When working with Primary & Secondary School aged children I will use an ‘Integrative’ approach with influences from Play Therapy, Sand Tray Therapy, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Person Centred Therapy and psycho-education around emotional regulation.  As an 'Integrative' therapist I can adapt my therapy plan to be responsive to the needs and developmental age of your child.

 

Play involves using creativity and metaphor within our sessions.  Being playful is vital to every child’s social, emotional, cognitive, physical, creative and language development. It helps enable emotional expression for all children and young people including those for whom verbal communication may be difficult.

 

During our creative sessions I will introduce some psycho-education on feelings and emotions along with reflection on where these are experienced within (interoception).  This sense enables children to learn their triggers for difficult feelings; with this awareness comes an ability to self-soothe using coping strategies we work on together in sessions.  This approach is proven to increase:

 

 

• Emotional awareness

• Self confidence

• Self worth

 

 

My own approach Affect Awareness Therapy has been developed over my 14 years working as a school counsellor. This approach acknowledges the value of Axline's (1969) principles which form the basis of a strong working alliance. The therapeutic relationship is developed using play, story and metaphor within our sessions, this enables emotional expression, affect regulation, sensory integration, all of which will have a calming effect on the body and mind, especially with children who have experienced early traumatic events. The theoretical underpinning of this work relates largely to attachment theory and the person-centred way of working.