Life can be unsettled and complicated at times, and children may react to this in a way which causes problems. Psychotherapy offers a chance for children and young people to understand more about themselves and their relationships, helping them to find more healthy and thoughtful ways of relating.
From low mood to self-harm and suicidality, our clinicians are experienced in helping children and young people explore the origins of their feelings, helping them feel less alone. Parents can share their worries and gain greater understanding of the situation too.
Psychotherapy can help children and young people work through and resolve this problem at its roots. This process helps build self-awareness and self-confidence, both of which will help protect against anxiety in the future.
Experiences of illness, separation, loss or other trauma can have a profound impact on the developing child. This is often seen in troublesome behaviour and low sense of self-worth. Psychotherapy supports children and young people to recover from trauma in a way which helps them gain greater control and offers new ways of understanding and expressing themselves.
Moving between families can be stressful, and old difficulties from early in life can trouble children as they grow. We offer specialist assessment and treatment to adoptive families, helping to strengthen relationships and promote healthy development.
This is a problem which may manifest in different ways across the life cycle. We understand that issues around eating are an expression of problems which lie hidden in the unconscious. Work in psychotherapy offers the opportunity to discover more about the underlying difficulties and to resolve the disorder at its root.
The psychoanalytic approach views behaviour as a communication of feelings or thoughts which cannot be expressed in words. Experience shows that when a child or young person feels understood, the need to act out is less pressing, and room opens up for thinking and talking.
Child and Adolescent Psychotherapists have undertaken a six year training which includes four years work in the NHS. This specialist training develops skills and knowledge in understanding and treating children's emotional distress and behavioural difficulties, even when children, parents and professionals may be puzzled and confused. Art Psychotherapists have a specialist training in using art as the medium of treatment for those who find it hard to communicate using words. This is not about being good at art, but about using art, craft, or other materials to explore and express feelings and thoughts. Our Art Psychotherapists have experience of working in CAMHS and with a variety of children and young people across the age range.
I'm Tess Bailey-Sayer, Director of Sea Change Psychotherapy. I'm a Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist with over twenty five years' experience of working with children, young people and families. I worked as a teacher, in a residential therapeutic community and ran the Peper Harow Young Person's Support Project in Shropshire before undertaking my clinical training as a Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist at the Birmingham Trust for Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy.
Since qualifying in 2007, I have worked in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) across the West Midlands, before developing my independent practice in Shropshire. I have experience across the age range, from work on the neonatal intensive care unit and in parent infant psychotherapy, to therapy with young adults. I am able to work with children alongside parents or individually, offering specialist assessment and effective treatment for most psychological and emotional difficulties of childhood and adolescence. My clinical skills include group work, family work and individual therapy.
I have a particular interest in work with children who are Looked After or Adopted, and in providing specialist support to their parents and carers.
Continuing professional development forms the foundation of my practice, alongside regular supervision.
Before undertaking my clinical training I spent 5 years working in a Therapeutic Community in Kent with children and young people who had been sexually abused. I went on to train at the Anna Freud Centre in London and held a number of part-time roles alongside this in teaching on a UCL course, research at Great Ormond Street, parent-Infant work at the Anna Freud Centre and co-facilitating a therapeutic group for children.
I qualified in 2006 and worked in an NHS Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) in South London, a Local Authority Infant School and an Independent Fostering Agency. I relocated to the Midlands late in 2007 and spent 8 years working in an NHS service for older adolescents with acute mental health needs. I have continued to work with children and young people of all ages in foster care, and with a range of social, emotional and behavioural difficulties, throughout this time. I have also worked extensively with parents and carers and the professional systems around individual children and young people. In addition to clinical work I enjoy the challenges of teaching and supervising other professionals.
I am Judith Cousins and I work here at Sea Change Psychotherapy as a Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist. I have over 12 years’ worth of experience working within generic/community CAMHS and have also spent time in different specialist teams. In one of these we supported children and young people with eating disorders and were successful in reducing the need for hospital admission by offering a community-based service that offered intense support. I have also worked for a specialist ‘Looked After Children’ team that offered support and treatment for young people within the care system.
I have worked in residential care settings offering individual work to young people as well as offering training and consultation to care staff and fellow clinicians. I have undertaken training at The Portman Clinic into offending behaviours in young people and how to support and manage such challenging behaviours.
I have worked in a residential school for children and young people with complex needs and learning disabilities and offered pupils individual work and worked with staff to develop their understanding of their pupils beyond the diagnosed disability. I regularly offer consultation to colleagues and have undertaken the supervision training at the Birmingham Trust for Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy (BTPP).
Prior to my training I worked within education as a primary school teacher for a number of years and the early years of life have always been of particular interest to me. Being able to observe infants and gain insight to their internal world has helped inform my practice with both children and young adults. I have taught within further and higher education helping to develop degree programmes in relation to early years development and education.
I was a Dramatherapist prior to training to be a Child & Adolescent Psychotherapist at the Tavistock Centre in London, qualifying in 2009 and obtaining a Masters. I have spent over twenty years working in child and adolescent mental health. In the NHS, I have worked in generic/community CAMHS, an adolescent in-patient unit and have especially enjoyed working with families in Under 5’s Services in a Child Development Team (offering specialist diagnostic assessments and therapies) and, recently, in Dudley CAMHS. I have a special interest in the field of disability, having worked for the National Autistic Society, CAMHS Special Needs and in a residential school for children and young people with complex needs. In the Looked After and Adopted Children field, I have worked, for a number of years, with families and professionals in schools, the NHS and for the NSPCC.
As well as offering psychotherapy sessions to children, young people and families, I have run therapeutic groups and I also offer supervision. I have undertaken a Supervision training at the Birmingham Trust for Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy (BTPP).
I am Becky Herbert, an Art Psychotherapist, qualifying in 2011 from Derby University. As an Art Psychotherapist, creativity is at the core of both my professional and personal identity; understanding that communication is about so much more than words.
I have a range of experience working with children and young people, who have complex histories, displaying explicit and some risk-taking behaviours. Prior to undertaking my training, I worked within both mainstream and special needs schools, after undertaking an arts-based degree. As part of my training I worked within CAMHS and post psychotherapy qualification undertook a year’s placement with The Place to be, before becoming involved with residential care services in Shropshire. Initially I worked as a residential carer in a therapeutic organisation specialised in caring for children who had been sexually abused. I then moved into the clinical team of the same organisation, as a Life Story Practitioner and then as Art Psychotherapist. Prior to joining Sea Change, I worked for a residential care service in Wolverhampton, for young people with mental health difficulties. Within all settings, I have worked alongside professionals, carers and families in support of the external framework to the young person’s therapy.
I balance a playful ability to actively work with young people, whilst professionally representing and working to meet their emotional and psychological needs. I am proud to have been an active part of successfully supporting many young people, to achieve positive change.
I have over 20 years’ experience working therapeutically with children and young people, their families and carers. I worked in a therapeutic residential community with children who had suffered severe neglect and abuse before training as an Art Psychotherapist at Goldsmiths, University of London. Upon qualifying as an Art Psychotherapist I worked in a specialist school and as part of a therapy team supporting Looked After Children in residential care and their carers.
I have been working as an Art Psychotherapist in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services in the Midlands since 2005. My time in CAMHS has involved working with birth families with children of all ages as well as with foster carers and adoptive families. During this time I also trained in Cognitive Analytic Therapy (CAT) which is a time-limited psychotherapy focusing on working collaboratively to develop understanding of relating to self and others.
My Art Psychotherapy and CAT trainings have provided me with creative and structured ways of engaging and working with children, young people, parents and carers. This includes trying to work alongside clients (both children and adults) to a useful and realistic ‘middle ground’ or ‘third option’ when they feel stuck between unhelpful but familiar patterns. Both art therapy and CAT are visual and creative therapies that include a mix of talking together and using images and writing to help out thinking.
I like to find ways that therapy can still be helpful to people who are unsure of or for whom the timing for therapy may not be right. This can involve short pieces of work providing a useful experience of working and thinking therapeutically without the commitment and intensity of longer-term psychotherapy.
In addition to practicing as a therapist I have had experience of management and children’s mental health service development and transformation. This included involving children and young people in feedback and development (‘Participation’) and allowed me to build on my collaborative approach to working with young people and parents/carers. My experience as Manager and Participation Lead has provided me with additional beneficial perspectives and insights into organisations, change and development.
I feel that it is a privilege to work as a therapist with other people’s children and will always try to establish some common understanding with parents and carers before therapy commences. I believe it is important to approach psychotherapy with creativity and a sense of humour and that if things don’t feel like they’re working or helpful that it is important to talk honestly about this. Experience has taught me that there is always a way forward even at the most difficult of times!
I am a chartered counselling psychologist registered with the British Psychological Society and the Health and Care Professions Council. I have over 15 years’ experience in the NHS and in independent practice, working with adults, families, young people and children experiencing psychological problems and distress. Prior to joining Sea Change Psychotherapy I worked in inpatient psychiatric services, adult mental health services and a specialist eating disorders service. Most recently, I worked in CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service) where I was specialist lead for eating disorders.
I offer effective therapy utilising evidence based therapeutic models including cognitive, behavioural and psychodynamic approaches.
I am Katie Miller, an Integrative adult, child and adolescent Psychotherapist in training who is working towards a UKCP accredited qualification. I have over three years’ experience working therapeutically with individuals in long term, open ended therapy as well as short term therapy, within the public health, education and charity sectors. My integrative framework combines different approaches which allows me to tailor my way of working to the individual and their presenting issues. At the heart of my practice is the therapeutic relationship and within this I aim to provide a safe, non-judgmental and confidential space for individuals to explore their difficulties. I work with a range of emotional and psychological difficulties and have a particular interest in fertility issues, parental mental health, the early years and the role that the relationship plays in the development of the child’s sense of self.