As many organisations have focused on mental health of young people this last week as it was officially Children’s Mental Health Week, at Yorkshire Children’s Trust we have been particularly focusing on this over the last year, especially how their mental health is being affected by the three lockdown periods we have had.

We have seen an increase of instances of reports to our charity of children suffering from phobias, OCD and general anxiety with the Coronavirus pandemic or the lockdown periods being reported as the reasons by children and their parents.

Although for the safety of families and our team members we cannot see children directly in our counselling suite, we are actively providing free live video sessions, telephone support calls and worksheets to children and their parents to help support positive mental health, with the option of sessions in person being made available from March onwards. If you feel your family could benefit from support to help your child through the lockdown period, please call 01422 728080 and ask to speak to Sarah. Alternatively you can email her directly on sarah@yctrust458634513.wpcomstaging.com

Sarah has a background in social services and has undergone counselling retraining and ongoing personal development to be able to be in a position to be able to support children proactively with play therapies and person-centred counselling and CBT to lead to positive outcomes. Unlike some other organisations YCT do not limit you to a set number of sessions. We work with our clients to ensure they’re able to reach a natural conclusion and be in a strong position to deal with their ongoing concerns.

As we continue to have some availability for video counselling sessions, we are also opening up the booking calendar for counselling suite sessions from Monday 8th March onwards. If you would like more information on the types of support we offer and how we can help, please visit our counselling and play therapy information page here.