Mary Elliott
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This professional is accepting new clients but may have a waitlist. Please enquire with them directly to discuss availability.
This professional is accepting new clients but may have a waitlist. Please enquire with them directly to discuss availability.
About me
I'm a UKCP registered Child Psychotherapist with extensive experience in a variety of settings including the NSPCC, schools, CAMHS, fostering agencies and private practice.
I can help children with many different emotional difficulties. By thinking about and talking about feelings in psychotherapy children can process difficult experiences and associated feelings and reduce levels of distress. Over time children transfer what has been taken in from therapy to relationships with others, helping them seek and receive emotional support more easily.
Children can find it hard to put feelings into words. Play, art and creativity within psychotherapy helps children and young people to express themselves fully, including their most difficult feelings. I help to make sense of what a child or young person shows me through their play and creativity and through their relationship with me.
My approach is empathic, attuned, playful and sensitive. I use my experience and knowledge to support children, young people and their families in a process of exploration, change and growth, reducing distress and difficult to manage feelings and behaviour.
I integrate psychoanalytic, attachment, humanistic and systemic psychotherapeutic theories within my practice.
How I work:
1. Initial consultation
We can arrange a free 15 minute phone call for you to talk about your concerns and ask initial questions. We can both decide whether to go forward and arrange further appointments.
2. Therapeutic assessment
Initial meetings with you, and your child, are chance for you to decide whether the way I work is a good match for you and whether to continue with an assessment process.
Through the assessment process I aim to get to know your child really well, so I can form a therapy plan to meet particular needs. I will explore the current concerns in more depth and ask about your child's development, family history and family life. The assessment process will likely include a mutually agreed combination of 1 or 2 parent/carer meetings, 1-3 child sessions and a family session.
3. Therapy plan
We may agree a therapy plan for short term or long term work depending on individual assessed needs.
4. Reviews
We will review progress together regularly and amend the therapy plan accordingly.
Training, qualifications & experience
I graduated with an MA Integrative Child Psychotherapy (with Distinction) from the Institute for Arts and Therapy in Education/UEL (IATE) in 2008 and have been UKCP registered since 2009.
I've worked in a variety of settings including an NSPCC specialist therapeutic service, NHS CAMHS service, for private fostering agencies, running a school therapy service and in private practice.
For the past 9 years I've been a primary supervisor at IATE on their MA Integrative Child Psychotherapy training and also assess trainees in their exams.
For 5 years I taught the Childhood and Adolescent Lifecycle module on the highly respected Bowlby Centre's Attachment-based Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy training.
I'm also a qualified and registered social worker and have worked with children, young people and families for 25 years.
Academic & professional qualifications:
- MA Integrative Child Psychotherapy with Distinction, IATE/London Metropolitan University 2008
- Master of Social Work/DipSW, University of York 2001
- Certificate in Counselling, University of Ripon and York 1999
- BA (Hons) Sociology 2:1, University of York 1997
Continuing professional development (long courses):
- Teen Yoga for Mental Health, Teen Yoga Foundation/Yogacampus 2022
- Fostering Changes Facilitator, Fostering Changes Training Centre 2010
- Certificate in Supervision, Metanoia Institute 2009/2010
- Post Qualifying Award in Social Work, Various programmes 2008
- Working with Refugee Families, Tavistock & Portman NHS Trust 2003
- Creative counselling, Youth Access 2000
Member organisations
Being registered/accredited with a professional body means an individual must have achieved a substantial level of training and experience approved by their member organisation.
The UK Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP) is a leading professional body for the education, training and regulation of psychotherapists and psychotherapeutic counsellors. Its register is accredited by the government's Professional Standards Authority.
As part of its commitment to protect the public, it works to improve access to psychotherapy, to support and disseminate research, to improve standards and to respond effectively to complaints against its members.
UKCP standards cover the range of different psychotherapies. Registration is obtained by training or accrediting with one of its member organisations, or by holding a European Certificate in Psychotherapy. Accredited by the Professional Standards Authority.
Accredited register membership
The Accredited Register Scheme was set up in 2013 by the Department of Health (DoH) as a way to recognise organisations that hold voluntary registers which meet certain standards. These standards are set by the Professional Standards Authority (PSA).
This therapist has indicated that they belong to an Accredited Register.
Areas of counselling I deal with
Therapies offered
Fees
£80.00 per session
When I work
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I offer face to face therapy sessions with children at the Sunflower Centre in Brockley on Wednesdays.
All other available sessions are for online parent work, and clinical supervision.
Further information
Clinical Supervision
As an experienced therapist I offer clinical supervision to integrative child psychotherapists, professionals of other therapeutic backgrounds and the broader helping professions.
Reflective practice groups
Teachers, foster carers, social workers and other professionals often have little time to process, reflect and make sense of the feelings, experiences and behaviour of children and young people they are working with. Adults and professional systems can unintentionally get caught up in relational dynamics that perpetuate difficulties rather than facilitate support and growth. Reflective practice or supervision groups offer experience led learning, are supportive, facilitate good practice, and can improve workplace relationships. Frequency will depend on context and may range from weekly to monthly groups.
Training
I can offer training to foster carers, teachers, social workers and parents and can deliver bespoke training sessions so do contact me to discuss your particular needs.
Consultation
Consultation to parents, carers and professionals can sometimes be needed when direct therapy with a child or young person in not appropriate e.g. when a child is unsettled or unwilling to engage with therapy.
This work can assist parents, teachers, foster carers, and social workers to process, reflect and make sense of feelings, experiences and behaviour of children and young people, thereby supporting a network of therapeutic care to develop around a child so they feel supported, contained, validated, understood and are more likely to fulfil their potential.
