Services

Amazing Minds CBT offers a range of services:  assessments, individual therapy, support for parents and training, consultation and supervision to professionals.  Please see below for more information.

Following your initial enquiry, you will be contacted and be asked a few questions about your current situation and the difficulties you and your child are experiencing. This will help decide if this service is appropriate for you and your child at this time.

Prior to treatment, a clinical assessment is carried out in order to fully understand the child/young person’s difficulties and to ensure the suitability of treatment approach.  This can last up to 1.5 hours and often takes place with the parent and child/young person together.  The assessment will look at the child/young person’s development over time, the family history and the present difficulties and strengths within the family.  Therapy needs to be tailored to the individual child/young person taking into account their individual circumstances and needs.  A summary report (formulation) of this assessment can be provided.  At the end of the assessment, a treatment plan is agreed and an indication / recommendation of the number and frequency of sessions required is given.  Each subsequent therapy session lasts 1 hour.  Parents and children/young people may be asked to complete some standardised questionnaires to inform the assessment.

Child and parent:  Depending on the presenting difficulty and the age of the child/young person, the agreed plan for therapy may recommend 1-1 child sessions or parent and child sessions or a mixture of the two.  Sessions are child-focussed and developmentally appropriate, using play and other age appropriate activities/games.

Adolescents:  Adolescence is a time full of complexity and uncertainty and therefore often a very difficult developmental phase.  Adolescents are pushed and pulled in many different directions, with expectations of academic achievement, friendships to negotiate and independence to develop; it can be a turbulent time.  Anxiety and low mood can be common at this stage.  Coping strategies, such as self-harm, avoidance, withdrawal, aggression, drugs and alcohol are sometimes used as a way of coping.  Therapy sessions aim to help the adolescent understand their difficulties and find alternative, more helpful, coping strategies through providing them with a calm, thoughtful and safe place to explore their feelings.

Parents have a crucial role in helping their child/young person.  However, knowing what is wrong and how to help can be a challenge.  Support for parents can help you to help your child, it can also help to resolve conflict and improve attachments and relationships.  Sometimes anxious children are unwilling to be directly involved in therapy.  If this is the case it is possible to work with the child through the parents using a specific programme.

CBT consultation to professionals such as Educational Psychologists, Counsellors, Teachers, Social Workers and Therapists can offer a facilitated, supported discussion to ensure safe and ethical practice from a CBT perspective.  Professionals are given the opportunity to discuss the children/young people they are working with and to reflect on the difficulties and plan a way forward.