The initial appointment will be approximately 1 hour and 30 minutes. We will assess the problem you want help with and discuss the nature of the difficulties, how they have developed, how you may have dealt with them so far, what has been helpful, and how they are affecting your child and your family and your relationships. We will also be interested in how you would like things to change and what sort of support you are looking for. When working with families it is important to hear the views of parents and children, whether they are the same or different, as this will have an important bearing on how we can best help.

A thorough assessment of your child’s difficulties will usually result in something called a ‘formulation’. This is a shared understanding of the problem, how it arose and why it persists. This will guide us all to a suitable intervention or treatment plan that will aim to resolve the problem and reduce the distress if causes.

At the end of this meeting we will together agree whether another meeting will be useful.  Sometimes one meeting can be enough discuss the problem and share ideas about what might be helpful. Occasionally further assessment meetings are useful to continue gathering the necessary information to develop a comprehensive formulation and treatment plan. Sometimes it can be very useful to meet more of the family to hear other member’s views about the problem as these can sometimes help give a wider picture of the situation.

It may be useful to meet with parents alone, or with the child or adolescent alone if a more private discussion would be helpful. All these options can be discussed at the assessment. Usually further meetings are arranged in order to offer suitable treatment, based on the formulation of the difficulties developed during the assessment.