Working with Young People

If young people are able to receive emotional support from a qualified professional, they will have greater opportunity to fulfil their potential. Research has shown that supporting the wellbeing of young people in a contained setting when they are in emotional distress helps them to recover quicker, empowering them to deal with their difficulties and to build resilience in the longer term.

Depending on their age and confidence levels we can work in different ways and this can be discussed in our initial meeting. Usually, young people will attend alone for reasons of confidentiality which are explained below. However, if they are particularly anxious about attending then they may prefer you attend alongside them at first.

If you would prefer, you can attend with your young person for the first 20 minutes to give any information you would like to give me about your child.

I will then ask you to leave the room, so that the young person can speak with me confidentially for the remainder of the session. It is important that they have a confidential space to be able to speak for this session. 

If they do attend alone, then you can opt to have review sessions which I would suggest could take place every three months, although they can be more or less frequent as you like. A review session would be one of the young persons counselling sessions, but you can attend for the first twenty minutes. The remaining 30 minutes will continue with the young person as normal.

Counselling takes place once a week and each session lasts for 50 minutes. The session will be at the same time and location each week whether this is online or in person.

The number of sessions that a young person may attend counselling for will depend on their unique needs and wishes.

We can agree on a number of sessions if you prefer, and carry out a review following the agreed number.

The first session is free of charge and lasts 30 minutes. This is an opportunity for us to meet and decide if you would like us to work together. Research shows that one of the most important factors in counselling is our relationship and this is an opportunity for us to gauge that.

If we continue to work together then a 50 minute counselling session costs £60, either in person or online.

As recommended by the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP), a key feature of counselling is that it is treated confidentially. Counselling is a time when it is ok to talk about  concerns without fear of them being discussed elsewhere. This includes not discussing the work with parents or carers, unless the young person requests or gives consent for this.  

This can be hard for parents/carers to accept at times, but ensuring the confidentiality of the counselling is crucial for establishing trust so that the young person can feel confident to  speak openly and freely about what is concerning them.  

I receive clinical supervision for my work with young people, to ensure the quality of my practice and this is confidential, the individual client’s details are always anonymised in supervision.

Unless we are having review sessions as outlined above, any communication with parents/carers is around practical matters such as payment or arranging appointments.

Counselling is a confidential process that takes place between client and therapist. I appreciate that you may be very concerned about the issues affecting your child and how  difficult it is not to be able to discuss this directly with me. Unless I have specific concerns (as outlined below) I will not contact you separately to discuss what we have talked about.

Confidentiality will be broken in cases where there is concern for the young person’s safety, for example I believe that they are at risk to themselves or others, or if there is a safeguarding issue.

In addition, if it becomes clear that the young person is in severe mental distress it may be  appropriate to seek help from other agencies for example their GP or CAMHS (Child and  Adolescent Mental Health Service) to keep them safe.

Experience shows that the most helpful thing a parent/carer can do is to show an  acceptance of counselling as a normal and useful activity, and to show an interest if their child wishes to talk about it, but not to press them if they do not. I acknowledge  that this is not an easy task and is quite natural to feel anxious about what your child has said in the sessions.  

It is always my hope that talking with a counsellor will lead to greater openness with parents/carers and families, but you will need to allow a little time for this to happen.  

We all experience times when it is hard to speak to those closest to us about things which are bothering us. Often this can be because we do not want to worry those we love the  most, or because we want help with thinking things through with someone else outside the family. I will not be judging you or your child but looking to support and help them find their way through whatever is troubling them.