My Approach

I am passionate about supporting young people to achieve their full potential. We all have periods of our lives which are more challenging than usual, and my aim is to support young people and their families through these times. I have a broad experience in all aspects of child and adolescent mental health. I am trained in therapeutic approaches such as systemic, psychodynamic and cognitive-behavioural therapies and would describe myself as a therapeutic child and adolescent psychiatrist. I use a biopsychosocial and holistic approach. I work closely with many colleagues in the private sector, with a range of different skills, and can refer on to them as needed.

I am also very experienced in psychopharmacology. My approach with medication is to use it judiciously where I think it may help and with a full explanation and discussion of the pros and cons of starting it. Ultimately it is the decision of the young person I am working with and their parents. Consent is an important aspect of all treatments as is confidentiality. I will always respect confidentiality unless I feel that you or someone else is at risk, in which case I may need to share information as appropriate.

I work both face to face and via Zoom and can be flexible about this according to the young person and their family’s wishes. Wherever possible I like to meet at least once in person. I usually need an initial 3-4 appointments for a full assessment and during this time we can discuss appropriate treatment options and how we wish to proceed together. I usually start and end appointments with the young person and their parent(s) together but will ensure that I spend a significant part of each appointment speaking to the young person alone, as appropriate. It is not an easy thing for a young person to start talking to someone they don’t know about their personal difficulties and challenges. Engagement with a young person and establishing a good alliance is of vital importance and this is what I pay most attention to at an initial meeting. The young person needs to feel that the person they are talking to can help them and this is a central part of my job, which I enjoy and find very rewarding.