Parent consultations
Supporting you, as you support your child.
Parenting does not come with a script. Even in thoughtful, loving families there are moments when the way forward is unclear. A consultation gives you a calm, confidential space to think it through with someone who knows children and schools well.
Our approach
Building a team around your child
Children tend to find things easier when the adults around them feel steadier and more in step with one another, which is why so much of our work is with parents.
We take time over these conversations: what you are noticing, the patterns in your family, and how the pressures of your child’s world are landing at home. We help you think clearly, so that you can act with more confidence and steadiness.
You can book a consultation whether or not your child is in therapy with us, and you do not need a referral from a school or anyone else.
When it might help
When a consultation can help
Independent school brings particular pressures of performance, comparison and expectation. Many of these moments do not need therapy. A conversation with someone who knows children and schools can be enough.
Your child seems anxious or unsettled
Withdrawing, becoming distressed, struggling to manage feelings, or responding to school pressure in ways that worry you.
You are unsure whether your child needs therapy
A consultation is often the best first step. It helps establish whether individual sessions are right, and when.
School pressure is reaching home
Academic expectations, friendship difficulties or the 11+ are creating tension you want to understand and respond to well.
You want to think about family patterns
Communication, boundaries, expectations or dynamics between family members that you would like to think through with a professional.
Your child is in therapy
Understanding how the work goes, and how to create the right conditions for it at home.
Your family is going through change
Separation, a move, a loss, or a shift in family life that is affecting your child and your sense of how to respond.
How it works
Adult-focused, and entirely your own
Each consultation is led by an experienced KST therapist. There is no fixed commitment: some parents come once and leave with the clarity they needed; others return at key moments in their child’s development.
- Length
50 minutes
- Where
Online or by telephone
- Who comes
One or both parents or carers. Where parents are separated, individual consultations can be arranged.
- With whom
An experienced KST therapist, matched to your family
- Commitment
None. A single consultation or a short series, as you prefer
When your child is in therapy with us
We begin by talking with you
Depending on how counselling is arranged at your child’s school, that means a short introduction or a first parent consultation. The terms for your child’s school set out exactly what is included.
Further consultations can be arranged whenever they would help, and are often useful at key moments in the work: when themes begin to emerge at home, or when an ending approaches.
On confidentiality
Therapists do not share detailed session content with parents. They can talk about general themes, areas of focus, and ways to support your child at home.
Parent consultations are confidential in their own right. If your consultations are with someone other than your child’s therapist, what you discuss is not automatically shared between them.
Information is shared only with your consent, where there is a safeguarding concern, or where there is a risk of serious harm. We talk this through clearly at the start.
All KST therapists are DBS checked, insured, clinically supervised, and work within recognised ethical frameworks.
Working with schools
Working with your child’s school
Where it helps, we support joined-up communication between home and school, so your child is surrounded by adults who understand one another and are pulling in the same direction.
Pastoral teams
Alongside the school
We work constructively with pastoral leads, SENCOs and safeguarding teams, in the schools we work in and in others where a family needs support.
Advocacy
Speaking up for your child
We can help you understand which adjustments might be reasonable to ask of a school, and how to raise them within its pastoral structure.
Wider network
When more is needed
Where it is appropriate, we draw on colleagues such as speech and language therapists, educational psychologists and psychiatrists, and we take care not to over-medicalise ordinary developmental difficulty.
Fees
Agreed with you at the start
The right shape depends on what your family needs: sometimes a single conversation gives the clarity you were after; sometimes a series over a term is better. We agree the structure and the cost together before we begin, and keep reduced-rate places each term for families where cost is the obstacle.
Also from us
- The Parent Book: our library for parents, written by the same therapists. Your child’s school can send you chapters free, or you can subscribe for the whole library.
- Wellbeing Tips: a small family of free tools for breathing, calm and sleep, for any parent who needs them.
Questions
Often asked
Is this therapy for me, as a parent?
Parent consultations are therapeutic in character, but they are not the same as ongoing adult therapy. They focus on your role as a parent and the dynamics around your child. If you would like personal therapeutic support for yourself, we can talk about a referral to an appropriate specialist, within KST or outside it.
Can I book a consultation if my child is not in therapy?
Yes. A consultation is often the right first step, particularly when you are unsure whether your child needs individual support, or simply want to think through what you are seeing at home.
Will you share what we discuss with my child or their therapist?
Not automatically. Parent consultations are confidential within the usual professional and safeguarding boundaries. Information is shared only with your consent, or where there is a safeguarding concern or a risk of serious harm. What your child says in their own sessions is protected in the same way.
Can both parents come?
Yes. Consultations are open to one parent or to both together. Where parents are separated, individual consultations can be arranged, and we will always follow the arrangement that is most appropriate for your family.
If this is urgent
Kensington Square Therapy is not a crisis service. If you or your child is in immediate danger, call 999.
Show helplinesHide helplines
If you need help right now
If you or your child is in immediate danger
999Call 999
If either you or your child is in a mental health crisis
NHS 111England, Scotland and Wales: call 111 and choose the mental-health option. Northern Ireland: call Lifeline on 0808 808 8000
If your child is under 19 and needs to talk to someone themselves
Childline0800 1111
If you are worried that a child is being harmed or is at risk
NSPCC Helpline0808 800 5000
If you would prefer to text rather than speak
ShoutText SHOUT to 85258
If you or someone you are worried about needs someone to talk to
Samaritans116 123
Begin
Not sure where to start? That is where we begin.
Every enquiry is handled personally and with care, and we aim to reply within one working day. Fees are discussed in the first conversation.