Counselling:
One-to-one therapy gives adolescents a safe place and time to talk to someone who won't judge them. They can benefit by making sense of things they may be finding difficult and is a way of helping them to understand themselves and their behaviours more.
Therapy can help them resolve complicated feelings, or explore ways to more easily live with them. It can also provide opportunities to recognise unhelpful patterns in ways of thinking or acting and support them to find ways to live happier and more fulfilling lives. This involves us working together to explore the issues they bring.
Play therapy, for younger children, offers the child respect and acceptance, allowing the child to be themselves and express themselves. Play therapy encourages them to communicate their feelings in graphic, dramatic ways through play and creative activities.
Therapy Model:
The therapy I offer is based on an integrative approach using ideas and strategies from a range of therapeutic models, all designed to support change:
A Client-Centred Approach
This is my guiding principle, with its emphasis on developing a therapeutic relationship with the child or adolescent which is safe and secure. This is combined with the core conditions of empathy and compassion, being congruent and in-tune with the client as well as having a non-judgemental attitude to the client and the client's behaviour. This allows the client to tell their own story.
Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT)
CBT focuses on the idea that a client's emotional and behavioural problems are often linked to patterns of unhelpful thinking. CBT can be used to help the young person challenge this thinking and to replace unhelpful thoughts and behaviours with more beneficial ones.
Psychodynamic Therapy
This approach considers the idea that a client's behaviour is a result of past experiences and relationships. Exploring these can help the young person identify any conflicts and work through them and then let them go.
Play Therapy
I am a trained play therapist and so for younger children the counselling is focused on play therapy as play is a child's main way of communicating. In play therapy the child leads the way. The aim of play therapy is to create a therapeutic environment where children feel safe, comfortable and accepted - a sense of being understood. Empathic responses help a child be more aware of the emotional meaning of their play.
Theraplay
I am also able to use Theraplay-informed principles and ideas in my professional practice, modelled on the patterns of interaction found in secure, parent-child relationships.
Theraplay is based on interactive, relationship-based play helping children to become calmer, more engaged and outgoing. Through Theraplay activities, they experience structure, social engagement, emotional regulation and challenge which supports them to change their perception of themselves and what it is like to be in relationships with others.
Individual Counselling:
Individual counselling sessions provide a safe space for children and adolescents to express their thoughts and feelings, and develop strategies to manage challenges. Shrafeddin's Therapy is a trusted counselling practice located in Surbiton.