Mary Rennison

I work 

Mondays 3.30pm till 6.30pm

Tuesday and Wednesdays

I am an experienced Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist MSc, Reg. MBACP (Accred) experienced with  working with teenagers and children in a variety of different settings. I aim to work flexibly to create a warm, caring and friendly environment to enable young people to think and work through the issues they maybe facing in order to bring about lasting change.

My Private practise is based In Peckham / East Dulwich, near Goose Green, where I have a small warm and comfortable therapy room.  I  work with children, young people up to the age of 24 and also do parent work. 

I have experience working with anxiety, depression, low self esteem ( I have an interest in how dyslexia can effect mental health in young people) and identity , bereavement, panic attaks, ADHD, ASD / autistic traits and any other issue that young people might face. I am always happy to support parents as they seek to find the right treatment for their child and refer on where necessary. I also offer parenting sessions for those moments when parents just need advice from a professionals about their child.

Each session is 50 minutes long. I usually suggest that we work in blocks of 6 sessions with a review at the end of a block. 

In a first session  50 minute assessment session I ask young people to be accompanied by a parent or carer. This first session is an opportunity for you to see if I am someone who is going to be able to work well with you/ your child or young person. I aim to make this first meeting as comfortable as possible. I lay out how I work and  ask you to explain to me what has made you seek out therapy. I always ask parents and carers to leave in the second half of a session to the young persons and I can talk on our own where that feels appropriate. 

After that first session I ask you to go away a chat about how it went and commit to see me for 6 sessions. 

Tuesdays and Wednesdays 

My Supervisory Approach rests on my training and experience as a Child and Adolescent Psychodynamic Psychotherapist. Since my MSc in Psychodynamic Psychotherapy with Children and Adolescents 12 years ago I have worked with children and young people in schools, for a charity working with homeless young people and in my private practise. 

I am currently coming to the end of my Level 6 Cert in therapeutic counselling certified by CPCAB ( counselling and Psychotherapy Central Awarding Body) undertaken with Place2Be.  Because I think supervision is so vital to work as a therapist i think training in supervision is important. 

As a supervisor I use that psychodynamic, psychotherapeutic, client focus to inform work with supervisees within a relational model (Sarnat, 2016). I believe supervision to be a balance of ‘holding’ the supervisee whilst maintaining their focus on the client.  Supervision is offering the Supervisee a safe ‘island’  where thinking can take place in a creative , thoughtful and sometimes playful environment 

To provide structure to the supervision I use the 7 eyed model of supervision (Hawkins & Shohet, 2003) which works as a scaffolding to hold all the complex strands together and enable thinking about the client, about the relationships within each pairing in the tirade, the wider context and to help think about practitioners’ interventions with their client. The 7 lenses mean that each aspect and layer of the supervision and relationships are explored within a safe boundary 

I have always looked forward to and valued my supervision space. A safe space to think, talk, formulate and play with ideas in order to make my work as a therapist  develop and focus on the needs of my clients. That what I seek to offer my supervisees. 

 The Supervisee brings first-hand knowledge of the client and as the supervisor I bring my knowledge and experience in order that we can work collaboratively to bring understanding within the supervisee- client relationship. It is a joint collaborative enterprise with a fixed task focused on the client. 

Our first session is a chance to see if we are a good match for working together and  for me to understanding your setting and how you work. I like to start with an informal phone chat before the first session to answer any questions or concerns you may have.