Services

I offer individual talking therapy to people aged 13-25 years - for more details of this, please see below.

Where a client and I both agree it would be helpful, we invite parents and carers into sessions to undertake family work.

I frequently engage in school liaison alongside therapy to ensure that appropriate support is in place for young people to engage with education.

I meet with parents and carers for consultation where they may be concerned about their child and unsure how to help.

I facilitate onward referrals where I think a young person would benefit from a specialist assessment, e.g. for neurodiversity or pharmacological treatments.

I provide therapeutic needs assessments and psychological therapy under the adoption and special guardianship support fund (ASGSF) for young people living in care.

I undertake speaking engagements and training, disseminating psychological knowledge to parents, teachers and professionals who might benefit from it.

If you would like to know more about any of the above, please contact me using this form.

What is psychological therapy and how does it work?

Psychological therapy, often called talking therapy or psychotherapy, is a purposeful conversation between two or more people, in which a person is supported to make sense of themselves in terms of thoughts, emotions, goals, desires and needs. With this improved understanding of themselves, people often find it is easier to change how they feel and behave. As a clinical psychologist, I draw on a variety of different therapies and undertake frequent continuing professional development to add to my knowledge. Working integratively allows me to make use of the varied strengths of the methods available to me and cater to the preferences of the person I am working with.

Any psychological intervention begins with an assessment of the person’s history, strengths and difficulties, through which a “formulation” or shared understanding of the current problem is arrived at. This formulation and one or more clear goals act as a road map for the therapeutic journey. Before we begin that journey, we discuss the therapies I think it will be most helpful to make use of, so that the young person can give informed consent to the work going ahead.

Below are some of the therapies I draw on in my work with young people. As well as these specific modalities, I also draw on broad frameworks such as interpersonal neurobiology and attachment theory.

Mentalization-based treatment for adolescence (MBT-A)

Mentalization-based therapy has as its focus “thinking about thinking”. We all have the ability to make sense of ourselves and other people in terms of things like thoughts, emotions, goals, desires and needs. However, when we are under emotional stress this ability can break down, and the world becomes confusing and threatening. We tend to make assumptions about others’ intentions based on our own feelings, and act in ways that can make the situation worse. MBT-A supports the ability to hold on to “mentalizing” even under stress, by paying close attention to everyday events and the therapeutic process.

Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR)

Often problems in the present can be traced to difficult moments in the past when we learned things about ourself that have become unhelpful. EMDR uses bilateral stimulation of the brain, often side-to-side eye movements, to facilitate the processing of these memories and help people move forward. EMDR can also help people to strengthen their memories of positive experiences and draw on these more easily when life is difficult.

Cognitive analytic therapy (CAT)

CAT is a therapy that focuses on mapping out, on paper, the relational routines and patterns that keep us stuck. CAT can be invaluable in getting the problem “out there” and engaging young people in a joint project of solving it, as well as making situations that are chaotic and overwhelming begin to feel familiar and manageable.

Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT)

CBT is one of the world’s best-known psychological interventions, and is the most commonly used therapy in the NHS. CBT helps us to make sense of our problems by examining the links between our thoughts, feelings, physical sensations and behaviour. It highlights the fact that our mind has evolved to keep us safe in ways that can sometimes be counter-productive, and provides concrete strategies to target unhelpful processes, such as worry and rumination.

Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT)

Rather than try to change the content of our thoughts, ACT focuses on our relationship to thinking itself. Often using experiential exercises and metaphors, ACT teaches us to “defuse” from unhelpful thoughts and develop an "observing mind” that can stand back from the painful judgments that bother us. Alongside this ability, ACT encourages us to focus on the things that matter to us and then make purposeful steps towards these.

Systemic family therapy

Systemic therapy is concerned with what goes on between rather than within individuals. Very often when trying to solve a problem, we can end up behaving in ways that exacerbate or perpetuate it instead. Systemic family therapy helps us to unravel the complex patterns that play out within families, bring new information to light and try out new ways of interacting with each other.

Trauma-informed stabilisation treatment (TIST)

TIST was developed by trauma expert Janina Fisher, building on the recognition that trauma often leaves people with the experience of themselves as a number of contradictory “parts”. By identifying these parts and learning to work with rather than against them, we can gain greater control and strengthen the core “self,” which is calm, confident and compassionate.