Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist

Specialist Help for Children and Young People with Emotional & Behavioural Difficulties in Edinburgh, East Lothian & Online.

Call Us Today

Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist

Specialist Help for Children and Young People with Emotional & Behavioural Difficulties in Edinburgh, East Lothian & Online.

Call Us Today

What is Child Psychotherapy?

Child Psychotherapy is a gentle way of helping children with emotional and behavioural difficulties.

It involves working with a therapist who is trained to help them to express how they feel inside. This can be done in various ways such as playing, drawing or talking as per the child’s preference.

Younger children often prefer to play or draw, while Young People and Young Adults may prefer just to talk. These can then lead to making sense of what they are really feeling and how these are affecting their day-to-day life and relationships.

Over time children begin the unique way in which their mind works and to understand why they may possibly be feeling that with the help of their therapist. This deeper understanding can help them to start changing things and make things better.

Child Psychotherapy falls under the category of “non-directive” work where the therapist has no pre-set agenda. The therapist aims to meet the child or the Young Person where they are emotionally, cognitively and developmentally and therefore highly tailored and individualised to the needs of each child.

A feature that separates Child Psychotherapy from other psychological interventions is the regularity and predictability of the clinical setting, time and duration which are key to the change process.

Why Child Psychotherapy?

Sometimes children and Young People can be worried that they are attending Child Psychotherapy because of the fear of being seen as ‘bad’ or as ‘having a problem’.

However, oftentimes, it is their unexpressed emotions such as anxiety, sadness, anger, confusion or feeling scared that may be at the root of some of their difficult behaviours. Quite often other key adults in the child’s life may be concerned about them.

The idea of talking about these rather difficult feelings itself can be worrying but so children can find playing or drawing a lot more comfortable than talking. This allows the child as well as the therapist to access the deeper preoccupations and open them up for examination and exploration from a place of non-judgemental curiosity.

Child Psychotherapy is particularly suitable for more complex behaviours which have persisted over a long time, where there may multiple difficulties or diagnosis or where other interventions have not been entirely effective.

For children 0 to 5 years

For children from 6 to 12 years

For young children, psychotherapy has been shown to be effective in helping with issues such as bedwetting, sleep problems, night terrors, feeding difficulties, separation anxiety etc. This requires working jointly with the parent and the child. The aim at this stage is to help a child to move and make progress on a healthy developmental pathway. This can be a valuable opportunity for detecting neurodevelopmental difficulties at an early stage.

For children from 6 to 12 years

A transition towards adolescence can be an anxious time for some children. Psychotherapy can help children who may be experiencing difficulties with their hyperactivity, difficulty with maintaining focus, difficulty with forming or maintaining peer relationships, displaying oppositional or defiant behaviours, people pleasing, underachieving at school, being vulnerable to bullying and such other negative influences.

For Young People from 13 to 16 years

Some Young People can find a move to Secondary School really anxiety provoking. These anxieties can often show up as generalised anxiety, depression, acting out, eating disorders, self-harm, sexual abuse, post traumatic symptoms, and such others. Psychotherapy can help young people who could be struggling to navigate this stage by helping them to make sense of their thoughts and behaviours.

For Young Adults from 17 to 25 years

For Young People from 13 to 16 years

Making their way into the world as a semi-independent and later as an independent Young Adult can be a time of uncertainty, worry and dealing with a range of expectations and pressures. Psychotherapy can help with tackling these pressures, forming a healthy separation and transition to adulthood.

Child Psychotherapy Within The NHS

Child Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy is a core discipline within the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS). However, it is not available within all Health Boards in Scotland for a variety of reasons.

Child Psychotherapy is available within Specialist Children’s Services (Tier 3 which involves working in partnership with more than one professional) and Highly Specialist Services (Tertiary level care within Tier 4 such as within in patient units) within CAMHS because it is offered as the end of line treatment especially in situations where the mental health difficulties are of a longstanding and complex nature and where other interventions have not been fully effective.

About Me

Kirti Lawrence - Child Psychotherapist

I am a full member of the Association of Child Psychotherapists which is regulated by the Professional Standards Authority.

After completing my initial post-graduate studies, I worked extensively with children and families across sectors such as Early Years, Education, Health, Social Work and the Third Sector for over 24 years. During this time, I worked with children with a wide range of emotional and behavioural difficulties. This period includes over 14 years’ experience in working with children, young people and their professional networks who were Care Experienced, in Foster Care, Kinship care, Residential Care, in Secure Units and babies whose parents were incarcerated.

After gaining a deeper understanding of trauma and its effects and eager to learn more, I joined the Integrated Professional Doctorate Training Programme in Child and Adolescent Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy delivered by the Scottish Institute of Human Relations (now Human Development Scotland), in partnership with Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust and the Association of Child Psychotherapists, where I completed a 5.5 years full time intensive training in the Department of Child and Family Psychiatry (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service) in Greater Glasgow and Clyde NHS. During this period, I had the opportunity to develop my understanding and skills further within Tier 3 Services at the Department of Child, Adolescent and Family Psychiatry and Tier 4 Specialist Children’s Services in the Complex Trauma Pathway Team at The Royal Hospital for Sick Kids. During this time I developed a special interest in Autism and other neuro-developmental disorders.

I offer highly specialised trauma-focused, attachment-based psychotherapy treatment to children and young people (0 to 25 years) presenting with a wide range of moderate to severe mental health difficulties. The range of my clinical work includes working with depression, anxiety, self-harm, Obsessive Compulsive Disorders, phobias, supportive psychotherapy for Psychosis and Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders, Eating Disorders, issues related to gender and identity but especially a wide range of neuro-developmental difficulties associated with Autism Spectrum Disorders/Conditions, where the child may have complex difficulties with multiple diagnoses. My research interests are neuro developmental.

Besides short, medium and long-term treatment, I offer specialised assessments such as School Observation, pre-diagnostic autism assessments, State of Mind /emotional state/internal world assessments to help with planning for children and young people, as well as supervision and consultations to staff teams and organisations working with children with emotional and behavioural difficulties where the situation may be stuck, challenging, complex or puzzling. I also offer support to potential adoptive parents, foster carers, kinship carers and parents who may be struggling to manage or make sense of their child’s behaviours

Frequently Asked Questions

Please contact me if you cannot find an answer to your question.

What happens during therapy sessions?

Children use the 50-minute sessions to play, draw or talk with their therapist in a quiet room called the therapy room.

For very young children, the therapist needs to work with the child and the parent/s or carers together as the focus of the work is often the relationship between the child and the parent.

Children over 5 years meet their therapist 1:1 who after listening carefully to their thoughts, feeling and experiences may make suggestions about ways in which their day-to-day difficulties could be understood, managed better and addressed more fully overtime.

What the children share with the therapist is confidential and the therapist will not share the details of the sessions with anyone except when the therapist thinks that there is a danger of the child coming to harm or someone else who might be harmed because of the child’s pre-occupations, with a pre-approved (through a signed consent) adult.

Who will your child meet and what will the therapist be like?

Your therapist would be a kind, caring and understanding person who will be a highly trained and experienced practitioner. They are fully qualified, accountable and registered with a recognised/approved professional body in UK and carry out their clinical work under a Code of Practice.

What can I expect at my first visit?

Sometimes children can be somewhat anxious at the prospect of meeting someone they don’t know, at a venue they have not been to before at their first appointment. They may also feel a sense of pressure about ‘talking about difficult things’ or ‘do the right things’ because they may be concerned about what the therapist would think about them or whether they will be asked questions they might find tricky to answer.

Considering that Child Psychotherapy is child-led, the therapist will have no such expectations which can lift these pressures, free them up to come as they are and talk about anything they may have on their mind spontaneously.

Comfortable enough topics often are sharing a bit about their friends, school life, hobbies, family life, pets etc with their therapist using whatever medium they prefer.

Normally, there will be a waiting room available for the adults to wait in while the child is in a session and if you were to arrive early. There may or may not be a reception desk but your therapist will meet you at the main door when you arrive, from where the child will make his/her/their way to the therapy room with the therapist at the agreed time.

At the end of the session, the therapist will walk back with your child to the waiting room.

What happens next?

Initial appointment:

Starting Child Psychotherapy is a stepped process.

Once your enquiry is received, an initial appointment (session 1) is set up which is with the parents only of children and Young People under 16 years.

This can give the parents the opportunity to speak freely and for the therapist to ask questions and make detailed notes on the nature and the history of the difficulties, gather background information with a specific focus on the early years and share further details about Child Psychotherapy and how they work.

Assessment:

At the end of this initial consultation, we can move to the next stage of setting up the dates and times for starting an assessment for psychotherapy.

This involves meeting the child 1:1 over three once weekly sessions (session 2,3 and 4) which are arranged to take place on the same day and at the same time.

This is essentially an introduction to psychotherapy which allows the child as well as the therapist to gauge how the child responds to this.

Review:

A week after the end of the 3rd session, the parents are provided with a psychotherapy assessment report and a 30-minute review (session 5) at which we discuss the findings, the formulation and recommendations mentioned in the report.

At this stage, the parents can decide whether they would like to proceed to the treatment phase and depending on their decision, further dates can be set up which would follow the same pattern of attending session on the same day and time on a once weekly basis.

How long does therapy last?

Child Psychotherapy can be brief lasting for a few sessions to, medium term lasting a few months to longer term lasting between 1-2 years depending on the nature of the problems.

This is initially assessed at the beginning and kept under regular periodic review. Sometimes a few sessions can reduce the difficult behaviours but these early changes are not fully integrated within this short period. One of the key aims of child psychotherapy is to help a child achieve lasting change which goes beyond symptom reduction.

Endings and holiday breaks are planned in advance and managed carefully because these points of transition are pivotal to the child’s progress in therapy and predictability for the child is one of the key requirements of therapy.

How effective is Child Psychotherapy?

Child Psychotherapy is recommended by National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE) and Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) as an effective treatment modality for several mental health difficulties in children and young people.

For example, research shows that Child Psychotherapy is effective as a first line treatment for moderate to severe depression in 5–11-year-olds and as an option for 11–18-year-olds for the same where the clinical needs of the child have not been met by other interventions.

Other groups which show evidence of effectiveness with psychotherapy are children who have suffered neglect, abuse and disrupted attachments as seen oftentimes in children who are Care Experienced.

Can Child Psychotherapists support adults?

Yes, supporting parents, carers and other professionals is an important part of working with a Child Psychotherapist as they are trained extensively in applying the same model of thinking to assist other adults who may be involved in working with the child. Therefore, parallel support sessions with the parents/carers are an integral part of the work while the child is in therapy.

These sessions are additional to the child’s therapy sessions and can be arranged flexibly as and when required.

A core competency required from Child Psychotherapists is their ability to work with carers, adoptive parents and other key professionals involved with the child. This can take the form of advice, guidance, consultations and supervision to Guidance teams at school, involved Social Work teams, Keyworkers etc.

Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist

Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist