Paul Gregory Associates Ltd
Psychotherapy & Counselling - Chichester & Exeter
Accredited Child Counselling & Accredited Trauma Therapy
for Children & Young People
Email us here:
Working with local children in mainstream, special & fee paying schools...
For children, young people & parents too!
Paul Grixti
Child Therapy - We have much experience in treating children & young people. Our treatments have targeted abuse, anger issues, anxiety, depression, loss, relationships, self-harm, sex, pregnancy, substance misuse and stress. Over many years of working with children and young people, our therapists have noticed these recurring themes. This list is not exhaustive. We also have significant experience with Child Protection procedures and multi-agency liaison. In terms of child counselling, some families self-refer, others are referred by agencies. We have much experience counselling Children Looked After (CLA) and within this field we work with children in foster care and those in children's homes. Since 2009, Paul Grixti was based at the Dolphin House Children's Clinic ( www.dolphinhouseclinic.com). Then at Paul Gregory Associates Ltd, Forum House (Chichester) and Beacon House (Oving), providing the accredited child-EMDR, CBT, play, art or talking therapies at these reputable private clinics. In 2019, Paul decided to base Paul Gregory Associates Ltd in the peaceful countryside just outside Chichester city centre, at Hamblin Hall (Bosham). Here, children can talk in the warm, comfortable privacy of the quiet rooms - or run, walk and talk [if they choose to] in the expansive grounds among the trees in the meadow outside! Parents no longer have to contend with the traffic, crossing dangerous roads or the parking difficulties associated with the City of Chichester.
In 2022, we expanded to offer our therapies in Exeter, Devon and took comfortable rooms in the city centre. Although still only our services online mainly, we have been pleasantly surprised by the demand for EMDR in particular in our new West Country clinic.
There is no age limit to the children/young people we see at our Bosham or Exeter rooms. We offer counselling to individual children/young people and facilitate children's groups. In-school or home visits can be offered, where appropriate.
Some Background to this specialism by Paul Grixti
We welcome children of all ages. We have experience with a variety of presenting issues. I currently assess children and young people in Bosham, Chichester, with a view to them receiving effective treatment from a Paul Gregory Associates therapist.
Until August 2011, I provided peripatetic in-school counselling for West Sussex County Council, having managed the counselling services in West Sussex schools since 2003. I have experience of working with schools in Special Measures as part of their Improvement Plans. In 2003 I 'inherited' - and subsequently developed - the service in Cornfield School, Littlehampton, West Sussex. Cornfield School is a special secondary school designed to meet the special educational needs of young people with "social, emotional and behavioural difficulties" ( www.cornfield.w-sussex.sch.uk). All students at the school have a statement of special educational needs. Individual child counselling was offered to all students throughout their time at Cornfield (usually 11-16 years of age). From 2006, I was able to extend the service to the behavioural unit of a nearby, large mainstream secondary school. This position served to greatly broaden my experience of the issues our young people might be dealing with. Our private practice was born in 2009. From 2009-2010, I took one day a week out from private practice to provide counselling peripatetically for West Sussex County Council's "Your Space" Play Therapy Service in several of the county's primary schools with children aged 4-10. In 2010, I was invited by County to offer counselling to schools as part of their restructuring after being put in Special Measures [by OFSTED]. So I left my permanent position in schools to help children more broadly across the county. In 2011 I was invited to be the school counsellor at the Sir Robert Woodard Academy, important in its own right as the "birthplace" of West Sussex County Council's "Your Space" Therapeutic Services. At the Academy, I provided assessment and counselling for 11-18 year old students. Academies are state-maintained independent schools set up with the help of outside sponsors. Former prime minister Tony Blair, established academies in 2000 to drive up standards by replacing failing schools in struggling education authorities (Lipsett, A. Education Guardian, Nov 2007). I also saw children and young mothers referred directly by County Councils. These include West Sussex County Council, Brighton & Hove City Councils, and Hampshire County Council.
In addition to one-to-one work, I have during this time facilitated what must be hundreds of non-directive and single-issue self-development groups. Groups might consist of 2 - 15 young people identified as exhibiting one or more of a variety of social, emotional and/or behavioural difficulties and sessions lasted for 1 hour. Despite sometimes finding the Group dynamic challenging, members of the groups tended to find the experience stimulating and rewarding. Groups are facilitated within a similar code of ethics as that used in individual work. I have also much experience with teaching students on specifically prescribed courses e.g. anger management, assertiveness, feelings. Evidence of effectiveness can be arranged to cover the individual counselling, the groupwork and the specific-issue courses. I have for many years provided training to staff and management in educational, residential and therapeutic settings on many issues relating to working with children and young people more effectively. I have offered a consultancy service to several OFSTED registered private children's homes since 2009. I specialize in attachment-informed practice and support the managers and staff in working therapeutically with psychological development as our focus.
I have been a guest lecturer/workshop facilitator at local universities, and private and charity-funded counselling organisations. As the in-house psychotherapist for the South Region, I offer consultancy and deliver training to the management of a large, national therapeutic children's home provider that specializes in the care of children with attachment trauma.
My counselling qualifications and experience with children supports my fully qualified and ACCREDITED member status within the BACP ( www.bacp.co.uk) and a member of the Children & Young People (CYP) ( www.bacpcyp.org.uk). I am qualified to the Advanced Level (II) and fully ACCREDITED to provide EMDR trauma therapy specifically to children & adolescents, over and above being accredited to provide adult treatments.
Supervised & Accredited EMDR treatment for Child & Adolescent; and CBT for Children
I am an EMDR Europe practitioner, qualified and accredited to work with both adults and children. EMDR and CBT (see Home Page for descriptions and links) are effective therapies for the treatment of trauma. A specific child EMDR core-training, and later an EMDR Advanced training, help me to deliver the most ethical and effective trauma-focused treatment I know. These therapies can be very effective when combined with creative resources e.g. play and art therapy techniques. Where clients might not have the language skills or inclination to describe their experience, a drawing or the use of models, clay, the senses or movement can be used to access the memory, which can then be processed out using standard trauma focused protocol. Where appropriate, body sensations can be used. The location of feelings in the body is as useful, if not more useful, than any spoken [interpreted] description. Parent/carers can often be involved too (where appropriate) in stabilizing the child through relaxation techniques and psycho-education in the preparation phase, and indeed in delivering the bi-lateral stimulation (tapping, eye movements (EMs), etc) during the desensitization & reprocessing phases. Experience with working therapeutically with children has resulted in an intervention that is both dynamic and creative. Young people can process out trauma at an incredible rate with the correct assessed intervention and therapeutic relationship. It is always a pleasure and a privilege to be a part of such a relationship. All our practitioners receive regular supervision from an experienced supervisor as recommended by their professional bodies. EMDR practitioners receive regular EMDR supervision in addition with an EMDR Consultant.
Associated Roles
I was CAF (Common Assessment Framework) and Lead Professional trained by West Sussex County Council. CAF is a generic assessment for children with additional needs, which can be used by practitioners across all children's services in all local areas in England. CAF aims to help early identification of need, promote coordinated service provision and reduce the number of assessments that some children and young people go through. CAF is a holistic, multi-disciplinary and integrated way for families and professionals to work together. The Lead Professional's role can include:
- ensuring action plans are in place and communicated to the family and other professionals
- taking a lead role in ensuring the child's voice is heard
- chairing TAC (Team Around The Child) meetings
Creative art therapy & play therapy techniques always available within any child intervention...
