experiencing difficulties in their lives. The extensive training of a Psychotherapist uniquely enables me to work with these very disturbing thoughts and help the person make sense of their experience and develop their own individuality and potential. Confused, frightened, hurt, angry or painful feelings can gradually be put into words rather than actions. I believe as a result the person can begin to express their emotions in less disturbed ways and begin to return to the normal process of self development.
I also have experience working with women who are suffering from mental health problems associated with pregnancy and the post-partum period; antenatal and postnatal depression, perinatal loss and attachment and bonding difficulties during pregnancy and following birth.
Psychotherapy is not for everyone; it usually takes a little time, especially for complicated difficulties that affect development. The emotional experience is sometimes more important than insight, though insight into the way we function definitely helps.