If you or your child is in immediate danger, call 999. Kensington Square Therapy is not a crisis service. For other urgent support, see the helplines we list.
About
Children and young people are not problems to be fixed. They are individuals whose inner worlds deserve careful, respectful understanding. Everything we do starts there.
The practice
Kensington Square Therapy grew out of more than a decade of school counselling in London’s independent schools. Today it is a small team of experienced therapists, working in schools during the day, with parents, and online with young adults.
We have spent years inside schools, and we know how a child can seem fine in class while struggling inside. That shapes how we listen, and how closely we work with the adults around each child.
When a child begins to struggle, we ask what is happening around them, what they are carrying and how they are making sense of it. Some children manage the demands of school well on the surface while feeling stretched underneath. When a child feels heard and taken seriously, things often begin to settle, and they find their way back to learning, friendships and the opportunities around them.
How we work
Relational
Our therapists work relationally and developmentally. The practice is humanistic in foundation and integrative in approach. Understanding comes before intervention. Therapy is not something done to a young person; it is something we do together, and we talk openly with children about what it is and whether they feel ready.
Child first
We do not diagnose. We consider family relationships, friendships, learning differences, identity, and the emotional cost of sustained expectations. Where a specialist assessment would help, we say so and help families find the right person. Where it would not, we focus on strengthening a child’s capacity to meet their world with more steadiness.
Joined up
Alongside our own therapists, we work with trusted professionals such as speech and language therapists, educational psychologists and psychiatrists, where that is needed. When more expertise would help, we coordinate it; when it would not, therapy stays focused and proportionate.
Clinical lead
MBACP · Accredited Member NCPS · MA Humanistic Counselling Practice
Sam leads Kensington Square Therapy and its clinical work. He has spent more than a decade as a school counsellor in London’s independent schools, where entrance assessments, accelerated expectations and the gap between outward achievement and inner experience are part of everyday life.
He holds an MA in Humanistic Counselling Practice, and is a registered member of the BACP and an accredited member of the NCPS. Humanistic in foundation and integrative in approach, his practice draws on long, close work with children and adolescents, alongside parent consultations and consultation for school staff.
Alongside his work with KST, Sam has held counselling posts at Latymer Upper School and Latymer Prep School for over a decade, as part of his own practice, separately from KST. He remains clinically active within KST, leads its therapeutic framework, and is the practice’s Designated Safeguarding Lead.
A note from Sam
I know that arriving on a therapy website can feel like a particular kind of decision, even when nothing is yet settled. So I wanted to say a little, in my own voice, about why Kensington Square Therapy exists.
I founded KST after more than a decade working as a counsellor inside London’s independent schools. Over those years it became clear to me that children and families in this world are often facing something quite specific, and are not always met with the kind of support that fits. School counsellors do brilliant work, but their time is stretched. Private therapists offer wonderful care, but do not always know the rhythm of a school week, or what an entrance year does to a ten-year-old. KST exists to sit in that space, with proper clinical training and a real feel for what children and their families are carrying.
I know how much it matters that you can trust the people you let near your child, so I would rather be clear about what we are, and what we are not. We are not a crisis service. We do not diagnose, and we do not promise outcomes. We are not the right fit for every family or every school that gets in touch. What we do offer is many years of close attention to children inside independent schools, and a small team of therapists who take the work seriously.
If you are reading because something is worrying you about your child, or because you would like a place to think yourself, you are very welcome to write. I read every enquiry personally, and aim to reply within one working day.
Sam McManus
Clinical lead · MBACP · MNCPS (Acc.)
Our therapists
Every KST therapist is registered with the BACP, the NCPS or an equivalent professional body, holds an enhanced DBS certificate, and works under regular clinical supervision. We take on new therapists rarely, and only when the fit is right for our schools and families.
Registered member of the BACP
Anna is a KST therapist who works with children at Connaught House School. She specialises in work with children and adolescents, has more than 10 years’ counselling experience, and has worked in primary and secondary schools in both the state and independent sectors. She holds a postgraduate diploma in counselling children and young people in schools from the University of East London.
Registered with the British Psychoanalytic Council
Freya is a KST therapist who works with children in school; online work with university students and young adults is her particular interest. She came to therapy from the classroom: she qualified as a teacher and spent several years in London’s independent schools, latterly as a deputy designated safeguarding lead and wellbeing specialist. At the Tavistock and Portman she trained first in psychoanalytic observation and then in psychological therapies with children, young people and families. That training included a two-year clinical placement working therapeutically with children in a London school.
We work with a small number of associate therapists, each matched with care to the work, properly supported and treated as a colleague. If you are a registered therapist with meaningful experience of working with children, young people or schools, we would welcome a conversation.
Clinical governance
The credentials and frameworks beneath every session, in one place: the questions a thorough parent or pastoral lead would think to ask.
Sam McManus is a registered member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (MBACP, registration number 191886) and an accredited member of the National Counselling and Psychotherapy Society (MNCPS Acc.). Every KST therapist works within the ethical framework of their own professional body; for Sam, the BACP Ethical Framework for the Counselling Professions and the NCPS Code of Ethics. Anna Ford is a registered member of the BACP. Freya Aylward is registered with the British Psychoanalytic Council (registration number 49165), and works within its ethical framework.
Kensington Square Therapy holds professional indemnity cover of £5 million and public liability cover of £10 million, continuously, in line with professional body requirements. Insurer: Hiscox Underwriting Ltd.
Kensington Square Therapy Ltd is registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office as a data controller, registration ZC022097. Clinical records are held in an encrypted clinical records system, hosted in the EEA. Our Privacy Policy sets out the detail.
All KST practitioners hold enhanced DBS clearance, maintained on the DBS Update Service. Sam McManus is the practice’s Designated Safeguarding Lead. Our position on the protection of children is set out in full in our Safeguarding Policy.
All KST therapists have regular clinical supervision with a senior supervisor from outside the practice, at least monthly, in line with the requirements of their professional body. Safeguarding is a standing item on every supervision agenda.
We would always rather hear from you first. Our Complaints Procedure sets out the route in full, including how to take a concern outside the practice, to the therapist’s own professional body. For our clinical lead, that means the BACP Professional Conduct Procedure and the NCPS Complaints Procedure; for Anna Ford, the BACP Professional Conduct Procedure; for Freya Aylward, the British Psychoanalytic Council.
Alongside the clinical work
The clinical practice is the centre. Around it, the same therapists write for parents, so that careful thinking reaches more families than our sessions alone could.
Begin
Every enquiry is handled personally, and we aim to reply within one working day.
