What to expect

What to expect when you make contact with me...

I will initially arrange a free 30 minute telephone consultation with you for us to decide whether I am the right person for you and your child to come and meet with.

If we decide to proceed we will agree on an assessment meeting. The assessment will usually take two 50 minute sessions. This will be at my clinic room in Horsham.

During this time I will need to ask you a lot of questions about the concerns that you and your child are coming with and also some background history. It may be appropriate for some of the assessment time to be just for the adults and some just for the young person depending on their age.

I will have some toys and colouring activities available for younger children and/or siblings who may find it hard to sit and talk or listen for a long time.

Following the assessment, I will share with you my psychological formulation of the difficulties that you are presenting with. The formulation will inform our discussion about whether you and your child attend for some ongoing therapeutic work. If we have reached a decision for me to meet with your child or yourself regularly we will contract for an initial number of sessions which will then be reviewed.

Therapeutic work will look different for each and every family. With older children and young people I may spend some time with them alone. With younger children I am likely to meet them with you for most of the time. I will at times have sessions just for the parents. Even if I am meeting your child alone I will regularly update you as to their progress and we may ask you to join us for the last part of each session or for a review session at regular intervals.

My main model of working is Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. This approach is a collaborative one and does require families to engage in the therapy actively and to carry out homework tasks in between sessions. Please see below for a link to a useful leaflet about CBT which you might find helpful:

www.rcpsych.ac.uk/healthadvice/parentsandyoungpeople/youngpeople/cbt.aspx