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Child & Adolescent Counselling Service

Chiswick, West London

Our in-house fully qualified team of Child and Adolescent Therapists, provide one-to-one counselling sessions for children and adolescents, run from the Centre’s fully equipped therapy rooms. All the Therapists are registered and approved members of the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy (The BACP) practising within their ethical framework and work in a child-centred way, using play, story-telling, creative work and talk, to help children express their thoughts and feelings in a way that is comfortable and natural for them.

It is the policy of The Children’s Wellness Centre that all Therapists running sessions within The Children’s Wellness Centre have formal and rigorous training in relation to counselling children and adolescents, rather than being an adult counsellor who additionally provides children’s services. Adult counselling is a completely different style of work, so if you are looking around for a Therapist, please always ensure the person your child is going to see has child-related qualifications.

Sessions are suitable for children and young people between the ages of 3 – 17 years and will differ depending on the age and developmental level of each child. For more information about how counselling can support very young children, in the form of Play-Based Therapy sessions, please click here.

What is Counselling for children?

Counselling is commonly known as a ‘talking therapy’ to help bring about change and enhance resilience and well-being. Counselling for children and young people may differ from adult counselling and will depend on the child’s age, specific difficulties and development.

Sometimes children are unable to talk about what is troubling them, either because it is too upsetting, or simply because they do not yet possess the maturity to articulate their feelings. As a result, different methods such as play, art or story telling are used to help children express themselves and their emotions.

Older children and teenagers may prefer talking therapy, or a mixture of both, and the counselling approach will depend on the particular individual. Although different methods may be used, the aim of counselling for both children and adults is ultimately the same; to help the individual cope better with their experiences, emotions and feelings.

How does Counselling benefit children?

One-to-one counselling can help support children in a safe, containing environment, allowing life issues or painful and uncomfortable memories to be confronted. Counselling children involves helping the child to develop a positive attitude to life, to respect themselves, accept their feelings and express them responsibly. It helps children to develop self control and direction, learning creative and resourceful ways to confront problems, whilst making independent, positive choices.

Sessions are once a week, at the same day and time each week, to ensure consistency for the child. We run sessions Monday – Sunday during the day, after school and in the early evenings for older children and teenagers.

Counselling children does not involve making decisions for the child, preaching at, or imposing beliefs on them; but, instead, helps them to find new ways and insights to understand problems constructively, allowing the negative impact to be reduced.

Counselling for children is an effective early intervention and has been shown to improve well-being, playing a vital role in the prevention of mental illness later in life. Research also suggests, in time, counselling can improve academic attainment, allowing children to better focus on school and studies.

Please see our Counselling FAQs found here for further information regarding the overall process with children young people.

What difficulties can we support with?

Although this list is not exhaustive, the Therapists have extensive experience working with children and young people experiencing the following:

– Anxiety and stress
– Parental separation and divorce
– Friendship issues
– Bullying
– Family and step family relationships
– Sibling rivalry
– Aggression and anger management
– Academic difficulties/exam pressure
– Fear of failure/perfectionism
– School challenges
– Bereavement and loss
– Self harm and suicidal thoughts
– Abuse and trauma
– Transition difficulties
– Domestic violence
– Effects of COVID-19

How does the initial process work?

To make an initial appointment, please make contact via the below form. If you know you want to work with a specific Therapist please let us know.

1. Dependent on the days your child can attend, you will then be contacted by a Therapist to book in an initial consultation session for your child. This session is not an ‘assessment’, but is more to determine whether your child feels comfortable with this way of work, and whether the Therapist feels they are able to support your child moving forward. It is also very important that a child feels comfortable with the person they are coming to see and this one-off session will allow them an opportunity to see what counselling is all about. The cost of this session is £80.00.

2. The Therapist will speak with you on the phone before the initial consultation session to discuss your reasons for seeking counselling and any background information regarding your child.

3. After this session, the Therapist will contact you with a follow-up email to share how it went and whether they feel this type of Therapy may be of benefit for your child. If you are all in agreement to move forward, we will book your child in for weekly sessions. These are £80, usually payable on a monthly basis. We have no minimum number of sessions required, this is at your discretion, however it is important to note that in order to see positive change, long term work is usually necessary.

Due to high demand for sessions, there may be a small wait until we can see your child, but we will always do our best to offer a session as soon as possible.

Online Counselling

Although we advocate face to face sessions, we appreciate that at times this is not always possible for some families. For those not local to the area, or for young people who are not yet ready for an in-person session, we can provide remote counselling via video call. This would be at a set session time once a week. Online counselling works best for older children and teenagers in secondary school, but if your child is younger, we can chat this through with you first and see if it may still work for them.