Features

Positive relationships: Vulnerable children - One to one

Families and practitioners alike have welcomed the benefits of having an on-site psychotherapist at a children's centre. Child and adolescent psychotherapist Inge-Martine Pretorius and Tamar Karni explain why.

Randolph Beresford Early Years Centre is a local authority setting in west London, serving a hugely deprived and ethnically mixed population. Following long-standing input from the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service, part of the West London Mental Health NHS Trust, the centre invited CAMHS to set up the nursery-based child psychotherapy service in March 2008. Its aim was to promote the mental health and emotional well-being of children and, specifically, to support children, parents and staff at the centre.

I am employed two days a week, which I spend mostly at the centre, where I have a designated room. I work closely with head teacher Michael Pettavel and the deputy head teachers. About once a month, I visit my NHS base, the Hammersmith and Fulham CAMHS, for management, consultation, liaising and training.

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