Parent-Child Psychotherapy
Children can find it very difficult to understand and put into words thoughts and feelings that cause them distress. Confused, helpless, hurt, guilty, angry, or other painful emotions can be overwhelming for some children and make them feel out of control or respond to people and situations in ways they do not understand.How children learn to navigate and are helped to navigate their way through these difficult emotional states can have a powerful influence on how they experience themselves and how they inhabit their relationships throughout their lifetime.
I offer support through Parent-Child Psychotherapy for younger children. Parent-Child psychotherapy aims to support the parent or carer gain a deeper understanding of their child's feelings and behaviour and facilitate new ways of relating. It can promote new developments in the relationship by increasing parental confidence and sensitivity to their child's communication.
Parent-Child Psychotherapy can help with (but not limited to):
- Separation issues (going to a child-minder, starting playgroup, nursery, returning to work anxiety)
- Family relationships (e.g., sibling rivalry, adjustment to divorce and family break up, reconstituted/blended families)
- Difficulties at nursery/school (e.g., separation anxiety, school refusal, challenging behaviour, concentration)
- Peer relationships, e.g., making friends, bullying
- Toileting difficulties
- Sleep problems/night terrors
- Psychosomatic symptoms
- Anxiety and worry, fears and phobias, obsessive-compulsive behaviours
- Low mood/depression
- Low confidence, low self-esteem, intense shyness
Parent-Child psychotherapy can be particularly beneficial for attachment-related difficulties in the child-parent/carer relationship. Being together in this way enables an opportunity to explore ways of understanding the struggles in the relationship and foster new developments between the child and their parents/carers.
Getting the right help at the right time is critical in setting the foundation for your infant's and young child's development and for building solid and positive attachments throughout their life cycle and across generations.