Psychology is the scientific study of human thought and behaviour.
Clinical Psychologists have a degree in psychology plus an additional three to five years of postgraduate experience and university training in applying the science of psychology to clinical (emotional and mental health) problems.
As a legally regulated profession Clinical Psychologists continue to develop their learning and knowledge throughout their careers.
As Clinical Psychologists are trained in a wide array of therapeutic approaches we are able to tailor therapeutic interventions to the individual’s needs and do not believe that “one approach fits all”.
Clinical Psychologist’s are trained to a Doctorate level of qualification and work from a variety of therapeutic models (approaches), all of which include counselling skills. We aim to provide a safe space for the person to talk about feelings, express their thoughts and to know that someone is listening to them. We aim to enable people to explore solutions to dilemmas and will draw on a range of models to understand the difficulties experienced and offer strategies to help find a way forward. Because we are able to use a variety of models, we are usually able to find an approach that will suit the individual’s preferences and address their difficulties.
Referral pathway
We offer a FREE 20 minute initial telephone consultation
We draw on a range of psychological ideas and approaches to help with the difficulties you are experiencing.
We offer time to listen carefully to what you think and how you feel. We can work with young people, parents or adults by themselves, in couples or see the whole family together.
Assessment
If, together, we agree it would be useful to talk, we will arrange to meet either by video conference or at one of our clinics.
We will listen carefully to what you have to say about yourself and the problems you have been experiencing.
We will then go through everything with you and hopefully help to understand why you have been having these difficulties and come up with some ways to help.
We usually meet people up to three times to do this and call this the Assessment phase.
We can if you request write a letter to explain what we talked about and the suggested ways forward.
Sometimes we find this can be enough help.
Therapy
Following the assessment, if we all think talking therapy will be helpful we can then meet regularly for Therapy sessions.
These last for up to one hour and we usually agree to meet for 8 sessions at a time.
We like to check out or review how things are going and decide together if further work is needed.
The approach or type of therapy we use will be determined by what the psychological research tells us works best with the problems you are experiencing and also by your preferred way of working.
In practice, we will often draw on a number of different therapeutic ideas at the same time.
Research tells us which type of problems respond best to which type of therapy. However, which therapy works best is also determined by your own preferred way of working. Some people like to think about things and figure out solutions in their own way, other people prefer to hear lots of advice or be told about different strategies to try out. Some people like a mix of these approaches. Part of our assessment will be to figure out with you what may be the best approach to suit you and your dilemma.
As we draw on several different therapeutic models we can usually find a way forward that helps.
There are services available on the NHS that are free to use. Sometimes these services have Clinical Psychologists. We would advise that you see your GP first to talk about these options.
When talking with your GP about free services, it may be useful to ask about:
Knowing your options means you can decide whether paying for therapy is right for you and your family.
The advantages of coming to Family Focused is that we offer an appointment in a timely manner. The same person who you meet for assessment will see you for therapy too. There is no wait time between assessment and therapy at Family Focused and we offer a broad range of talking therapies that we can tailor to meet the needs of you and your family. We can meet for as long as is needed but we will review this with you regularly.
We offer a free telephone consultation as soon as possible after you contact us or are referred to us.
We offer an assessment appointment within one month of payment/funding being confirmed. There is no delay between assessment and treatment.
This depends on how things go. We do not set a time limit and aim to offer therapy for as long as it is needed. However we don’t want to keep seeing people if there is no need.
We will begin with an assessment which will last between 1-3 sessions. In this time we will help you to make sense of the difficulties you are experiencing and offer a treatment plan where we identify your options.
If together we agree that therapy would be helpful, we usually offer 8 sessions and then review to discuss how things are going. During the review we will talk with you about what has changed, what needs more work and whether things have improved enough to end therapy.
If you are uncertain about ending, we sometimes suggest a break from therapy. If this feels the right way forward for you we have found offering an appointment in one or two months time to see how things are going often helps you test out how ready you are for stopping therapy but with the knowledge that we are still here.
If at anytime after therapy ends you would like further work you are always welcome to get back in touch.
This depends again on the problem, your circumstances and the approach we decide to use. For some people it may be best to meet every week to begin with, for others less frequent meetings might be better. We will discuss the frequency of sessions with you at the end of the assessment phase.
As Clinical Psychologists we are not qualified to prescribe medication. If you or we feel medication might be beneficial we can refer you back to your GP or to your local Child or Adult Mental Health Services who will have Psychiatrists who can advise you about medication options and arrange prescriptions for you. We can do this alongside offering you psychological therapy.
It is normally best to meet at a place outside of your home, this is because sometimes you might need to talk about difficult things that you can then “leave behind” in the therapy room. Also there are less distractions in a therapy room. This means we can all listen and concentrate better in a therapy room. However, we are able to offer video conference appointments if you are not able to get to our clinic.
A video conference call is a virtual meeting using live audio and video to connect people in different locations, offering features like screen sharing and chat to replicate in-person interaction. Family focused use platforms Zoom and Microsoft Teams.
At all times Family Focused will continue to follow Data Protection and Privacy Policy and safeguarding policies.
When having a video conference appointment
Information about the process and progress of the sessions may be shared with the professionals involved in your life, with your consent, or in the case of children, with the consent of parent(s) and taking into account the wishes of the child(ren).
Confidentiality may only be broken under these circumstances;
Should any of these circumstances arise, then, if safe to do so, we will have an immediate discussion and we will inform you of the action we are required to take under the guidelines of the BPS, HCPC and GDPR.