Find Child Psychotherapists in Sydney, Australia

Therapy with children follows how children communicate. That is more often through play than through explaining.

Parents bring children about worry, low mood, or behaviour at home or school. Other children come after a family change, or after something frightening.

It is not a school assessment, and it is not a report on parenting.

Everyone on this page describes their work as psychotherapy. A psychotherapist works through talking with you about your thoughts, feelings and behaviours ¹.

Psychotherapy usually runs longer than counselling and aims for clinical change. It works on patterns that repeat rather than on one current problem.

A psychotherapist trains in psychological treatment rather than in medicine. What that training covers, and which approach a practitioner uses, differ between practitioners. Ask which approach a psychotherapist trained in, and how long they usually work.

Sydney Local Health District Community Mental Health Service. Phone 1800 011 511. NSW public hospital and community mental-health services are free. The service is open to the public. You reach it through the NSW Mental Health Line, which assesses you clinically and refers you on. Local catchment areas apply.

Practitioners see very young children too, in a different form. Play is a natural way for children to communicate their thoughts, feelings, experiences and trauma. The practitioner picks the method to fit the child, not the other way round. Say your child's age at first contact and ask what a practitioner would do.

Not all of it, and the arrangement is set before the work starts. Parents are treated as partners in the work rather than kept outside it². What is shared and what is held differs with the child's age and with local law. Ask a practitioner to set out their arrangement at the first meeting.

Often a practitioner meets the parents first, or the parents and child together. Play, drawing and games are the way in rather than a break from the work. Ask how parents or carers will be involved in the work. Ask before you book.

No. This filter lists practitioners who work with children therapeutically. Educational assessments, reports for schools and reports for courts are separate pieces of work, and not every practitioner does them. If a school has asked for a report, say so at first contact and ask whether a practitioner provides one.

Our records name no register for the title psychotherapist in Australia. See the Australia page for the professions that do carry a register there.