Ongoing Psychotherapy Programme
Comprehensive support around your child
A weekly programme place is available when Psychotherapy Assessment is booked. When we agree after assessment that psychotherapy is right for your child, the programme begins. The work combines a protected individual appointment with regular parent meetings and professional liaison with school and medical professionals around your child. This is delivered through a straightforward and transparent monthly billing arrangement, so that you know what to expect and there are no surprises.
£900
Regular weekly 50-minute psychotherapy
One 60-minute parent appointment in each active treatment month
Up to 30 minutes of clinically relevant liaison and additional clinical administration
What is the ongoing psychotherapy programme?
The ongoing psychotherapy programme brings together your child’s weekly therapy, regular parent support and the professional liaison needed around treatment. It is designed with busy parents and excellent care in mind. One predictable monthly fee reserves dedicated time for this work, rather than charging separately for each part of it, and removes the burden on parents to keep several aspects of invoicing and scheduling in mind.
A child’s therapy does not happen in isolation. Supporting children and adolescents often involves working with the adults and professionals around them. The programme protects time for parent appointments and, where clinically appropriate, communication with school or your child’s medical team.
What does the monthly fee include?
Individual weekly psychotherapy: your child’s regular 50-minute appointments during the published treatment calendar.
Monthly parent support: a 60-minute parent appointment to discuss concerns, develop an understanding of your child’s needs and consider approaches that may help at home.
Three structured parent reviews each year: dedicated appointments to review how therapy is progressing and to consider goals and plan for ending.
Professional liaison and additional non-routine clinical administration: up to 30 minutes per active month for clinically relevant work around your child’s treatment.
Individual weekly psychotherapy
Your child attends at the same regular day and time during published treatment weeks. The consistency of the appointment provides a stable setting in which experiences, feelings, relationships and patterns can be understood over time.
Depending on age, needs and preferences, sessions may involve talking, play, drawing, creative and sensory materials, movement, games, silence or working side by side. The method is chosen with the child and is discussed in the assessment and throughout psychotherapy.
Each child has their own materials box, which may contain games, toys and art materials suited to their developmental stage. This helps the young person have a say in how their sessions happen. Where requested, I also provide sensory materials, such as fidgets, blankets or cushions that the child prefers. Older adolescents may simply want to talk. We can discuss other items that help them feel comfortable, and consider lighting and temperature too.
Appointments may take place in person, online or through an agreed combination where clinically appropriate. Home visits can sometimes be discussed when leaving home is a substantial barrier, but they are individually considered and are not automatically included in the standard monthly arrangement.
Fees
See appointment fees
Frequently asked questions
No. The September-to-July calendar organises treatment and allows a consistent monthly fee, but the arrangement is rolling. Four weeks’ written notice is required to end.
The annual programme is priced after published breaks have been taken into account, then divided into 12 equal payments. August is the final payment towards work delivered from September to July.
There is no additional cancellation fee. The weekly place is reserved exclusively for your child, so the monthly fee remains unchanged. Where another clinically suitable vacancy exists in the same week, I will endeavour to offer it, but this cannot be guaranteed.
The appointment can only remain reserved while the monthly arrangement remains active. An extended break outside the Practice calendar therefore means continuing the arrangement or ending with four weeks’ notice and releasing the place. A future appointment cannot be guaranteed once the place has been released.
Regular parent meetings are an essential part of my ongoing psychotherapy programme and are included in the programme fee. They give us time to understand your child’s needs, think about how adults respond and support changes in everyday life. In my clinical approach, psychotherapy is unlikely to be helpful if we cannot also work regularly with the parents or carers who support the child day to day. These meetings protect your child’s private therapeutic space: we discuss themes, progress and practical responses, rather than repeat what they say in sessions, subject to safeguarding responsibilities.
No. Age-appropriate confidentiality is essential to the work. I discuss the child’s progress, significant changes and matters parents need to know while preserving a private therapeutic space. Confidentiality has limits where there are concerns about serious harm or safeguarding.
Yes, when it has a clear clinical purpose, appropriate consent and fits within the included monthly allowance. Liaison supports joined-up thinking; it does not transfer school, medical or statutory responsibility to me.
Where clinically appropriate, an online appointment may sometimes replace an in-person session. The decision depends on the child’s age, privacy, safety, ability to use the medium and the purpose of treatment.
Psychotherapy usually takes place at a regular time each week. This consistency is an important part of the work, especially for children and teenagers who may struggle with uncertainty, endings, separations, trust, emotional regulation or feeling understood. The length of treatment depends on the child’s difficulties, the family context and the aims of the work. Some children may benefit from shorter-term focused work. Others may need longer-term therapy, especially where difficulties are longstanding, complex, relational, developmental or linked with physical health, neurodivergence or school attendance. The structure of the work is discussed carefully after a Psychotherapy Assessment and reviewed over time.
Children and young people may communicate through play, drawing, games, stories, silence, behaviour, repetition or the relationship with the therapist. Some children talk directly. Others show their difficulties more indirectly. In psychodynamic child psychotherapy, these communications are taken seriously. The therapist pays attention to what the child says, but also to how they play, how they manage endings, mistakes, frustration, closeness, separateness, control, dependency and uncertainty. This can be especially important for children who find it hard to explain their feelings, or who have learned to mask, cope, perform or keep adults at a distance.
Psychotherapy may be helpful when a child or teenager is struggling with difficulties that are affecting their emotional life, relationships, school attendance, family life or sense of self. This may include anxiety, low mood, school avoidance, EBSA, emotional overwhelm, anger, withdrawal, trauma, loss, family difficulties, neurodivergence, masking, autistic burnout, chronic illness, pain, fatigue or persistent physical symptoms. Psychotherapy can be especially helpful when difficulties feel complex, repeated, hard to explain, or when a child seems unable to communicate what is happening directly.
Parent Consultation is a focused appointment for parents who want help thinking through a concern, situation or decision. A Psychotherapy Assessment is a time-limited three-appointment process that develops an initial formulation, considers suitability and makes recommendations. The ongoing psychotherapy programme is a comprehensive rolling treatment arrangement with a reserved weekly place, parent involvement and coordination around the child.
Psychotherapy may be helpful when a child or teenager is struggling with difficulties that are affecting their emotional life, relationships, school attendance, family life or sense of self. This may include anxiety, low mood, school avoidance, EBSA, emotional overwhelm, anger, withdrawal, trauma, loss, family difficulties, neurodivergence, masking, autistic burnout, chronic illness, pain, fatigue or persistent physical symptoms. In my work, I try to understand the child in context. A symptom or behaviour is rarely understood on its own. We think about the child’s emotional world, development, family relationships, school environment, body, neurodivergence and wider system. The aim is to understand what the child may be communicating, what may be maintaining the difficulty, and what kind of therapeutic work may help them feel more understood, more connected and more able to manage their inner world.
Evidence and professional context
Association of Child Psychotherapists: what child and adolescent psychotherapy is.
THRIVE Framework for system change: focused help, extensive help, shared goals and review.
i-THRIVE: Getting More Help. How this fits i-THRIVE: Ongoing psychotherapy programme may sit within Getting Help when the work is focused around agreed aims, or Getting More Help where the child needs more extensive, longer-term or coordinated input. The distinction concerns current need and resource, not a fixed diagnosis or a judgement that the child is “more severe”. Treatment is outcome-informed: aims and fit are reviewed, the limits of psychotherapy are discussed and an ending is considered when continuing no longer adds enough value.
Written and clinically reviewed by Sagal Hassan, ACP-registered Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist. Last reviewed 31 August 2026.
Related services
Parent Consultation
A 40-minute online appointment for parents, offering specialist guidance without an obligation to continue.