Dr Lynne Amidon

Ms Amidon is a Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist and she gained her qualification as a child psychotherapist in 1999. She has extensive experience of working psychotherapeutically with looked after children, adolescents and parents and she has worked as an expert witness for the family courts since 2001. 

Thinking and talking with a therapist about their troubled thoughts and feelings can help children to put their experiences into words rather than acting on them. They are helped to make sense of their experience and to develop their potential in relationships and at school. The length and frequency of treatment will vary depending on the specific needs of your child; it can last from a few meetings over a period of weeks to regular weekly sessions over a number of years.

Another important part of the work is to support parents to help you make sense of your child’s behaviour and to think about the impact these problems may be having on the whole family, as well as providing an opportunity to explore different possibilities in parenting. Sometimes emotional problems can get in the way of a child’s development which could start as behavioural difficulties at school or at home, or they might become anxious, sad or depressed. Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy offers a number of therapeutic interventions to treat emotional distress and behavioural issues.

Ms Amidon works in  private practice, undertaking psychotherapy and court work, as well as in the  NHS. She previously worked for ten years at the Monroe Family Assessment Centre as a case consultant organising family assessments, and regularly attending court. Ms Amidon has also worked over the past 20 years as a clinical organisational consultant to a number of residential therapeutic units, both for adolescents and for primary aged children. She has worked as a clinician in a variety of settings, both in CAMHS and inpatient services --including the Tavistock Mulberry Bush Day Unit; the Adolescent Department at the Tavistock Clinic; and the Beacon Centre at Edgware Hospital, an adolescent inpatient unit.

She has supervised a wide range of students and taught on many courses at the Tavistock Clinic since the late 1990’s, including the MA and Doctorate level courses for child psychotherapy students, social workers, psychologists, SPR’s and teachers. She regularly supervises many child and adolescent psychotherapists in their work.