Whether you are seeking help for yourself, your child or as a family, the purpose of the initial sessions are to provide you with an opportunity to talk about what has brought you to seek help at this time and what you want to achieve from therapy. If you are seeking help for your child, it might be that the initial session takes place all together, before separate sessions for you and your child. We would discuss this at the outset. I will ask questions to get to know you all, learn about your lives currently and also historically. This means that it will be gradually possible to place the difficulties you or your child are experiencing in the context of your whole lives.
We will think together about the type of therapy that seems most helpful and how often we will meet, which is typically once weekly on the same day at the same time. The purpose of setting the same day and time is to create regularity, so that the therapy is a space that you feel you can rely upon. If it seems you may benefit from other services or types of support in addition to the therapy, or possibly instead of, we will discuss this together.
Subsequent sessions are a little different. I will ask fewer questions and my focus will be on how you are feeling and thinking generally and also in the moment, both within the therapy and with your child. I will try to notice not only what feels difficult, but what is going well.
We may at times make links between how you feel now and other times in your life, to bring understanding to what is happening for you. Sessions with your baby take place on a mat on the floor, so that we are at your baby’s level to include them in the session, as your baby is an active participant in the therapy. Child focused sessions are often play based, during which we would follow your child’s actions and words, to help understand what is in their minds.
Each session is 50 minutes long.
For therapy to be helpful, you need to know that what you share is safe. This is in essence what confidentiality is for and about.
Confidentiality includes both what we talk about and any notes I may take. I will not share with anyone else what we discuss and you are of course free to talk about the sessions with whomever you wish. You might find you want to share and think with other people about what happens in the sessions, or it may feel too private for you.
The only time that I will break confidentiality, is if I need to disclose information in order to safeguard you or someone else from significant harm, or if I am required to share information by a court of law. Except in the rare circumstances where there is the potential for significant or increased risk, I will endeavour to discuss this with you first. I attend my own supervision, which is a requirement for Psychologists and Psychotherapists. I may share our work together, to help in my thinking about our sessions.
I abide by the HCPC’s Standards of Conduct, Performance and Ethics and BPC’s Codes of Ethics and Ethical Guidelines. I ensure that all personal information is securely held, in accordance with GDPR guidelines. The GDPR stands for General Data Protection Regulation and is a set of rules on data protection and privacy.
A Parent-Infant Psychotherapist is, in essence, highly specialised in helping support the relationships between parents and their young children. Before you can train in PIP, you have first to qualify in another therapeutic profession, in my case, as a Psychologist and, of course, it essential that you have had previous significant experience of working with parents and their babies. For me this had been many years working in a child and family mental health service, incorporating work with parents, babies and toddlers. I have since gone on to work in several Perinatal Mental Health Services and a Parent-Infant Service.
The focus of Parent-Infant Psychotherapy, is to help you think about how influences from your own past link to how you are currently feeling and in turn impacts how you may see and be with your child. This enables new ways of being and development for both you and your child.
Parent-Infant Psychotherapists are regulated by the British Psychoanalytic Council.
Counselling Psychologists are trained in therapeutic models, often called talking therapies. They work in mental health settings, predominantly the NHS, in a wide range of services. They combine clinical experience and therapeutic models to support and facilitate change for people who are experiencing significant levels of distress. I have worked in a variety of settings as a Psychologist, including schools, higher education, adult mental health, perinatal mental health, parent-infant mental health, child and family and forensic services.
I work psychodynamically, which means placing the difficulties you are experiencing in the context of your whole life. Our relationship will help us to understand how you see yourself and those around you. I attempt to think with you about the reasons for how you have come to manage emotion in a certain way and to uncover the feelings that these ways of coping have obscured. Ultimately, this means that there is much less of a need for the feelings to be fended off, freeing up emotional energy for your current life. With children, this means making meaning out of their play, which is considered a symbolic representation of how they see themselves and the world around them. Difficulties are worked through both by recognising the significance of the experience of the characters in your child’s play, as well as how they relate to me and you, indicating the expectations they have formed of what happens in relationships with other people.
Counselling Psychologists are regulated by the Health and Care Professionals Council (HCPC), which includes strict professional guidelines.
This is something I’m afraid I cannot help with, because medication is prescribed by a Psychiatrist, a medically qualified doctor with additional training in Psychiatry.