Teenage councelling/psychologist - other than CAMHS

[differenttoyou]

DCs are currently under CAMHS but the whole process is incredibly slow as our therapist only works two days a week and we can only get the kids to her after school as they have such low attendance. In addition to the family therapist we have had a single initial meeting with a trainee psychologist to discuss CBT but that is probably going to take quite a while longer before it is all in place.

Things has deteriorated recently and I would like to try and speed things up. I've written to the therapist but she won't get the email until Monday. We had to unfortunately miss an appointment with her this week which has been rescheduled in another two weeks. There will have been 6 weeks between appointments by that time.

I am considering taking them elsewhere for the CBT but don't know where to start. Are there any other services/organisations that we can approach other than CAMHS. We don't mind paying if we need to. We just need our kids to recover.

You could ask to be refered to a child psychologist but that would also take time.
Look online at BPS - British psychological society and go through them for a private referral.
If there is a very specific problem you need to make sure you get a specialist in that area.
You also don't want too many people involved giving different help. But I can also understand wanting it sorted.
I'm sorry if I have given you info you already knew.

Thanks, that's very helpful.

if a child is already seeing a therapist, many therapists wont want to interfere, so I would be open with them about your camhs experience. I have just advised another poster, sometimes camhs therapists work in private practice, and psychotherapists attached to adolescent units (like the priory) often have private practice . I feel its helpful to work with someone who has NHS experience and lots of child/adolescent experience so if necessary they can help escalate camhs . Relate apparently offer a child/youth service in some areas now. sorry its so difficult, but I found it very hard to find the right person . On top of a good therapist, it needs to be someone the child feels able to be open with,

Thanks for that. Haven't got time to give any more details just yet. This is turning in to a very busy day. Hopefully I'll get some time this evening.