At the Psychology Practice we work with school-aged children who are experiencing low-level behavioural and/or emotional difficulties. We carry out general clinical assessments to identify the specific type of difficulty your child is experiencing. This helps us to tailor interventions to suit the unique needs and personality of each child. Intervention is delivered through various different formats including: parent workshops; group-based intervention and meetings with school staff if appropriate. Individual therapy for children and teens is currently on hold as we are at maximum capacity.
Cognitive assessments are also carried out at the practice; these aim to determine child’s level of intellectual functioning and can help to identify learning difficulties.
The most common emotional and behavioural difficulties that we work with include the following:
- Anxiety including generalised anxiety, social anxiety, separation anxiety, phobias, and school refusal
- Low mood
- Emotional regulation difficulties
- Psychological difficulties relating to chronic health conditions or physical disability
- Anger and aggression
- Self-esteem
- Psychological difficulties associated with Autism Spectrum Disorders (including managing emotions, anxiety, social skills, managing ASD ‘meltdowns’, sleep etc.)
- Adjustment to life events (divorce, changing schools, bereavement, or illness in the family).
If the difficulty that your child is experiencing is not included on this list, please feel free to contact us and we can discuss if we are the appropriate service for you child.
If we do not feel we are the best service to help, we will try to direct you to the most relevant service in your area.
Some of the difficulties we are unable to help with include:
- Significant mood/mental health including self-harm or suicidal thoughts, post-traumatic stress, obsessive compulsive disorder, or depressive disorder. Please speak to your GP instead for an urgent referral to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service and to discuss other options. If you have immediate concerns for your child’s safety, you should present to A&E.
- Eating disorders
- Trauma or abuse
- Medico-legal work /reports for court
- Diagnosing Autism Spectrum disorder
- Family Therapy
Services Available & costs
Cognitive Assessment – €600 & Psychoeducational Assessment - €750
Where a child is showing difficulty in learning or developing other skills, a cognitive assessment can help to clarify whether the child has an underlying intellectual disability. A cognitive assessment will also show where the child’s individual cognitive strengths and weakness lie. The assessment is used to determine an individual’s general thinking and reasoning abilities also known as intellectual functioning or IQ. Intelligence testing can assess various domains of your child’s cognitive capacity (e.g. verbal comprehension, processing speed, perceptual reasoning, working memory).
Results of this assessment can also be the first step in identifying if a child has a specific learning difficulty (i.e. dyslexia and/or dyscalculia). The assessment can take between 1 and 3 sessions to complete (each lasting from anywhere between 30 and 60 mins) depending on the age and engagement level of the child. For a psycho-educational assessment, the cognitive assessment is followed up by an academic attainment assessment (reading, spelling and writing). These assessments also include:
- Review of existing reports
- Parent interview and feedback
- Report with detailed recommendations for home and school
Emotional & Behavioural Assessment - €750
This involves the following:
Parent interview.
Child interview and observation (in multiple settings if needed).
Screening of possible diagnoses: screening of ASD and ADHD if warranted
Screening for possible mood disorders if required.
A range of other psychometric tools may be used as required.
Assessment report & recommendations is also provided.
Parent Consultations & recommendations (incl report) €200
This involves the following: 1. Correspondence with parent via email prior to consult, 2. Completion of Parent questionnaire prior to consult, 3. Consult for 1hr, 4. Follow-up with recommendations and report. This consult can take place over zoom or in person.