Counselling for your child, in Cheltenham

Sessions with your child are built on trust, and that trust depends on them knowing clearly what I will and won't share with you. The one exception that applies to every child I see is safeguarding: if I become seriously concerned about your child's safety or somebody else's, I have a professional duty to act, and I'll involve you as part of that wherever it's safe to do so.

Beyond that safeguarding exception, there's no single fixed policy. What gets shared with you, whether that's a particular topic, you joining part of a session, something passed on to school, or everything staying completely confidential between your child and me, is agreed for your child specifically, with your child's knowledge. Nothing is shared behind their back, and nothing is decided behind yours either: it's settled openly, with you both.

Your child also has a say in how much they hold for themselves, and how much that stretches depends on their age. At infant school age, a child has less capacity to carry this alone, so agreements are shaped to keep the school and you closely involved. By senior school, a child's greater capacity to manage it means they can hold more of it themselves.

The full confidentiality statement, including the safeguarding exception, is on my contact page.

No. Wanting extra support for your child isn't a sign you've done something wrong.

Progress with a child rarely looks like a single breakthrough. It's smaller than that: an easier morning before school, a word for a feeling that didn't have one before, less of a fight at bedtime. Where a child doesn't yet have the words, play and drawing often say it before language does. One child I worked with didn't want to talk about how they were feeling, not that day, so I used Lego instead, and it worked. The same agreement I settle with your child near the start covers this too, since how much I tell you about their progress follows from it.