Child Psychotherapists Needed

We're looking for Child-Psychotherapists/ Ocupational Therapists specialising in autism

Our therapists are at the very heart of our charity, looking after our families and delivering the support that will transform their lives.

We try to intervene very early for autistic children to unlock their true potential from the earliest possible age.  Our distinctive and empowering perspective on autism, is introduced in our TED talk (see video) and in our extensive selection of articles.

Our TED talk, The Beautiful Reality of Autism, outlines our unique and empowering perspective on Autism.

Our work is not about behaviour modification.  Uniquely, we focus on relationships and emphasise the importance of truly recognising the needs that autistic children are communicating to us, and responding to them in a way that makes them feel understood, safe and looked after, and reduces their anxiety, resulting in happier, more balanced children who can use their valuable energies to focus on their own growth, development and resilience rather than on having to deal with unnecessary adversity.

All of our therapists should resonate with our perspective on autism as introduced in our TED talk, and with the associated developmental approach, as this is at the heart of our charity.  They should also be able to communicate effectively, clearly and simply with parents and others.

Our therapists are paid a very competitive rate for the charity sector for their therapeutic work.  Beyond this work, we do expect our therapists to feel themselves a part of our volunteer team too.  We do not necessarily expect much time or work on this basis (unless that it desired, in which case it will be very welcome) as we understand how busy therapists can be, but at least to pro-actively communicate with the team through occasional meetings, (virtual) team gatherings and WhatsApp/Facebook groups that we have.

Read more about our services below and in the links provided, and then Register your interest in joining us.

FIRST STEPS

This is our first direct face-to-face service to families with young children (below 4) who are diagnosed with autism or likely to be autistic, which we have recently started delivering.  Each familiy undergoes a thorough assessment with our Lead Therapist before being admitted to the programme.  The few families that we have so far provided services to have all been extremely happy with the changes they have brought about.

The programme was created in association with Norland College in Bath, a prominent and highly regarded early years provider, and so has strong credibility as well as being firmly rooted in our own understanding of autism and on the importance of providing a safe environment and building a strong, trust-based relationship between parent and child.

Currently, we're delivering this service in a limited number of areas, though this will expand over time.

Find out more about our First Steps Programme.

VIRTUAL PARENT GROUPS

Our next step, due to launch in autumn 2023, will be to make the insights and understanding that we impart in First Steps, available to a greater range of families across the whole of the UK through virtual groups, each led by a Senior Therapist and supported by an Occupational Therapist.

While this will not involve the intensive, personal hand-on support that First Steps provides, it will give families access to many of the same insights, and support over a 12 week period as they begin to implement these in their family's life.

 

WEBINARS

We're about to relaunch our Webinars for parents, to give them guidance and answer their questions on various aspects of bringing up their children.

We're looking to expand and develop these over time to make them as beneficial as possible to as many families with young autistic children.  They will be delivered in various formats, including:

A TAP Webinar: Building Strong Relationships

  • Presentations on various topics, followed by parent questions
  • Live or Recorded Q&A Sessions
  • In-Depth Interviews with a therapist about particular topics
  • Possible sessions dedicated to a single family's situation
  • Guest-therapists to present occasional webinars

Therapists who present these webinars (as with all our services) will need to resonate deeply with our approach to autism, and to be able to communicate clearly, very simply and from the parents' perspective.

MIFNE

Our approach to autism is inspired by that of the pioneering Mifne Clinic in Israel, who we have been in discussions with and which has transformed the lives of hundreds of autistic children from as young as a few months old up to toddlers for the past 30 years (including the son and family of our CEO).  Over the longer term, we hope together to bring to the UK this compassionate attachment-based method that respects and builds on each child’s inner-resources and natural interest in the world, and evokes the best within them.

A 3-week family-based intensive treatment at the clinic opens up new unsuspected possibilities for the child and equips parents (with ongoing supervision) to continue treatment as part of the child’s life.

The Clinic has treated hundreds of children and their families with excellent results (Apter et al., 2001) (Alonim et al., 2004, 2011, 2010, 2007).

Find out more about our Mifne Centre.

 

NEXT STEP:

Click to Register your interest with our Recruitment team

This news report from Israel TV follows one family during their visit to Mifne to show their transformation.

WE ARE CURRENTLY LOOKING FOR:

We are looking for therapists who feel confident delivering the Virtual Parent Groups as described above, and who are able to present in a compelling, informative, simple way, taking a parents' point of view for our new webinar series.  We are especially looking for an Assistant Lead for our therapist team.  This will involve, if desired, delivering therapy in various forms as described above on a paid basis, but also providing on a voluntary basis logistical management to our therapist team - looking after our therapists and managing some of the communication between them and the other volunteers on the team who are organising the services.

We currently have a full complement of therapists for our First Steps programme, though will at some point in the not too distant future be looking to expand to other areas, probably in the South East initially, so do feel free to register your interest if this really resonates with you.