Why Choose Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy for Children, Teenagers and Young Adults?
- Ben French
- Jul 6
- 5 min read
Psychoanalytic psychotherapy treats every child, teenager and young adult as a unique individual, recognising that no two people experience emotional difficulties in exactly the same way.
Rather than focusing only on symptoms or diagnoses, psychoanalytic psychotherapy explores the place a difficulty has in a young person's life, recognising that every symptom is shaped by that individual's unique history, relationships and experiences.
The therapeutic relationship is active, thoughtful and purposeful. Therapy involves far more than simply listening. It draws on specialist knowledge of child development, relationships, emotional development and unconscious processes to help young people develop a deeper understanding of themselves and their difficulties.
Child and Adolescent Psychoanalytic Psychotherapists undertake one of the longest and most rigorous clinical trainings in the mental health professions, including years of personal psychoanalysis, infant observation, intensive academic study and supervised clinical practice.
Psychoanalytic Child and Adolescent Psychotherapists have worked within specialist NHS CAMHS services for many decades, particularly with trauma, developmental difficulties and complex emotional presentations.
Working with children, teenagers and young adults (approximately ages 2 to 25) offers a unique opportunity for lasting change, supporting emotional development during some of the most important years of life and helping to build foundations that can benefit a person throughout adulthood.
The goal is not simply to help a young person feel better, but to help them become freer to think, learn, relate to others and develop into themselves.
"Every child, teenager and young adult has a unique story. Before we can help them change, we first need to understand what that story is."
When young people struggle emotionally, adults naturally look for answers.
Is it anxiety?
Autism?
ADHD?
Depression?
Trauma?
A behavioural problem?
These questions matter. Diagnoses can help professionals communicate, guide support and enable families to access services.
But there is another question that is just as important.
Who is this particular child or young person?
This question sits at the heart of psychoanalytic psychotherapy.
Because while two people may share the same diagnosis, no two have lived the same life.
No two have the same relationships.
No two experience the world in quite the same way.
That means no symptom ever has exactly the same meaning twice.
More Than Symptom Reduction
When a young person is anxious, refusing school, self-harming, withdrawing from friends or struggling to cope, it is completely understandable to want those difficulties to disappear as quickly as possible.
But symptoms do not simply appear out of nowhere.
They often develop for a reason.
Sometimes they protect a young person from feelings that seem impossible to bear.
Sometimes they communicate something that has never been put into words.
Sometimes they emerge at moments of significant developmental change, when a child or young person is struggling with questions of identity, relationships or growing independence.
Psychoanalytic psychotherapy does not assume we already know which of these is true.
Instead, we remain curious.
The aim is not simply to remove the symptom but to understand why it became necessary in the first place.
When that understanding develops, change is often deeper and more enduring than simply learning ways to manage distress.
Every Child, Teenager and Young Adult Is Different
One of the central ideas in psychoanalytic psychotherapy is that every person is unique.
Modern healthcare understandably relies on diagnoses.
Research needs categories.
Schools need reports.
Services need pathways.
But people do not live as categories.
They live as individuals.
Two teenagers may both have panic attacks.
One may be terrified of disappointing everyone around them.
Another may be struggling with the emotional task of separating from their parents.
A third may be carrying experiences of loss that have never been spoken about.
The panic attack may look identical.
Its meaning may be completely different.
Rather than asking,
"What treatment works for anxiety?"
psychoanalytic psychotherapy asks,
"What does this anxiety mean for this particular person?"
That is why therapy is never one size fits all.
Why Does Talking Help?
This is a question I am often asked.
The answer is that therapy is far more than simply talking.
The relationship itself becomes a place where patterns that exist outside the consulting room can begin to emerge and be understood.
A child may show through play something they cannot yet explain.
A teenager may repeatedly describe feeling misunderstood without realising how often they expect others to mishear them.
A young adult may begin to notice patterns in relationships that have been present for years but have never been recognised.
The therapist is not simply listening sympathetically.
They are thinking continuously about development, relationships, unconscious communication, language, family dynamics and the emotional patterns that unfold within therapy itself.
Sometimes an observation or interpretation offered at the right moment can help someone see themselves in an entirely new way.
Therapeutic change comes not from advice or techniques alone, but from developing a different understanding of oneself and one's relationships.
A Different Kind of Training
Child and Adolescent Psychoanalytic Psychotherapists undertake one of the longest and most intensive clinical trainings within the mental health professions.
The training is not simply about learning theories.
It is about learning how to think.
Students spend years studying child development, adolescence, attachment, psychoanalytic theory and clinical practice while working with children, teenagers, young adults and families under close supervision.
A distinctive part of the training is infant observation.
Over many months, trainees observe a baby within their family from the earliest weeks of life, developing a remarkable sensitivity to the ways emotional life begins long before language develops.
Equally important is the requirement to undertake many years of personal psychoanalysis or psychoanalytic psychotherapy.
This is central to the profession.
It helps therapists recognise their own assumptions and emotional responses so they can listen more openly to each person they meet.
The aim is not to become an expert who already knows the answers.
It is to become someone capable of thinking carefully with another person about experiences that may never have been fully understood before.
Why I Work With Ages 2 to 25
The years between early childhood and adulthood are extraordinary.
A toddler is learning to separate from their parents.
A child is discovering friendships and school.
An adolescent is negotiating identity, sexuality and independence.
A young adult is beginning to establish intimate relationships, work and a sense of direction in life.
Each stage brings new developmental tasks.
When emotional difficulties interrupt this process, they can shape how a person sees themselves for years to come.
Equally, thoughtful therapeutic work during these years can have lifelong benefits.
This is why I specialise in working with children, teenagers and young adults between approximately 2 and 25 years of age.
Psychological development does not stop at eighteen.
Many of the most significant emotional transitions continue well into early adulthood, making this a particularly valuable time for psychotherapy.
Working With Complexity
Psychoanalytic Child and Adolescent Psychotherapists have worked within NHS CAMHS for many decades, particularly with children and young people experiencing trauma, developmental difficulties, complex family situations, eating disorders, self-harm and presentations that cannot easily be understood through symptoms alone.
This tradition reflects an important principle.
Not every difficulty can be understood by looking at behaviour alone.
Sometimes the question is not, "What is wrong?"
It is,
"What has happened?"
or perhaps,
"What is this young person trying to tell us that has not yet been heard?"
Choosing the Right Therapy
Every family hopes their child will feel happier.
That matters enormously.
But I believe psychotherapy can offer something more.
Not simply fewer symptoms.
Greater freedom.
A stronger sense of self.
More satisfying relationships.
A greater capacity to think, learn, love and live.
Children, teenagers and young adults are still becoming who they are.
Supporting that process may be one of the most valuable investments a family can make, not only for the present, but for the many decades that lie ahead.
Interested in finding out more:
Written by Ben French BSc, C-Psych, C-Obs, MA Psych.
Ben French is a Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist and Psychoanalyst working with children, teenagers and young adults aged 2 to 25. He has over 15 years’ experience supporting young people’s mental health, including senior roles in CAMHS and education.
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