How a Child Psychologist can support your child through big emotions and growing challenges

Childhood is a time of rapid development—physically, emotionally, and socially. While most children navigate these changes with curiosity and resilience, some may find themselves overwhelmed by big feelings, tricky behaviours, or sudden life changes. A child psychologist can help.

At Rose Park Psychology, we offer a safe, playful, and nurturing space where children can express themselves, learn to understand their emotions, and build skills to manage life’s ups and downs. Our child psychologists use gentle, evidence-based approaches tailored to your child’s unique needs and developmental stage.

Common Reasons Children Come to Therapy

Parents often reach out when they notice changes in their child’s emotions or behaviour. Some of the common concerns we help with include:

• Separation anxiety or generalised anxiety
• Behavioural challenges or frequent meltdowns
• Emotional dysregulation and big feelings
• Social difficulties or trouble making friends
• Attention and concentration issues (including ADHD)
• School refusal or learning challenges
• Low self-esteem or perfectionism
• Coping with family changes (e.g., divorce, new sibling, relocation)
• Grief and loss
• Recovery from trauma or difficult experiences

How Our Psychologists Help Children Thrive

Children communicate their inner world differently from adults—often through play, storytelling, and creativity. Our psychologists use evidence-based approaches adapted for young minds, including:

• Play Therapy – helping children explore feelings and experiences in a safe and symbolic way
• Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) – adapted to build practical coping skills through games, visuals, and storytelling.
• Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) – teaching children to notice feelings, accept tricky thoughts, and take helpful actions
• Emotion Coaching and Regulation Tools – teaching children how to recognise and manage their emotions.

• Parent-only sessions for strategy building and support with a child psychologist
• Joint parent-child sessions to strengthen connection
• Regular check-ins to track progress and share tools for home
• We believe therapy works best when caregivers feel informed, empowered, and involved.

Each session is tailored to your child’s personality, pace, and needs—helping them feel safe, understood, and supported.

Our most available practitioner is an extraordinarily experienced social worker who has worked with children and their families in several settings, including the education department and other government departments.  Julie Henderson is warm, forms great rapport and understands the difficulty of many different situations.

Working Together With Families. 

We work closely with parents and caregivers to support positive change at home. Depending on your child’s age and needs, sessions may involve:

• Parent-only sessions for strategy building and support
• Joint parent-child sessions to strengthen connection
• Regular check-ins to track progress and share tools for home

We have a range of psychologists who see children and offer the following services, each with different funding.

Medicare Rebates for a Child Psychologist

You can visit your GP and obtain a Mental Health Care Plan. In total, 10 sessions are available, starting with 6 available sessions with the Medicare refund. After 6 sessions, the GP will review and decide whether another 4 sessions are available. We ask that the parent attend a session without the child, so they can provide valuable information to the psychologists. This session and one other can be used toward the child’s entitlement to the Medicare rebate, and one other can be used as well, making two sessions. Some parents opt to have a privately paid session with the psychologist, not claiming the child’s Medicare rebate, either just paying privately or using private health cover.

NDIS funding for a Child Psychologist

Our psychologists see children with NDIS funding, who are self- or plan-managed. See our webpage for NDIS psychologists

For more information about autism see https://www.autismawareness.com.au/

For more information about NDIS see here

ADHD and a child psychologist

For more information, check our page on ADHD assessment

Lesley Golley sees children where the primary issue is ADHD . She works with parents who would like to learn strategies to help them manage their child’s behaviour and support their best achievement. See the following links: ADHD Parent Coaching Program

Gender Dysphoria

Our psychologists provide support to individuals who are seeing gender affirming therapy. For an in-house session, please call us on (08) 8333 0940, and we can guide you to a psychologist.

Caitlin Waldie provides gender affirming therapy by telehealth 

Get Started Today – for booking information

Reach out today to book an appointment or find out how we can support your child’s emotional wellbeing.

Call us on (08) 8333 0940 or contact us by email.

FAQs – Child Psychologist Adelaide

1. When should my child see a child psychologist?
   You may consider seeing a child psychologist if your child is experiencing ongoing anxiety, frequent meltdowns, behavioural challenges, emotional difficulties, social problems, school refusal, low self-esteem, grief, trauma, or difficulty coping with major life changes. Your child may also be showing traits of ADHD and/or autism.
2. What issues can a child psychologist help with?
   A child psychologist can support children with anxiety, behavioural challenges, emotional dysregulation, social difficulties, attention and concentration issues, ADHDand ASD related concerns, school refusal, learning challenges, low self-esteem, family changes, grief, and difficult experiences.
3. How can a child psychologist help with anxiety and big emotions?
   A child psychologist can help children understand their emotions and develop practical skills to manage anxiety and big feelings. Therapy can be adapted to the child’s age and may include play, storytelling, creativity and other evidence-based approaches.
4. Can a child psychologist help with behavioural problems and meltdowns?
   Yes. Our psychologists can work with children and parents to better understand challenging behaviours and develop strategies to help children manage their emotions and behaviour. Parents can also learn practical strategies to use at home.
5. What happens during a child psychology session?
   Sessions are tailored to your child’s age, personality and needs. Depending on the child, sessions may involve play, storytelling, creativity, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), emotion regulation tools, or parent-child sessions.
6. Do parents need to be involved in their child’s therapy?
   Parents and caregivers can be an important part of the process. Depending on your child’s needs, sessions may include parent-only appointments, joint parent-child sessions and regular check-ins to help parents support their child at home. A child psychologist can work with parents to make sure that they know the parenting skills that will best encourage the best possible outcomes for the child.
7. Can you provide ADHD support for children?
   Yes. Rose Park Psychology provides ADHD-related support for children. This can include ADHD assessment and parent coaching to help parents understand and manage their child’s behaviour and support their development.
8. Can I get a Medicare rebate for child psychology?
   You may be eligible for a Medicare rebate through a Mental Health Care Plan. The page states that six sessions are initially available, with the possibility of four additional sessions following a GP review. Please speak with your GP about your eligibility. Private health cover rebates apply.
9. Do you offer NDIS-funded psychology services for children?
   Yes. Rose Park Psychology sees children with NDIS funding who are self-managed or plan-managed. More information is available through the NDIS psychologists service page.
10. How do I choose the right child psychologist in Adelaide for my child?
    Consider a psychologist’s experience with children, their approach to therapy and whether they offer support that suits your child’s individual needs. At Rose Park Psychology, sessions are tailored to each child, with a focus on helping them feel safe, understood and supported.