Our Therapy
Treatment Areas
- Anxiety or excessive fears including separation anxiety
- Depression
- Grief and loss due to family bereavement, separation, or divorce
- Developing emotional regulation skills
- Difficulty with peer relationships (forming and keeping friendships) or bullying
- 'School can't'
- Trauma and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
- Adjustment concerns (new siblings, school, divorce, friendships)
- Self-harm and/or suicidal thoughts
- Parent-child, parent-teen conflict
What happens in a parent intake session
The initial parent intake session (50 mins) is an adult-only session that allows you to discuss your concerns in detail and provide me with information about your child and family history. Some of the questions I typically ask include:
1. Questions about your child’s early years, such as your pregnancy and birth experience, did they meet their developmental milestones at the average age, and was there any early traumas?
2. General questions about sleep, eating habits, daily routine.
3. The reason for seeking therapy – what are you concerned about, the duration of the challenges, and what you have already tried.
4. What a typical day in your child’s life looks like.
5. Your goals for therapy.
While it often seems like a lot of questions, it gives me the chance to get a thorough history and understand what is happening for your child. We will also have an opportunity to discuss how therapy typically works and answer any questions you may have.
Child and Teen sessions
For treatment to be effective for children and teens, they need to feel safe, relaxed and ready to communicate. Building the relationship and environment that allows them to feel this way takes time and a lot of fun (and fidgets and fart jokes!).
What happens in a child or teen session
Play - Developmentally, children may not have the emotional or cognitive ability to express verbally their thoughts and feelings. Play allows them to communicate what they are thinking, feeling and experiencing. Play provides a safe psychological distance from their problems and allows the expression of thoughts and feelings appropriate to their development.
Talking – Talking helps children and teens learn to put their feelings and thoughts into words. Recognising, naming, and sharing our emotions is critical for emotion regulation (‘Name it to tame it’). Saying things out loud can make them seem less scary or overwhelming. Sometimes children and teens find it easier to talk to a psychologist as they don’t have to worry about hurting parents feelings or burdening them.
Activities – During therapy, activities are used for teaching coping skills or calm breathing, exploring thoughts and feelings, practising new skills, keeping children engaged and building the therapy relationship.
