Young People's Therapy

  For a child trauma could be forgetting their PE kit to experiencing abuse, the situation, severity, sense making, and impact will be individual for every child.  Events that represent trauma for a very young child might look a little different from those an adult would consider traumatic, but their impact is no less.   Children often lack the language, ability, and opportunity to make sense of their experiences and ask for the support they need. If left unresolved difficulties such as anxiety, aggression and hyper-activity may present.    Everybody will experience stress in their lives, including small children and learning to cope with stress is part of life and can enable a child to develop self-awareness and resilience.  It can be difficult to unpick the complex needs and challenges faced by some children, and it is important to prioritise the needs of the child first and foremost, work at their pace and refer to find a medium of communication that puts the child at ease and facilitates communication. 

I have worked with young primary age children providing a gentle, calm space for children to express their thoughts and feelings using mediums of communication including play, art, and creative arts.   At the other end of the age spectrum, I have many years’ experience of working with young people involved in the criminal justice system often struggling with emotional regulation and struggling to contain their aggression. I use a mixture of psychoeducation, behavioural techniques, family therapy and media resources to develop the emotional language to enable my young clients to express their thoughts and feelings and develop an awareness of their needs and in expressing what they need from the people around them. It is great to see children grow up into people with separate views, hopes and ambitions and child therapy can be influential in working towards achieving these achievements.