I accept clients from age 11+, which means sometimes the people who reach out to my service are not the clients themselves, but their parents or guardians. On this page I have laid out some information that you might find useful if you are thinking of referring your child for therapy.

Firstly, therapy is only effective if it is attended willingly and voluntarily. A child may feel reluctant and unsure about attending something that is new and unfamiliar, so some encouragement at the beginning is fine. Once they have met me and been introduced to the therapy setting, hopefully they won’t find the appointments as daunting and perhaps may even find that therapy can be fun! However, if at any point a client lets me know that they don’t want to attend counselling, I certainly won’t force them to proceed. The last thing I would want to do is increase a client’s anxiety.

On a similar thread, I am a client-led therapist, meaning I allow my client to direct the topic and focus of our sessions. A parent might have some ideas as to how they hope their child will utilise their sessions, and sometimes this guidance can be helpful. However, if this isn’t something the client brings into the sessions themselves, it would be unethical and against my therapeutic values to force it. This may be disappointing for some parents, and I can tell their direction so often comes from a place of love and good intention, but my approach is to prioritise allowing clients, whatever their age, the space to feel free to be their authentic self and to express themselves without expectation or agenda. A key to this is making sure they feel in control and to a large degree in charge of their personal therapeutic journey.

I recognise that a young person’s caregivers are a key part of that person’s support network, and therefore welcome opportunities to include parents/guardians in the therapy process when necessary. This may be in the form of me sharing coping techniques with you, so that you can support your child in practicing these outside the therapy space. The majority of sessions, however, will be contained within the practice of confidentiality, meaning I do not offer reports, or share with you the content of your child’s session unless there is a specific safeguarding issue.

I hope you find this information useful. If you have any further questions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.