Child & Adolescent Therapy

What is Child & Adolescent Therapy?

Child and adolescent psychotherapy helps children and young people better understand their feelings and thoughts of worry, anger, confusion or sadness; feelings that may be difficult to express. Psychotherapy can help children and young people make sense of what they are experiencing, feel less distressed, become more self-aware, and develop resilience.


It can be challenging for young people to open up, so I make use of a variety of specialist techniques such as art therapy, drama and movement therapy, or play therapy.

How can child and adolescent therapy help?

Understanding a young person’s distress plays a vital part in supporting and containing difficulties. I start by listening carefully to what the young person communicates, what they say, and how they show their feelings. I pay close attention to how a child or young person shares their feelings and experiences through talking, art-making, drama, movement or play. Working at the pace of the child, I help them to gather together feelings that can seem overwhelming or out of control. Relationships at home and school can then start to feel better.

Concerns that can be worked through in child and adolescent psychotherapy include, but are not limited to:

  • Anxiety
  • Problems dealing with stress or recovering from stressful situations
  • Lack of confidence or extreme shyness
  • Gender & Sexuality
  • Coping with the effects of abuse
  • Extreme mood swings
  • Feelings of depression, sadness, grief, or emptiness
  • Sexual problems
  • Difficulties coming to terms with losses such as bereavement
  • Self-harm
  • Eating disorders
  • Panic attacks and phobias.
  • Obsessive behaviour
  • Insomnia

Forms of Therapy

Psychotherapy

Psychotherapy is a form of talking therapy designed to help people with various emotional difficulties and mental illnesses. Psychotherapy can help eliminate or control troubling symptoms so a person can better function and find ever-increasing well-being and healing.

Art therapy and drama or movement therapy

Art therapy and drama or movement therapy are forms of psychotherapy that use the creative processes of art-making, movement and drama techniques to explore and communicate issues, feelings, and emotions that may be too difficult or distressing to express directly. Within this context, art is not used as a diagnostic tool but as a medium to address emotional issues which may be confusing and distressing.

Play therapy

Play therapy is primarily used with children and uses play as a communication tool to help them express their feelings and deal with emotional problems. It can be used to diagnose the reasons for difficult behaviour, to allow children to work through their anxieties, or as a relearning and desensitisation therapy.