Child Psychology and Therapy London

Helping children make sense of their world, one session at a time.

Children do not always have the words to tell us what they are feeling. They may show their distress through changes in behaviour, difficulty sleeping, withdrawal from friends, angry outbursts, struggles at school or physical complaints that have no medical explanation. Child psychotherapy provides a safe, confidential space where children and young people can express and explore these difficult feelings — through play, through creativity, through the therapeutic relationship itself — and begin to make sense of experiences that feel overwhelming or confusing.

At London Trusted Therapy Harley Street, our child psychotherapists are specialists in working with the emotional and psychological lives of children from age 5 through to adolescence. We draw on a rich tradition of psychoanalytic and developmental thinking — rooted in attachment theory and pioneered at institutions like the Tavistock Clinic — whilst integrating contemporary, evidence-based approaches including play therapy, art therapy, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), EMDR, and systemic family work. Because every child is different, we never apply a one-size-fits-all approach. We listen, we observe, and we follow your child’s lead.

Our practice is neurodiversity-affirming at its core. For children who are neurodivergent — whether diagnosed with ADHD, autism, or a specific learning difference — we understand that emotional difficulties often look and feel different. We adapt our therapeutic approach accordingly, ensuring that every child feels understood, respected and genuinely met where they are.

Our Child Psychotherapy Reviews

4.86 rating based on Doctify, Google and Trustpilot reviews

What can my child get help with?

Children who come to see us are experiencing all kinds of psychological and emotional difficulties. Sometimes there is an obvious trigger — a bereavement, a family separation, bullying at school, or a traumatic event. Sometimes the cause is less clear, and the child simply seems unhappy, anxious, withdrawn or unlike themselves. Child psychotherapy can help in both situations.

If you are unsure whether your child would benefit from psychotherapy, we are always happy to have an initial conversation. Many parents tell us that simply talking through their concerns with a specialist helped them feel clearer about the right next step.

95% of our clients report positive treatment outcomes and would recommend us to family and friends

Our Child Psychotherapy and Assessments Team

Common Reasons Parents Seek Child Psychotherapy

Anxiety, excessive worry, phobias or panic attacks
Low mood, sadness or persistent tearfulness
Anger, aggression or behavioural difficulties at home or school
Difficulty making or keeping friendships
Trauma, including abuse, neglect, witnessing domestic violence or accidents
Bereavement and loss — including the death of a family member, pet or friend
Parental separation, divorce or family conflict
School refusal, exam anxiety or academic underperformance
Self-harm, self-destructive behaviours or disordered eating
Sleep difficulties, nightmares or bedwetting
Attachment difficulties, including children who are adopted, fostered or in kinship care
Emotional impact of a neurodevelopmental diagnosis such as ADHD or autism
Low self-esteem, identity difficulties or social withdrawal
Adjustment to major life changes such as moving home, changing schools or the arrival of a sibling

Your Child’s Journey with Us

Get in touch

Call us or complete our online enquiry form. A member of our team will speak with you — usually within 48 hours — to understand your concerns and guide you towards the right pathway. There is no obligation and no pressure.

Initial consultation

You will be offered a consultation with one of our child psychotherapists, where you can provide a detailed picture of your child’s history and current difficulties. This helps us identify the most appropriate therapist and therapeutic approach. Depending on your child’s age, they may or may not attend this first session.

Assessment phase

In the early sessions, the therapist will spend time getting to know your child — building trust, observing how they play and communicate, and forming a clinical understanding of their emotional world. For some children, a more formal psycho-emotional assessment may be recommended.

Ongoing therapy

Therapy may be short-term (typically 8–12 sessions for focused difficulties) or longer-term (for more complex or deeply rooted issues). Session frequency is usually weekly, and the therapist will discuss timing and expectations with you from the outset. Regular parent review meetings ensure you remain involved and informed throughout.

Ending and next steps

When your child is ready, therapy will come to a planned and supported ending. We provide a summary of progress and recommendations for ongoing support if needed. If your child would benefit from continued work — whether therapeutic, educational or psychiatric — we can facilitate a seamless transition within our multidisciplinary team.

How We Work with Children

Child psychotherapy is fundamentally different from adult therapy. Children communicate through their behaviour, their play and their relationships as much as through words. Our child psychotherapists are trained to observe, interpret and respond to these non-verbal communications with skill and sensitivity.

Play therapy

Play is the natural language of childhood. In play therapy, your child is offered a space equipped with carefully selected toys, art materials, sand, puppets and other creative resources. Through imaginative play, drawing and storytelling, children can safely express feelings they may not yet have the vocabulary to name — including fear, anger, confusion, grief and loneliness. The therapist gently observes, reflects and, when the child is ready, helps them begin to understand what their play is telling us.

Art therapy and creative approaches

For some children, particularly those who find direct conversation difficult or who have experienced trauma, art and creative media offer a powerful alternative pathway to expression. Drawing, painting, clay work and collage can help children externalise their internal world in a way that feels safe and manageable. Our therapists are trained to work with these creative processes therapeutically — not as a teaching exercise, but as a means of emotional communication.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) for children

CBT is a structured, evidence-based approach recommended by NICE for a range of childhood difficulties including anxiety, OCD, phobias and depression. Adapted for younger minds, CBT helps children understand the connection between their thoughts, feelings and behaviours, and learn practical strategies for managing distressing emotions. Our child therapists use age-appropriate techniques including worksheets, stories, role play and visual tools to make CBT accessible and engaging.

Psychodynamic and psychoanalytic psychotherapy

Psychodynamic child psychotherapy explores the deeper, often unconscious, roots of a child’s emotional difficulties. Drawing on attachment theory and developmental psychology, this approach helps children understand how their early experiences and relationships shape how they feel and behave today. It is particularly effective for children with complex or longstanding difficulties, including those who have experienced early trauma, disrupted attachments or multiple losses.

EMDR for children

Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a NICE-recommended treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) that has been adapted for use with children and adolescents. EMDR helps children process traumatic memories that may be causing flashbacks, nightmares, anxiety or avoidance behaviours. It is often effective in a relatively short number of sessions — typically seven to eight — and can be used alongside other therapeutic approaches.

Systemic and family-focused work

Children do not exist in isolation. Their difficulties are often connected to family dynamics, communication patterns and the relationships around them. That is why our child psychotherapists regularly involve parents and carers in the therapeutic process — through parent guidance sessions, family therapy and joint sessions — to ensure that the progress made in the therapy room is supported and sustained at home. Where appropriate, we also liaise with schools, SENCOs and other professionals involved in your child’s care.

What Makes Our Child Psychotherapy Different

Neurodiversity at our foundation

Our practice is founded and led by a clinician who received her own autism diagnosis in her fifties. This is not a credential we display on a wall — it is a perspective that shapes how we communicate with neurodivergent children, how we design our therapeutic spaces, and how we write the reports that follow your child through school and beyond.

Integrated assessment and therapy

Unlike many private child therapy clinics, we do not just offer psychotherapy in isolation. If your child needs a formal ADHD or autism assessment, an educational psychology evaluation, or a psychiatric consultation, these services are available under our roof. This means fewer referrals, less repetition, and a clinical team that genuinely knows your child.

Therapists for Schools

Through our Therapists for Schools initiative, we provide free therapy for vulnerable children in London schools. This community commitment is not separate from our clinical work — it deepens it. Our therapists bring the insight gained from working across diverse school settings directly into their practice at Harley Street.

Trained in the best traditions

Our child psychotherapists are trained at leading institutions including the Tavistock Clinic, the Anna Freud Centre and other nationally recognised programmes. They bring rigorous psychoanalytic, developmental and evidence-based expertise, combined with warmth, creativity and genuine curiosity about your child’s inner world.

A private alternative to CAMHS

NHS Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) are under immense pressure, with waiting lists that can stretch to months or even years. At London Trusted Therapy Harley Street, we offer rapid access to specialist child psychotherapy with no waiting list. If your child is currently waiting for CAMHS or has been discharged without the support they need, we can help.

Supporting Children at Every Stage

Young children (ages 5–10)

At this age, children are still developing the emotional vocabulary to express how they feel. Play therapy and creative approaches are central to our work with younger children. Sessions are typically 50 minutes long and take place in a dedicated, child-friendly therapy space. We work closely with parents throughout, offering regular parent guidance sessions to help you understand your child’s emotional world and support them effectively at home.

Pre-teens and early adolescents (ages 11–14)

The transition from childhood to adolescence brings unique pressures — changing friendships, the onset of puberty, increasing academic demands and the growing influence of social media. Children in this age group may present with anxiety, low mood, anger, social withdrawal or risk-taking behaviours. Our therapists are experienced in bridging the gap between play-based and talking therapies, meeting each young person at their developmental level and building trust at a pace that feels safe.

Adolescents (ages 15–18)

Teenagers often resist the idea of therapy, yet they frequently carry the heaviest emotional burdens. Our adolescent therapists create a space that feels genuinely different from the adult world — no judgement, no lectures, no agenda other than understanding. We work with issues including exam stress, identity and self-esteem, romantic relationships, substance experimentation, self-harm, eating difficulties and the emotional impact of neurodivergent diagnoses. For older adolescents preparing for university or the world of work, we offer a seamless transition to our adult therapy services when the time is right.

Supporting Parents and Families

When a child is struggling, the whole family feels it. Parents often tell us they feel helpless, guilty, frustrated or simply exhausted. We believe that supporting you as a parent is an essential part of supporting your child.

Parent guidance sessions

Regular sessions with your child’s therapist (or a separate clinician if preferred) to help you understand your child’s emotional needs, respond to challenging behaviours with confidence, and create a home environment that supports their therapeutic progress.

Family therapy

Where family dynamics are contributing to or maintaining a child’s difficulties, our systemic family therapists can work with the whole family to improve communication, resolve conflict and rebuild trust. Family therapy is available as a standalone service or alongside your child’s individual therapy.

Parenting after separation

Divorce and separation can be profoundly destabilising for children. We offer specialist support for parents navigating co-parenting challenges, helping you minimise the emotional impact on your child and maintain a sense of stability and security.

Support for parents of neurodivergent children

Parenting a neurodivergent child brings unique joys and unique challenges. We offer tailored parent guidance that draws on both clinical expertise and lived experience of neurodivergence, helping you understand your child’s sensory needs, communication style and emotional regulation patterns.

Child Psychotherapy for Neurodivergent Children

Many of the children we see at London Trusted Therapy Harley Street are neurodivergent — they may have a diagnosis of ADHD, autism or a specific learning difference such as dyslexia, dyspraxia, dyscalculia or they may be in the process of being assessed. Neurodivergent children often experience the world more intensely, and the emotional toll of navigating a society that was not designed for their brain can be significant.

Our child psychotherapists understand the specific emotional challenges that come with neurodivergence: rejection sensitivity, sensory overload, social masking, executive function difficulties, meltdowns that are misread as “bad behaviour”, and the grief or relief that can accompany a new diagnosis. Because our practice is founded and led by a clinician with lived experience of autism, neurodiversity-affirming care is embedded in everything we do — from the sensory environment of our therapy rooms to the language we use in our reports.

Where a child is referred to us with emotional difficulties and we suspect an underlying neurodevelopmental condition, we can refer directly to our in-house ADHD Complete or Autism Complete assessment pathways, ensuring a seamless journey from therapy to diagnosis and back again. This integrated approach means families do not need to start from scratch at a separate clinic.

Frequently Asked Questions

At what age can my child start psychotherapy?

We work with children from the age of 5. For very young children (under 5), we may recommend parent–infant psychotherapy or parent guidance as a more appropriate starting point. Please get in touch and we can advise.

How do I know if my child needs therapy rather than just time?

It is natural for children to go through difficult phases. However, if your child’s difficulties are persistent (lasting more than a few weeks), are getting worse rather than better, are affecting their ability to function at school or at home, or are causing significant distress to them or the family, it is worth seeking a professional opinion. An initial conversation with one of our team costs nothing and can help you decide.

What happens in a session? Will you tell me what my child says?

Sessions are confidential, which is essential for building trust with your child. However, the therapist will discuss themes and progress with you in regular parent review meetings, without disclosing specific details your child has shared in confidence. If there is a safeguarding concern, we are legally and ethically obliged to take appropriate action, and we will always be transparent with you about this.

Do you work with schools?

Yes. With your consent, we are happy to liaise with your child’s school, SENCO, educational psychologist or other professionals involved in their care. We can also provide letters and reports for school records, EHCP applications and other educational purposes.

How long does child psychotherapy last?

This depends on the nature and severity of your child’s difficulties. Some children benefit from a focused piece of work over 8–12 sessions. Others — particularly those with complex trauma, attachment difficulties or longstanding emotional problems — may benefit from longer-term therapy over several months or more. Your child’s therapist will discuss recommended timescales with you after the initial assessment.

Do I need a GP referral?

No. You can self-refer directly to London Trusted Therapy Harley Street. Simply contact us and we will arrange an initial consultation at a time that suits your family.

Can you help if my child is already on a CAMHS waiting list?

Absolutely. Many families come to us because NHS CAMHS waiting times are unacceptably long and their child needs support now. We provide rapid access to specialist child psychotherapy with no waiting list. If your child is later seen by CAMHS, we can share relevant information (with your consent) to ensure continuity of care.

Do you accept insurance?

We work with several major insurers including Bupa, AXA Health, Allianz, Cigna, Aviva, WPA and Vitality. Please contact us to confirm whether your policy covers child psychotherapy services, and we will handle the administration for you.

What if you think my child needs more than therapy?

Because we are a multidisciplinary practice, we can expand your child’s care pathway without referring you elsewhere. If during therapy it becomes clear that your child may benefit from an ADHD or autism assessment, educational psychology evaluation, psychiatric consultation, or family therapy, we can arrange this directly within our team.

Every Child Deserves to Be Heard

If you are worried about your child, you do not need to wait. Book a free initial conversation with our team today and let us help you find the right support.

Have a Query?
We Are Just a Message Away

Our Quality Guarantee

Should you feel that your first session did not meet your expectations or that your therapist wasn’t a good fit, we will provide another session completely free of charge with a different practitioner.

Supported Insurance

We are proud to work in partnership with major UK and global insurers, as an approved mental health provider, supporting various clients in their therapy journey around the globe.