Supporting children to thrive.
When a child struggles with meltdowns, anxiety, low self-esteem, or challenging behaviours, the whole family feels it.
Children express themselves differently from adults, often through play rather than words. That’s why I use developmentally appropriate, play-based approaches that help children feel safe, understood, and empowered.
My work focuses on helping children:
Feel understood
build healthy coping strategies
strengthen their confidence, self-worth, and build self-compassion
deepen connections with family and friends
I believe children thrive when the whole family is supported. I work closely with parents throughout the process, giving you the practical tools and confidence to continue the progress at, even after therapy ends.
In a warm, playful, and supportive environment, children are guided through evidence-based approaches such as Child-Centred Play Therapy, Filial Therapy, Internal Family Systems Therapy and Safe Sound Protocol. Together, we explore emotions, build resilience, and encourage new patterns of interaction rooted in empathy and connection.
Over time, families often notice:
fewer emotional outbursts
healthy coping skills
improved confidence and social connection
more harmony in the home.
I’m here to help your family grow together.
Healing begins with feeling safe, understood, and emotionally supported.
When working with children, my approach integrates warmth, trauma-informed care, and evidence-based therapeutic approaches, integrated to address your child’s challenges. These include:
A therapeutic approach that allows children to express feelings, make sense of experiences, and work through challenges through play that is child led
Your child attends sessions in a specially designed playroom with toys that support emotional expression and exploration.
Your child leads the play, choosing activities such as drawing, imaginative play, or dress-ups. I follow their lead, providing a calm, accepting, and non-judgemental presence.
Through play, I reflect feelings and put words to your child’s experiences, helping them process emotions and develop healthy coping skills.
Sessions are 50 minutes and typically run for 12 to 25 sessions, depending on your child’s needs.
Filial Therapy is a parent-training program that teaches you powerful play-based skills so you can strengthen connection with your child, improve their behaviour, and support your child’s emotional regulation at home.
Parents are trained in practical, evidence-based skills such as tracking play, reflecting feelings, setting gentle limits, and responding with empathy.
Parents then run a special playtime at home, using a specifically selected set of toys, where the child leads the play and feels safe, seen, and understood.
Throughout the process, the therapist supports, coaches, and guides the parent, helping them build confidence, consistency, and trust in their ability to support their child’s emotional needs.
Strengthens the parent–child bond
Helps children feel seen, safe, and understood, which is the basis for a secure attachment
Improves emotional regulation and coping skills
Reduces challenging behaviour over time
Supports change at home, not just in the therapy room
Dyadic Therapy supports children and parents to communicate, repair, and create new patterns of connection in real-time.
Within sessions, I support parents by gently noticing and naming interaction patterns that can be adjusted to strengthen understanding and connection
The Safe & Sound Protocol is a gentle, sound-based (listening) therapy that helps the nervous system feel safer, calmer and more regulated - making it easier for children to connect, communicate, focus, and handle daily stress.
The music isn’t just ordinary music — it’s specially filtered to send cues of safety to the middle ear muscles and the nerves there. These tiny muscles in the middle ear help the brain decide whether we are safe or under threat. When the music stimulates and strengthens these muscles, the nervous system begins to relax - which helps the child move out of “defence mode” (fight / flight / shutdown) and into a calmer, more open state where connection and regulation are easier.
During the Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP), your child listens to a specially filtered music programme through over-ear headphones. The music is designed to gently support the nervous system.
While listening, your child can engage in calm, familiar activities such as drawing, building with LEGO, or using playdough. These activities help your child feel comfortable and settled during the session.
Throughout the process, the therapist carefully observes your child’s nervous system responses, such as changes in body language, breathing, energy levels, or emotional expression. These shifts guide when to pause, support regulation, or gently build awareness, helping your child’s system move towards greater calm, safety, and flexibility.
Each listening period can vary from 3 to 30 minutes, depending on your child’s nervous system and how they are responding on the day.
The remainder of the session is spent using other therapeutic approaches, such as play-based or regulation-focused activities, to support integration and strengthen the overall therapeutic outcome.
Increased calm and emotional regulation
Reduced anxiety, overwhelm, and shutdown
Improved attention, focus, and flexibility
Greater emotional resilience and tolerance for stress
Improved social engagement and connection with others
Reduced sound sensitivity or sensory reactivity
Better sleep, digestion, and overall regulation
Internal Family Systems (IFS) in child therapy helps children understand that different feelings and behaviours come from different “parts” inside them, such as a worried part or an angry part, and that all parts have a reason for being there.
Using play, drawing, stories, and imagination, children learn to notice their parts with curiosity rather than shame. This approach supports emotional regulation, self-compassion, and confidence.
In each session, I use toys, drawing, and play-based activities to help your child gently explore their different “parts” the parts that hold emotions, feelings, and beliefs.
Through play, children learn that each part plays a protective role, even when its behaviour feels challenging. This process helps children make sense of their inner world, reduce emotional overwhelm, and respond to themselves with greater understanding and compassion.
Feel less overwhelmed by big feelings
Develop self-compassion instead of self-criticism or shame
Improve emotional regulation and coping skills
Reduce anxiety, anger, or emotional shutdown
Build a stronger sense of confidence and inner safety
Recognise that difficult behaviours are protective, not “bad”
The Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics (NMT), developed by Bruce Perry, is a trauma-informed, brain-based framework that helps us understand how a child’s experiences have shaped their brain and nervous system development, and guides us in choosing the right interventions in the right order to support healing and growth.
NMT provides a clear, structured way of knowing what to focus on first in therapy and parenting. Rather than trying to change behaviour alone, it prioritises the foundations based on their brain development.
This means supporting:
Regulation before reasoning
Safety before skill-building
Relationship before behaviour change
By working in this way, children are better able to access learning, emotional regulation, and lasting change and parents are supported to respond in ways that truly meet their child’s needs.
I begin by asking a series of developmental and relational history questions to gain a thorough understanding of your child’s early experiences, development, relationships, stressors, and current challenges.
This information is then mapped using the Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics (NMT) framework, helping to identify which areas of the brain and nervous system may be under-supported or over-activated. Rather than focusing on labels, the assessment looks at patterns over time and how lived experiences have shaped your child’s capacity for regulation, connection, and learning.
Based on this understanding, I carefully select the interventions and strategies most likely to support your child’s nervous system and developmental needs. We then meet to review and explain the proposed plan, ensuring you understand the rationale and next steps, before beginning therapy together.
Strategies guided by this framework focus on the root of the challenge, supporting meaningful and lasting change over time by:
Theraplay uses simple, structured activities between parent and child to strengthen the connection, and support emotional regulation.
I begin with a MIM (Marschak Interaction Method) assessment, which involves observing and guiding a series of structured parent–child interactions. This allows me to understand the relational dynamic, including patterns of connection, responsiveness, regulation, and support, as well as the strengths already present in your relationship.
We then meet to discuss the assessment, highlighting what is working well and identifying key areas to focus on. This conversation is collaborative, supportive, and non-judgemental, and helps create a shared understanding of your child’s needs and the goals of therapy.
Therapy sessions are intentional and well-structured, using playful, relational activities designed to strengthen connection and build specific parenting skills. Parents are actively involved and supported.
Parents often see results after the first few sessions, although sessions can range from 8-20.
These case studies show how gentle, steady steps can turn overwhelming moments like outbursts and separation struggles—into real, lasting change for children and their families.
Parent–Child Therapy: From intense outbursts to moments of calm, safety, and understanding- Through play therapy and parent guidance, they developed new patterns of co-regulation and emotional expression, allowing their relationship to deepen and heal. A mother of a spirited five-year-old,…
Child Therapy for School Refusal: From distress at the school gate to calm, predictable mornings – With attachment-based child therapy and parent coaching, her morning distress decreased by 80%, creating calmer transitions and a stronger sense of safety. A playful…
The stories shared here are composite case examples that represent the kinds of challenges and outcomes commonly seen in my practice. While they are inspired by real therapeutic themes, they do not describe any one individual. All identifying details have been altered or removed to protect client privacy and confidentiality. Any resemblance to an actual person is purely coincidental. These stories are intended to illustrate the therapeutic process and the types of transformations that are possible.
