At Beacon House, we are passionate about offering therapy for children, families and adults that is accessible, inclusive and convenient. We understand that for many people, committing to weekly appointments in person is just not possible, and so we are proud to also offer our child and family service and our specialist child & family trauma service online.

Is online therapy right for me?

There is exciting and growing research showing that for many young people, families and adults, online therapy is just as effective as face-to-face therapy, and with a variety of added benefits. These include:

  • Being in the safety and comfort of your own home (or another safe space you choose to meet with your therapist). This can be particularly helpful if you or your child find it stressful to visit new environments or if it is not practical for you to attend in person because of work or childcare commitments.
  • Children and teens are often more comfortable with screen conversations, than meeting a therapist in person. It can be a simple and creative way to engage young people who otherwise would not feel able to engage.
  • Children who are neurodiverse can sometimes find face to face interaction more distressing than online interaction, and this way of working means we are more accessible for this group of young people.
  • We work with many clients who have physical disabilities and for whom travelling to their appointment would be challenging. By working with one of our therapists online, such barriers to access are removed.
  • Often life circumstances change – perhaps you go to university; relocate to a new part of the country or take a holiday. With online therapy, we are able to offer you continuity wherever you are.

What can online therapy help with?

Online therapy can help with a wide variety of struggles experienced by children, young people and their parents. Take a look at our Child & Family Service page for more information about the breadth of difficulties we support. You can also read here about our ethos and philosophy. At a quick glance, online therapy with your child can be very helpful for:

  • Anxiety
  • Low self-esteem
  • Low mood or depression
  • Emotional dysregulation
  • Self-harm
  • Traumatic stress
  • School anxiety
  • Family conflict
  • Exam stress
  • Struggles with LGBTQ+ and gender identities
  • Loss and grief
  • Sensory difficulties

At Beacon House we believe whole heartedly that often the most effective way to support children and young people to grow and heal is through working with the adults that love and support them. We see, again and again, how changes in the emotional well-being of parents, shifts in parenting strategies or healing in the co-parenting relationship can mobilise deep and long-lasting changes for the child without the child even having therapy of their own.

This fits beautifully with online working where we can offer:

  • Online therapy with you as parents only
  • Direct online therapy with your child; alongside separate online sessions with you as parents
  • Online therapy with you and your child together

How much does online therapy cost?

We begin all our therapy with a brief therapeutic needs assessment to help us understand your child’s needs and make a plan for how we can help. Our brief assessment costs a total of £405 and involves:

  • 1 online 50-minute session with you as parent(s) alone – £135
  • 1 online 50-minute session with your child alone (and often with you present for part of it) – £135
  • A brief written summary describing the key concerns, and a therapeutic plan – £135

Following this assessment phase, all ongoing sessions cost £135, and we ask you to pre-pay via our website page 48 hours before the appointment.

We accept Bupa, Aviva and WPA funded referrals. We are sorry that we do not accept Axa or Vitality.

Please note that if your child’s difficulties are complex, or they have a big network of professionals around them who need to be included in the assessment phase, we may recommend an extended assessment which comes with additional fees.

When is online therapy not advised?

It is important to know that online therapy is not suitable for everybody. We take great care in your child’s assessment to understand if therapy online is a good fit. Here are some situations where we would not recommend online therapy:

  • If your child would struggle to express themselves online, and would be much better able to open up in person with a therapist.
  • If their emotional distress and developmental needs are complex and multi-faceted, and especially if they are also at risk of self-harm or suicidal thoughts and/or acts.
  • If they do not have access to a reliable and private digital device and good Wi-Fi at the times of their therapy sessions.
  • If your child has experienced complex early trauma often the most helpful way of working is relational, which means that being physically in the room with your child is very important for their healing.
  • Some children (often, but not only – younger ones) really do need to be able to move and play creatively in their therapy and rely less on talking. When this is true, face to face, in person therapy is much more effective.

How is online therapy delivered?

Online therapy is offered usually once a week at the same time, for 50 mins per session. We use either Zoom, Skype or Microsoft Teams, depending on your/your therapist’s preference. Your therapist will send you or your child a link 5 minutes before the session start time.

Is online therapy secure and confidential?

We take your privacy and data protection very seriously, and we have a number of measures in place across our whole service to ensure that your data is protected. Please see our general privacy policy here. With online therapy, we draw on a number of security features which ensure a high level of privacy. This includes the use of:

  • A waiting room so only permitted people can join
  • Password protected meetings
  • Disabling of the recording function, unless specifically agreed with you
  • End to end encryption of one-to-one video calls

What else do I need to know about online therapy?

With online therapy we need to take some extra steps to make sure that you and your child are both safe and have privacy for the therapy sessions. We ask you to sign an online therapy agreement, which includes a commitment to:

  • Ensure that online therapy takes place in a private and comfortable setting, with strong, reliable Wi-Fi. Use of headphones may increase your privacy.
  • Not record your therapy sessions, unless this is explicitly agreed with your therapist.
  • Have a trusted adult available to support your child at the end of the session and to transition out of the therapy time.
  • Have an adult with parental responsibility available during and after the session in case we need to make contact with you about any safety or risk concerns that come up in the session.
  • Not have any one in the room that the therapist is unaware of.

Do you offer an adult online therapy service?

For information about adult service please see here; and for our specialist adult trauma service please see here.

How do I refer for online therapy?

If you would like to refer either yourself or your child for online therapy, simply:

Fill out our child & family self-referral form

Call us on 01444 413 939 or

Email us on referrals@beaconhouse.org.uk

Getting in Touch

If you have any questions about our services please feel free to pick up the phone to us on 01444 413 939 or send us an email on admin@beaconhouse.org.uk, we welcome informal conversations about whether we are the right service for you. To make a referral please click here.