In light of the current focus on mental health and specifically the struggle to find clinicians to work in child and adolescent mental health, it seems timely to highlight a profession that has been available in New Zealand since the 1970s.
Child and adolescent psychotherapists are registered clinicians with a specialised scope of practice allowing the public to identify them as specifically trained to work with children and young people, in the context of their whanau.
Clinicians must meet requirements for continued professional development in order to obtain an annual practicing certificate.
Child and adolescent psychotherapists graduate with a Masters in Health Science and are able to offer specialised assessment and treatment for children and young people who are presenting with behavioural concerns, emotional distress and/or serious mental health difficulties.
A child psychotherapist has an in-depth understanding of childhood development across all domains and can offer relationally based talking therapies. Child psychotherapists are also able to use play as a means of understanding and working with the drivers of children’s behaviour or their symptoms, where a talking therapy is not possible or appropriate.
Currently Child and Adolescent Psychotherapists can be found working in infant mental health, CAMHS (Child & Adolescent Mental Health Services), Oranga Tamariki, the Ministry of Education, NGOs and private practice.
For further information go to nzacap.org.nz or email secretarynzacap@gmail.com.
Jo Doyle
President New Zealand Association of Child and Adolescent Psychotherapists
