Psychoanalytic child and adolescent psychotherapy in Staffordshire
What is child psychotherapy like?
Following an initial meeting and assessment we will decide as a group what the next steps will be. Psychoanalytic psychotherapy is usually a longer term approach with a minimum commitment of a year, however there are some caveats to this in cases of under fives work, and Short Term Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy (often offered for teens).
An observational approach
Child psychotherapy is unusual in that we follow our patients wherever they choose to go, or not go, during their sessions and use our own feelings and observations to guide how we respond and attempt to help the person work through their feelings and experiences. This means we do not need our patients to be able to coherently talk to us about what’s bothering them. Work is going well when some of the difficulties experienced outside the therapy room come into the relationship inside the therapy room, for us to work through and understand in a live way – this can make psychoanalytic psychotherapy hard work, and it often takes some determination from the whole family/system to manage the big feelings that can be stirred up.
Equipment and setting
I aim to keep the setting and session time reliable, and each person will have their own box of equipment which will be developmentally appropriate – this box of materials will belong to the person and can be used to express their feelings and describe their experiences in the sessions. It’s important to try to arrive on time as I will keep to time to ensure the reliability of the setting – if we keep the setting largely the same, we know it isn’t that that’s causing distress.
Parent work
Parent and carer work is an integral part of child psychotherapy and we will negotiate how to include parents/carers in the work in a way that the family/system is comfortable with. The work in the room with a child is confidential, unless consent is given to share with parents, but it is important to offer a space to parents so that they can think about what it’s like to parent their child, and how to understand what is happening for their child and support them. Parent work can be a stand-alone offer for parents/carers.
Older young people
Older young people in their latter teens and early twenties can access psychoanalytic psychotherapy without the attending parent work if that is desirable, and confidentiality will be strictly maintained unless there are concerns around risk.
STPP
Short Term Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy is a manualised model for adolescents and older young people, it was developed for adolescents with enduring depression but is helpful for many presenting concerns. It is structured around an offer of 28 sessions of work with the young person and 7 parent/carer sessions. This can be a helpful starting place for teens, or a useful approach if an open ended offer leaves too much uncertainty.
Intensity of work
Child psychotherapy can be tailored to need from fortnightly sessions right up to four or five times weekly where the need arises.