In this section
The Parent Consultation Service
If you are a parent, and you are concerned about your child’s emotional well being, it can be helpful to talk things over with a qualified mental health professional.
We offer free, easily-accessed and expert advice to families of children living in our catchment area (see below). This service is available for expectant parents and for those with infants, children and young people up until age 18.
Our one-off telephone consultation (max. half an hour) for parents provides free, specialist advice and support on common difficulties that many families face.
Some reasons why families may contact us include:
- The challenges of new parenthood
- Tears and tempers in toddlers
- The impact on children of family disputes and arguments
- Anxiety and distress; including difficulties in being apart from parents
- Coping with loss, bereavement, separation or divorce
Who we help
Any family within central and North West London can use our free consultation service
The eleven London boroughs within our catchment area are:
- Barnet
- Brent
- Camden
- City of London
- Ealing
- Hammersmith & Fulham
- Haringey
- Harrow
- Islington
- Kensington & Chelsea
- Westminster
Our approach
We ask you to fill out a referral form prior to the consultation so that we can begin to think about your concerns before your call. During the consultation we will:
1. ask for your explanation of the difficulties and your understanding of why your child may be struggling.
2. think together about different possibilities for you and your family. During the discussion, we will make notes and following the consultation we will send you a letter summarising the key points from the conversation and any plans that we may make together.
3. Where further help is needed, we can give you advice on how to access appropriate services, including the Child Psychotherapy Service (CPS) or Mentalization Based Treatment for Families (MBT-F) at the Anna Freud Centre or other services elsewhere that may meet your needs more appropriately.
Feedback from parents about what was most helpful:
"Being able to talk to someone who understood the issues I had without feeling judged."
“Reassurance, after careful listening and consideration, that I was doing well enough.”
Contacting us
Contacting us is simple – just pick up the phone and call our administrator who will ask you to complete a brief referral form. Once you have returned this, we can arrange a convenient time for one of our team to call you. We aim to offer a consultation within a maximum of two weeks from first contact.
Please phone Natalie Merrett to arrange a consultation, on 020 7443 2230 or by email natalie.merrett@annafreud.org
The Family Support Services at the Anna Freud Centre are generously funded by John Lyon’s Charity, the Priory Foundation, the Bonita Trust and the Child in Mind Committee.
