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One of the most common concerns I hear from parents, carers, and children experiencing Emotional Based School Avoidance (EBSA)  is: “I don’t feel they really listened. I don’t think they are hearing what we are saying.” In my experience, effective support must be individualised , with the child’s voice at the centre and parents or carers actively supporting that perspective. Children often describe EBSA as a wall  — a block they cannot get over, under, or around. This wall pr

Living with PANS or PANDAS can be frightening and deeply destabilising — for children and for their families. Symptoms are often sudden, intense and unexplained. A child can change dramatically almost overnight. Flare-ups bring unpredictability — families may feel constantly on edge, never knowing when symptoms will return or what will trigger them. With PANS especially, triggers can feel endless and uncertain: infection, strep, allergies, mould, stress, Lyme disease and more

Many parents come to me feeling exhausted from trying to explain their child’s needs. They know their child is bright, sensitive, trying their best — and yet something isn’t working at school. Meetings can feel overwhelming. Forms can feel endless. And too often, families feel they have to “prove” their child is struggling. My role is to help you move from uncertainty to clarity. As a psychologist and psychotherapist, I use something called the biopsychosocial model , develop

At The Little Bird House , we specialise in supporting children and young people living with anxiety, trauma, OCD, tics and neuroinflammation-related difficulties. When OCD takes hold, it can feel as though it quietly moves into the family home — dictating routines, demanding reassurance, and shrinking a young person’s world. Two of the most effective approaches we use in our work with OCD are: Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) (we use the updated Inhibitory Learning Mod

I have had an increase in enquiries about the CBIT program we offer for tics, so thought it may be helpful to clarify the process. CBIT stands for Comprehensive Behavioural Intervention for Tics. CBIT is suitable for children and adolescents over the age of 6 whose tics are causing them distress/and or significantly impacting their daily function CBIT is an evidence based therapeutic program and approved by the NICE guidelines. CBIT involves a high commitment from the child a

There are many reasons why a child who seemed to manage in school changes and finds it too difficult, and there are many reasons why a child might not find school a safe place from the start. But from what I have learnt from the children and young people I work with, is that each will be individual to each child, to their experiences, perceptions, support and nervous system and psychological response. ​​ Many children experiencing EBSA tell me that they want to go to in to sc

The spelling might not be perfect, but thankfully perfect spelling is not needed for emotional healing.   Yesterday, a young client commented “I can’t really trust my amygdala can I ?” Supporting a child or young person to understand their emotions, how they experience their emotions in their body, and how these emotions are processed in the brain and body, are key components of the therapeutic approach at the Little Bird House. So hearing that young person’s growing self-awa

So proud to gain my orange button today. Although I have undertaken other suicide awareness courses, the ASIST training is a world wide...