“It is in playing and only in playing that the individual child or adult is able to be creative [...] and it is only in being creative that the individual discovers the self”
About me
I'm Jamie, a UKCP registered integrative child and adolescent psychotherapist. I work with children, young people and their families across London.
When I work with a child, I start from the understanding that they already know what they are going through. What they often lack is a way to say it. Children rarely arrive able to name their distress in the language adults expect, but that does not mean the distress is unclear to them. My work as a child psychotherapist is to help them find a way to express it, whether that is words, play, or images, so it can be shared rather than held alone.
Children do not exist in isolation, so I work closely with each child's family and, where it helps, with their school. An important part of child and adolescent therapy is helping the adults around a child understand what the child is going through and how to support them. When those adults respond in a steady, consistent way, the child has something reliable to lean on, and that consistency across the systems a child lives in matters as much as anything that happens in the room with me.
I came to this work in 2017, after a career in the music industry as a tour and production manager. When I decided to retrain, I never considered specialising in anything other than work with children and young people. Their wellbeing and their rights have mattered to me for as long as I can remember.
While training, I volunteered with Care Free Kids in Walthamstow, a charity providing non-directive play therapy in local schools, and with Every Parent and Child in Enfield, mentoring in primary schools. I spent a year alongside the Waltham Forest CAMHS team, which gave me a real understanding of how NHS referral and care pathways work. Since qualifying I have worked in state and independent schools and across therapeutic services in London, as a psychotherapist and therapeutic lead, alongside multidisciplinary teams and agencies including CAMHS and social services.I work with a child, I start from the understanding that they already know what they are going through. What they often lack is a way to say it. Children rarely arrive able to name their distress in the language adults expect, but that does not mean the distress is unclear to them. My work is to help them find a way to express it, whether that is words, play, or images, so it can be shared rather than held alone.
I work closely with their family, and where it helps, with the child's school, because a child does not exist in isolation. An important part of my work is helping those around the child understand what the child is going through and how to support them. When the adults in a child's life respond in a steady, consistent way, the child has something reliable to lean on. Getting that consistency across the systems a child lives in matters as much as anything that happens in the room with me.
I came to this work in 2017, after working in the music industry as a tour and production manager. When I decided to retrain, I never considered specialising in anything other than work with children and young people. Their wellbeing and their rights have mattered to me for as long as I can remember.
While training, I volunteered with Care Free Kids in Walthamstow, a charity providing non-directive play therapy in local schools, and with Every Parent and Child in Enfield, mentoring in primary schools. I spent a year alongside the Waltham Forest CAMHS team, which gave me an understanding of how NHS referral and pathways actually work
While training, I volunteered with Care Free Kids in Walthamstow, a charity providing non-directive play therapy in local schools, and with Every Parent and Child in Enfield, mentoring in primary schools. I spent a year alongside the Waltham Forest CAMHS team, which gave me a close understanding of how NHS referral and pathways actually work. Since then I have worked in state and independent schools and across therapeutic services in London, as a psychotherapist and as a therapeutic lead, alongside multidisciplinary teams and external agencies including CAMHS and social services. I have also worked as part of the core teaching staff at the Terapia Centre in Finchley.
Qualifications
MA Integrative Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy, Terapia Centre/Middlesex University, 2023
Foundation diploma in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, The Association of Group and Individual Psychotherapy (AGIP), 2018
Dip. H.E. Counselling and Counselling Skills, Birkbeck University, 2017
Professional Accreditation
I am a member of the UK Council of Psychotherapy (UKCP) and adhere to their ethics and complaints procedures. For more information, please visit the UKCP website. You can view my profile on the UKCP website here.