What to Expect

Initial consultation

Prior to starting sessions, I offer a brief initial consultation, to gain a overview of the area/s your family would like to work on, and to check whether early years psychology feels a good fit. If it does, I will offer a date to begin sessions. Wherever possible, I aim to accommodate day/time preferences, and begin without delay. If I am unable to do so, then I will be able to recommend a list of trusted colleagues. Similarly, if early years psychology does not feel like the best fit, I will be able to advise on other services that do. You can book an initial consultation directly, using the booking link at the bottom of this page.

Assessment and Formulation

Generally, the first session/s (typically ranging from one to three, depending on complexity) are focused on understanding a family’s situation, sharing some initial guidance, and developing a plan for intervention (for more information, please see this leaflet: 'Understanding Formulation'). I will generally be looking to answer questions such as:

• What are the difficulties?

• How do we make sense of them, based psychological theory?

  • How did they come about?

  • What keeps them going?

  • What’s the best intervention?

At the end of these first few session/s, I will advise on the type of therapy, some strategies to be getting started with, and an estimated number of sessions I believe would be helpful. I aim for this to be an open discussion, and understand that families' availability and finances can be particularly constrained at this time.

Intervention

The intervention forms the main section of therapy. It will be guided by the assessment and formulation, and so will be individually tailored to you, but this will tend to be quite a practical stage of therapy, where we are implementing new strategies; practicing in sessions and between sessions.

As a psychologist, I am trained across a range of approaches. Depending on the approach taken, sessions may be quite structured or more free-flowing, and may be short term; over a few weeks, or longer term. I strive to be transparent and involve families in the decision-making process. For more information, please see our FAQs - 'How do you choose which approach to use?'.

Ending and Follow-up

I will invite us to review our sessions regularly to ensure you feel you are getting the most out of therapy; you are not tied into any commitment you can end sessions at any time. At the end of therapy, I will guide us through summarising the work we have completed and a plan to continue this work into the future.

For therapies focussed on managing children’s emotional and behavioural difficulties, I offer a free handover consultation to nurseries (where relevant, and with your consent), to share the strategies and support nurseries to implement these consistently too.