It can be extremely difficult when your child is struggling with something and you are not sure of the best way to help them. We understand that when a child is suffering, this often impacts on a whole family, including their parents and siblings.

The specialised Child Clinical Psychologists on our team have worked in the leading paediatric hospitals and psychological services for children in London. We have the expertise and evidence-based skills to support you and your child through the difficulties you may be facing.

We will carry out our assessment and from there recommend the best treatment approach, tailored to your child and family setup. We can also make recommendations for further specific assessment, if we think it will be a key factor in a successful outcome for your child.

We are experienced in helping with a range of emotional, developmental or behavioural issues, including:

• Anxiety, stress and phobias
• Sleeping problems
• Low mood and coping with difficult feelings
• Bullying or self-esteem issues
• Relationship difficulties and improving a child’s sense of security and confidence
• Physical symptoms, such as stomach pain, headaches, nausea or coping with medical conditions
• Eating difficulties, such as restrictive or picky eating
• Trauma or loss
• Developmental issues, such as ADHD and ASD and supporting children who may be struggling at school.
  Behavioural issues
• Common toddler issues, such as toileting or tantrums

Adolescents and Young Adults
Many of our team have worked in specialist hospitals or services for adolescents and young adults. We are highly experienced in providing developmentally appropriate assessments and interventions to this age group. We are also experienced in providing age-appropriate family work that can sometimes be necessary alongside any individual work.

We understand that this is a time of significant change for young people, whether physically, socially, emotionally or neuropsychologically. We also recognise the many challenges that this age group faces, including changing expectations and responsibilities. We see that this generation is the first to have ‘grown up online’. In our work we can consider the role that internet use and social media plays in young people’s lives – the positive and sometimes the less positive.

We understand the central importance of identity development, sometimes including the exploration of sexuality and gender identity, and the increasingly complex demands of social and romantic relationships that young people encounter at this time in their lives. Given all of these changes, demands and pressures we welcome adolescents and young adults who would like extra support to help them cope and thrive.

Interventions for this age group might include:

• Support to help young people to make sense of their emotions and develop resilience – this might include coping with anxiety, low mood or anger
• Interventions for difficulties that are often first encountered in adolescence, such as eating disorders and gender dysphoria
• Interventions to help develop healthy relationships with others, including family relationships or managing bullying or conflict
• Explorative therapy for developing identities, including a focus on fostering positive self-esteem and reducing any self-sabotaging thoughts or behaviours
• Support to study and manage exam stress , including interventions for stress and perfectionism or motivation
  Interventions to help with issues of separation and independence or responsibility
• Sleeping problems
• Physical symptoms, such as stomach pain, headaches, nausea or coping with medical conditions
• Trauma or loss in a variety of settings

Family Therapy
Some of our clinical psychologists are also trained in family therapy; also known as family, systemic and couple psychotherapy. This therapy aims to helps people in close relationships to help each other. It views difficulties as often arising between people and within relationships. The approach enables family members, couples and others who care about each other to express and explore difficult thoughts and emotions safely, to understand each others’ perspectives and to better appreciate each others’ needs. Family and couple therapists support families to build on resources they already have and make useful and long lasting changes in their relationships and their lives.

Family therapists work with individuals, couples, families and different forms of kinships. Research has shown that couple and family therapy can be effective for a range of difficulties:

• Couple or family relationship difficulties or conflict
• Child, adolescent and adult behaviour difficulties
• Parenting issues
• Illness and disability in the family
• Separation, divorce and step-family life
• Fostering, adoption, kinship care and the needs of ‘looked after’ children
• Domestic violence and abuse
• The effects of trauma
• Difficulties related to development or ageing and other life cycle changes
• Child and adolescent mental health issues including anorexia, bulimia and other eating disorders