What is Child and Adolescent Psychology?
Child and Adolescent Psychologists are accredited Clinical Psychologists who specialise in working with children, adolescents and their families. Child Psychologists help children and young people with a range of emotional and behavioural problems – including everything from depression and anxiety to eating problems, trauma and aggression.
Sometimes they work individually with the young person, sometimes with the parents, and sometimes with the whole family. Child and Adolescent Psychologists use a range of assessment methods to try to understand the cause of the difficulties, what’s keeping them going, and how to best support the child and family. These might include discussions, questionnaires or observations of the child in different settings. They can then use this information as a basis for providing interventions to help address the difficulties.
Dr Helen Fairchild
Dr Helen Fairchild is an experienced Clinical Psychologist who has worked with children, young people and families for 20 years. She worked in the NHS and charity sector before coming to The Old Rectory Clinic. Helen is trained to help with problems such as depression, low self-esteem, obsessive-compulsive disorder, panic, social anxiety, poor sleep, self-harm, anger and behavioural difficulties. She predominantly uses a cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) model, but also uses parenting and other approaches depending on the needs of the family.
Vicki Johnstone
I am Vicki (she/her) a senior practitioner with 20 years of clinical experience within private, charitable, voluntary, judicial, health and social care sectors. I'm skilled at working with people throughout their lives; children and young adults currently make up most of my caseload, but I'm more than happy to work with people through adulthood too.