It can sometimes be difficult to establish what leads to communication blocks or challenging behaviour in a child. It is not always obvious straight away that might be due to communication styles in the parent and child relationship that is causing misunderstanding . Sometimes children may be referred to CAMHS when parent have concerns in their relationship with thier child and then familes may be will referred onto the specialist Parent Child Relationship clinic.
In the PCR clinic we aim to support parents develop positive relationships with their child and the child with them. Often the families coming to us see behaviours in their child which they may find confusing and challenging. The clinic supports parents to understand how to better communicate with their child and manage specific behaviour. The families that come to the clinic may have had events in their lives that have disrupted their relationship or other issues which may have interrupted the process of bonding. The parent child relationship clinics use play based approaches with the child and family to help families learn to communicate better, mange behaviours that cause problems and find ways of enjoying being with each other.
The age range for the specialist parent child relationship clinic 0-11 years old. There will be an initial play based assessment of communication styles and interaction. Then there will then be three play based sessions and a review session. Each family can have up to nine play based sessions. All sessions are video-recorded so the clinicians can feedback to parents for discussion and planning any change.
This is not a clinic where you are judged, scored or told what to do. It is a collaborative process where the clinicians, parents and children work together to look at what is working well and what needs to be worked on further to improve the relationship in the family.