Clinical Psychologist

Dr Sarah Gasson

Child Clin­i­cal Psychologist

Southall Children’s Centres

Tel: 07814 912347

What is a Child Clin­i­cal Psychologist?

Child clin­i­cal psy­chol­o­gists work together with pre-​school and school-​aged chil­dren and their fam­i­lies, includ­ing chil­dren with spe­cial needs. They are trained to under­stand children’s emo­tional and cog­ni­tive devel­op­ment, and the types of dif­fi­cul­ties a child and their fam­i­lies may experience.

Why would my child or I need to see a Child Clin­i­cal Psychologist?

You or some­one who spends time with your child may have noticed that your child is hav­ing dif­fi­cul­ties in maybe their behav­iour, rela­tion­ships with oth­ers, their learn­ing, or per­haps is strug­gling with a spe­cific issue, e.g. sleeping.You may have tried a num­ber of approaches to help with your child’s dif­fi­cul­ties. These may have not have helped as you hoped and you or oth­ers involved in your child’s life may feel that more spe­cial­ist help is needed.

What can a Child Clin­i­cal Psy­chol­o­gist help with?

• Sleep
• Wean­ing /​feed­ing
• Toi­let­ing
• Behav­iour
• Atten­tion and hyperactivity
• Anx­i­ety /​fears
• Autism and devel­op­men­tal disorders
• Sib­ling rivalry
• Emo­tional difficulties
• Reac­tions to life events
• Parent-​infant relationships
• Fam­ily dif­fi­cul­ties which may impact on children
• Par­ent­ing difficulties

Clin­i­cal psy­chol­o­gists can work together with fam­i­lies to try and resolve dif­fi­cul­ties and wor­ries that par­ents may have about their children’s behav­iour or devel­op­ment. They can also help with fam­ily rela­tion­ship dif­fi­cul­ties or stress­ful life expe­ri­ences, such as sep­a­ra­tion, phys­i­cal ill­ness or men­tal health dif­fi­cul­ties within the family.

What does a Child Clin­i­cal Psy­chol­o­gist do?

The clin­i­cal psy­chol­o­gist will invite you to bring all the fam­ily mem­bers to the first appoint­ment. You will be seen in a pri­vate space. Appoint­ments usu­ally last for an hour. They will ask you about your child and also your fam­ily as it is impor­tant to think about your child’s fam­ily con­text. The clin­i­cal psy­chol­o­gist will dis­cuss with you ways in which they can help with your child’s dif­fi­cul­ties. You may then be offered reg­u­lar appoint­ments. These may be for the whole fam­ily, for the child or for the parent(s) alone, depend­ing on what is needed. Appoint­ments can be arranged for times that best suit you and other fam­ily mem­bers. Inter­preters can be invited to attend appoint­ments if required.

What about confidentiality?

As a gen­eral rule, clin­i­cal psy­chol­o­gists do not dis­close infor­ma­tion to any­one else unless this is agreed with the child and the fam­ily. Con­fi­den­tial­ity is within the ser­vice. If we want to con­tact other peo­ple, like a teacher, we will only do so if you have agreed to it. How­ever, con­fi­den­tial­ity may be bro­ken if there are con­cerns about the safety of the child or oth­ers, and you will be informed of this.

How do I con­tact the Clin­i­cal Psychologist?

Your Clin­i­cal Psy­chol­o­gist is Sarah Gas­son and she works across the Children’s Cen­tres in Southall. Please feel free to con­tact her on 07814 912347 if you have any queries or fur­ther ques­tions regard­ing the above infor­ma­tion or if you would like to see her. Alter­na­tively, you can ask staff in the Children’s Cen­tre to leave a mes­sage for her and she will con­tact you.