I'm Tess Bailey-Sayer, Director of Sea Change Psychotherapy. I'm a Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist with over twenty five years' experience of working with children, young people and families. I worked as a teacher, in a residential therapeutic community and ran the Peper Harow Young Person's Support Project in Shropshire before undertaking my clinical training as a Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist at the Birmingham Trust for Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy.

Since qualifying in 2007, I have worked in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) across the West Midlands, before developing my independent practice in Shropshire. I have experience across the age range, from work on the neonatal intensive care unit and in parent infant psychotherapy, to therapy with young adults. I am able to work with children alongside parents or individually, offering specialist assessment and effective treatment for most psychological and emotional difficulties of childhood and adolescence. My clinical skills include group work, family work and individual therapy.

I have a particular interest in work with children who are Looked After or Adopted, and in providing specialist support to their parents and carers.

Continuing professional development forms the foundation of my practice, alongside regular supervision.

Before undertaking my clinical training I spent 5 years working in a Therapeutic Community in Kent with children and young people who had been sexually abused. I went on to train at the Anna Freud Centre in London and held a number of part-time roles alongside this in teaching on a UCL course, research at Great Ormond Street, parent-Infant work at the Anna Freud Centre and co-facilitating a therapeutic group for children.

I qualified in 2006 and worked in an NHS Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) in South London, a Local Authority Infant School and an Independent Fostering Agency. I relocated to the Midlands late in 2007 and spent 8 years working in an NHS service for older adolescents with acute mental health needs. I have continued to work with children and young people of all ages in foster care, and with a range of social, emotional and behavioural difficulties, throughout this time. I have also worked extensively with parents and carers and the professional systems around individual children and young people. In addition to clinical work I enjoy the challenges of teaching and supervising other professionals.

I am Judith Cousins and I work here at Sea Change Psychotherapy as a Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist. I have over 12 years’ worth of experience working within generic/community CAMHS and have also spent time in different specialist teams. In one of these we supported children and young people with eating disorders and were successful in reducing the need for hospital admission by offering a community-based service that offered intense support. I have also worked for a specialist ‘Looked After Children’ team that offered support and treatment for young people within the care system.

I have worked in residential care settings offering individual work to young people as well as offering training and consultation to care staff and fellow clinicians. I have undertaken training at The Portman Clinic into offending behaviours in young people and how to support and manage such challenging behaviours.

I have worked in a residential school for children and young people with complex needs and learning disabilities and offered pupils individual work and worked with staff to develop their understanding of their pupils beyond the diagnosed disability. I regularly offer consultation to colleagues and have undertaken the supervision training at the Birmingham Trust for Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy (BTPP).

Prior to my training I worked within education as a primary school teacher for a number of years and the early years of life have always been of particular interest to me. Being able to observe infants and gain insight to their internal world has helped inform my practice with both children and young adults. I have taught within further and higher education helping to develop degree programmes in relation to early years development and education.

I was a Dramatherapist prior to training to be a Child & Adolescent Psychotherapist at the Tavistock Centre in London, qualifying in 2009 and obtaining a Masters. I have spent over twenty years working in child and adolescent mental health. In the NHS, I have worked in generic/community CAMHS, an adolescent in-patient unit and have especially enjoyed working with families in Under 5’s Services in a Child Development Team (offering specialist diagnostic assessments and therapies) and, recently, in Dudley CAMHS. I have a special interest in the field of disability, having worked for the National Autistic Society, CAMHS Special Needs and in a residential school for children and young people with complex needs. In the Looked After and Adopted Children field, I have worked, for a number of years, with families and professionals in schools, the NHS and for the NSPCC.

As well as offering psychotherapy sessions to children, young people and families, I have run therapeutic groups and I also offer supervision. I have undertaken a Supervision training at the Birmingham Trust for Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy (BTPP).

I am Becky Herbert, an Art Psychotherapist, qualifying in 2011 from Derby University. As an Art Psychotherapist, creativity is at the core of both my professional and personal identity; understanding that communication is about so much more than words.

I have a range of experience working with children and young people, who have complex histories, displaying explicit and some risk-taking behaviours. Prior to undertaking my training, I worked within both mainstream and special needs schools, after undertaking an arts-based degree. As part of my training I worked within CAMHS and post psychotherapy qualification undertook a year’s placement with The Place to be, before becoming involved with residential care services in Shropshire. Initially I worked as a residential carer in a therapeutic organisation specialised in caring for children who had been sexually abused. I then moved into the clinical team of the same organisation, as a Life Story Practitioner and then as Art Psychotherapist. Prior to joining Sea Change, I worked for a residential care service in Wolverhampton, for young people with mental health difficulties. Within all settings, I have worked alongside professionals, carers and families in support of the external framework to the young person’s therapy.

I balance a playful ability to actively work with young people, whilst professionally representing and working to meet their emotional and psychological needs. I am proud to have been an active part of successfully supporting many young people, to achieve positive change.

I have over 20 years’ experience working therapeutically with children and young people, their families and carers. I worked in a therapeutic residential community with children who had suffered severe neglect and abuse before training as an Art Psychotherapist at Goldsmiths, University of London. Upon qualifying as an Art Psychotherapist I worked in a specialist school and as part of a therapy team supporting Looked After Children in residential care and their carers.

I have been working as an Art Psychotherapist in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services in the Midlands since 2005. My time in CAMHS has involved working with birth families with children of all ages as well as with foster carers and adoptive families. During this time I also trained in Cognitive Analytic Therapy (CAT) which is a time-limited psychotherapy focusing on working collaboratively to develop understanding of relating to self and others.

My Art Psychotherapy and CAT trainings have provided me with creative and structured ways of engaging and working with children, young people, parents and carers. This includes trying to work alongside clients (both children and adults) to a useful and realistic ‘middle ground’ or ‘third option’ when they feel stuck between unhelpful but familiar patterns. Both art therapy and CAT are visual and creative therapies that include a mix of talking together and using images and writing to help out thinking.

I like to find ways that therapy can still be helpful to people who are unsure of or for whom the timing for therapy may not be right. This can involve short pieces of work providing a useful experience of working and thinking therapeutically without the commitment and intensity of longer-term psychotherapy.

In addition to practicing as a therapist I have had experience of management and children’s mental health service development and transformation. This included involving children and young people in feedback and development (‘Participation’) and allowed me to build on my collaborative approach to working with young people and parents/carers. My experience as Manager and Participation Lead has provided me with additional beneficial perspectives and insights into organisations, change and development.

I feel that it is a privilege to work as a therapist with other people’s children and will always try to establish some common understanding with parents and carers before therapy commences. I believe it is important to approach psychotherapy with creativity and a sense of humour and that if things don’t feel like they’re working or helpful that it is important to talk honestly about this. Experience has taught me that there is always a way forward even at the most difficult of times!

I am a chartered counselling psychologist registered with the British Psychological Society and the Health and Care Professions Council. I have over 15 years’ experience in the NHS and in independent practice, working with adults, families, young people and children experiencing psychological problems and distress. Prior to joining Sea Change Psychotherapy I worked in inpatient psychiatric services, adult mental health services and a specialist eating disorders service. Most recently, I worked in CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service) where I was specialist lead for eating disorders.

I offer effective therapy utilising evidence based therapeutic models including cognitive, behavioural and psychodynamic approaches.

I am Katie Illes, an Integrative adult, child and adolescent Psychotherapist in training who is working towards a UKCP accredited qualification. I have over three years’ experience working therapeutically with individuals in long term, open ended therapy as well as short term therapy, within the public health, education and charity sectors. My integrative framework combines different approaches which allows me to tailor my way of working to the individual and their presenting issues. At the heart of my practice is the therapeutic relationship and within this I aim to provide a safe, non-judgmental and confidential space for individuals to explore their difficulties. I work with a range of emotional and psychological difficulties and have a particular interest in fertility issues, parental mental health, the early years and the role that the relationship plays in the development of the child’s sense of self.

(Info coming soon)

We usually offer initial consultation to parents before meeting a child or young person, so that issues can be shared and discussed without concern for the impact this might have on the child if they were in the room. At this appointment we will gather a detailed picture of the current difficulties, and a history of the child’s development. In taking this history, we will be looking for clues as to the roots of the presenting problem, with particular attention to changes, times of stress, separation, illness, loss or bereavement in the family. It may seem strange at first to consider the impact of very early experiences on your child, but as we think together, this will hopefully help us to make sense of the current issues for them.

There may be circumstances which indicate that consultation to parents, teachers, social workers or other professionals might be the best approach in tackling the difficulties seen in the child. Sometimes children let us know that they aren’t willing to come to therapy, but this needn’t mean there can be no help for parents. Helping promote a reflective and robust approach to a problem through work in parenting appointments can help children feel more contained and help settle their anxieties.

The next stage in the process is for us to undertake a thorough assessment of your child, their mental state, attachment relationships, and any particular concerns brought by them or by you. We will also be assessing their suitability for psychotherapeutic treatment, and if this is not the right modality for them, to consider what might be most helpful and where to find it.

Sessions may be with parents, or with children or young people alone. These are likely to be non-directive, allowing the child to bring whatever is uppermost in their mind into the room to be thought about. Parents are often struck by how openly and directly children can approach this task, even if they need some time to get used to being in a new environment and with someone different. For younger children, there will be toys and drawing materials which they can use if words are hard to find. Older children and young people might also like to use art materials, either as part of an art therapy assessment, or with their Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist. In both approaches, the therapist’s task is to closely listen and observe both verbal and non-verbal communication and to use this to build a picture of the child’s internal world- the world built up of their experiences, feelings, thoughts and fantasies which may or may not match up with external reality.

The length of an assessment is usually around four or five appointments, followed by a review appointment with parents, which may include the child if appropriate. This is a chance for the therapist to share the emerging picture of the child, and their capacity to use psychotherapy. It is useful too for us to hear how the child has been at home or school during the assessment, and how they have felt about attending appointments. At this review meeting, we will agree on a plan for the next stage or decide to close the intervention.

We are resuming face to face appointments at our centre for those who need them. However, we’re also able to offer psychotherapy and consultation using virtual connections.

As during the assessment phase, the content of sessions is confidential. This allows children to explore issues more freely, without worry about parental opinion or feelings. Progress is discussed on a regular basis in review meetings which take place at least once a term.

Therapy usually takes place during school term times, with breaks during school holidays. We don’t usually give children the whole of the long summer break off, as a gap of this length would make it harder for them to keep their train of thought.

Psychotherapy is a form of treatment which works best where the child is allowed to become temporarily dependent on the therapist, whose role is to support them while old ways of managing are changed and adjusted in favour of new, healthy ways of being and relating. Since it works at a deep level, it is important for the end of treatment to be prepared for and planned well in advance even in shorter term interventions. For this reason, parents are asked to make decisions about suspending or ending therapy in the consulting room together with the therapist rather than at home with the child.