Katy Dingley

I currently have availability Tuesday-Friday daytime and some after school.

Welcome to Leaf Story, a creative, colourful, fun space in Letchworth (Near Hitchin), Hertfordshire, where children and young people can access the creative arts to enable and empower them to communicate and explore their feelings on a more accessible and profound level than through words alone.

Difficult and intense feelings can be confusing, disturbing or painful and if they are not thought about and worked through can spoil our relationships, interfere with our being able to function properly and bring too much unhappiness. Children and young people do not have sophisticated coping strategies for dealing with their intense or too difficult feelings or the inner resources for thinking through and regulating their levels of emotional arousal. This can lead to painful consequences including bullying, aggressive behaviour, learning difficulties, bed-wetting, soiling, separation anxiety, problems with concentrating, uncontrollable behaviour, hyper -activity, obsessions, phobias, sleeping problems, nightmares, eating disorders, a regular state of fear, anxiety or unhappiness.

The natural language of feeling for children and young people is that of image and metaphor which is why an arts based creative approach is fundamental to the way I work at Leaf Story. Creative arts media may include: Painting, messy play, sculpting, puppetry, drawing, sand tray play, music and dance.

I am a qualified Child and Adolescent Psychotherapeutic Counsellor. I trained for four years, graduating in 2021, at the Institute for Arts in Therapy and Education, whose work is recognised by the BACP and the UKCP and is the sister organisation of the internationally acclaimed Centre for Child Mental Health.

I follow an integrative approach, whereby developmental theories and neuroscience underpin my relational and child led approach to working.

If appropriate, I also incorporate breathwork and meditation into my sessions as well as my dog Ralph!

Alongside working with private clients from my therapy space at home, I am currently working therapeutically in a Primary school setting and also at an outdoor Alternative Provision where most of my clients are teenagers. I am a registered BACP member and have regular clinical supervision. I am fully insured, first aid trained and registered with the DBS update service.

Recent CPD that I have completed/are currently undertaking include:

CATT - Children’s Accelerated Trauma Training. An approach to working with and treating symptoms of C-PTSD (complex post- traumatic stress disorder)

Advanced Practitioner Certificate in Parent Child Therapy

Safeguarding and Child Protection in Private Practice

In the first instance I will ask parents to complete a referral form. Once I have received this and feel like I could be a suitable match I will offer a 20 minute phone consultation as an opportunity to ask any questions and discuss possible next steps. I will then invite parents in for a consultation where I will gather background information to support future work.