Parenting & Family
-
When young people bring their own digital support into therapy
Some young people come to therapy already using apps, videos or chatbots to help them through difficult moments. Asking about that support can be a useful way into the work. The answers can tell a clinician a good deal about the young person, and they open questions about the tools themselves and about how the family sees them.
Read more -
Autism Assessment Across the Lifespan: Why Follow-Up Matters
Autism assessment is often organised around a single visit, while developmental changes in autistic children and adults may unfold gradually over time. Longitudinal research suggests that some of these changes can go unnoticed, while some apparent changes may reflect something other than development. Repeated assessments can offer insights that a single visit may miss.
Read more -
Compliance as a trauma response in children
A child who smiles and causes no trouble at school is easy to overlook. In the session on mentalising with complex trauma in children and families, Dr Emma Morris described how, in some children who have experienced early relational trauma, compliance may be mistaken for a sign that all is well. A mentalising lens offers another reading, in which compliance may be a way of staying safe, and that reading can shape what support comes first.
Read more -
Understanding self injury in children with learning disabilities
Self-injury in children with learning disabilities requires an assessment that brings together health, communication, learning and individual differences (Richards et al., 2024). The evidence supports investigating the circumstances surrounding behaviour while remaining alert to pain, poor sleep and difficulties regulating behaviour. These influences can interact, making an individualised understanding essential (Oliver et al., 2020).
Read more -
OCD and Anxiety in Children and Young People: Assessment, Diagnosis and Treatment
This practical two-hour session will provide a clinical overview of OCD and anxiety in children and young people. It will cover key features to look out for, approaches to assessment and diagnosis, and how to distinguish OCD from other conditions. The session will also explore treatment approaches and the role of families, alongside a brief overview of the evidence base.
- Event type
- Session
-
Using a case formulation to identify what maintains anxiety
Case conceptualisation helps clinicians move from a description of a young person’s symptoms to an account of what may be keeping them going. In the session on science-informed case conceptualisation, Professor Bryce McLeod illustrated his five-step model with a single case of social anxiety in a young adolescent girl. The case shows how a formulation can bring maintaining factors into view, including the coping strategies of the girl and her mother, and then shape treatment and the conversation with the family.
Read more -
Engaging young people in therapeutic conversations about self harm
Conversations after self-harm can help young people understand their experiences and identify changes that matter to them. McCabe et al. (2026) describe how the Supporting Adolescents with Self-Harm (SASH) intervention combines therapeutic assessment, enhanced safety planning and solution-focused brief therapy. Through four young people’s cases and one carer’s case, they illustrate collaborative work grounded in each person’s language, relationships and hopes, offering examples of practice and proposed mechanisms of change, rather than trial results demonstrating that SASH reduces subsequent self-harm.
Read more -
The use of the term ‘complex’ in mental health services: is it time to move towards more inclusive language?
What happens when we describe a young person’s mental health presentation as “complex”? This commentary explores how the language of complexity may create barriers to care.
Read more -
Trauma, Risk and Clinical Complexity in Young People: Using Formulation to Guide Intervention
Dr. Kate Ward practical workshop exploring how formulation can support work with young people who have experienced trauma and adversity and who also present with significant risk and complexity. The workshop will consider how clinicians can make sense of complex presentations, sequence interventions, and identify what may need to happen before or alongside trauma-focused therapy.
- Event type
- Workshop
- Location
- Online
-
Self-Guided Intervention for Intergenerational Anxiety
Could supporting anxious parents help reduce anxiety in children? Explore research on a self-guided online parenting intervention and its effects on child anxiety.
Read more