Annie Head

Since 2007, I have had the privilege of supporting  young people from 11- 18 years of age as a School Counsellor. My experience has enabled me to understand the stage and nature of Adolescence and to fully grasp the challenges Young People often face and continues to allow me to witness how young people can grow through counselling.

The goal of Adolescence is to move through Childhood to Adulthood safely. It is a time of significant change and for some young people can be very demanding, experiencing stresses around relationships, school, identity, sexuality, gender and transitions. In addition, challenging life events can often leave trauma and prove to be difficult to cope with and the goal harder to achieve.

With this stage at the forefront of my mind and as every young person has individual needs I adopt an Integrative approach to my work. I bring together the most appropriate therapies to ensure the best fit is achieved. Always keeping the young person at the centre of all I do, and understanding how uncomfortable and strange it can sometimes be to talk about difficult things, sessions are creative and dynamic. This allows me to build trusting, respectful and non judgemental relationships with the young people I meet.

So to support a young person in your life successfully on their way to adulthood, I can give them the opportunity to talk about and make sense of things that are troubling and confusing within a safe and comfortable environment. I am able to help them understand feelings, explore coping mechanisms to deal with emotional challenges as well as psychological and behavioural problems.

I offer in person sessions in my practice in Northampton during the day or evening, we can certainly find a time that would suit. 

Sessions are 50 minutes and offered weekly on a short term or long term basis, the number of sessions will be reviewed regularly with the young person.

Following your enquiry, I offer a free 30 minute phone conversation for an opportunity to introduce myself and get to know you and the young person. It also gives me an understanding of how I can be of support. 

During our first session, it is very helpful to go through an assessment. I ensure that this is appropriate and undertaken carefully and gently. I also discuss the counselling agreement ensuring that confidentiality and my duty of care for the young person are understood.

This is also a time to make introductions and answer any questions there may be. In addition, it allows me to form a picture of the young person's life, rather like putting pieces of a puzzle together to form a whole picture.