Dominique Hawksley

Parent Infant Psychotherapist

Parent infant psychotherapy is an emotions based intervention for parents/families with children from conception to age five. 

​Parent infant psychotherapy can help identify, explore, and understand a range of issues including:

·         attachment difficulties

·         postnatal depression

·         feeding / weaning difficulties

·         sleep difficulties

·         anxiety

·         the impact of traumatic birth

·         experiences in NICU/SCBU

·         experiences of having a premature baby

·         separation difficulties

·         grief

​When working with babies and young children I see them together with their parents. Parents can take time to focus on their child and to learn more about how their baby tries to communicate feelings, and how best to respond to help their child feel understood. By playing together parents and babies find new ways to develop emotionally attuned, empathic relationships and strengthen the bonds of attachment between them.

​Parents are invited to consider the ways in which becoming/being a parent may differ in reality from their hopes or expectations, and how pregnancy, labour, or parenthood has impacted upon them. They are also encouraged to consider how their own experiences of being parented will inevitably affect their way of being a parent.

Both parents are invited to be involved in the work, though it is not a prerequisite. Single parent families are equally welcome. Siblings may also be included. Each individual family's make up, culture and beliefs are respected.

Please don’t hesitate to contact me should you wish to arrange an appointment, or to schedule a time to talk on the phone to discuss if parent infant psychotherapy might be helpful.

therapy@dominiquehawksley.uk

Experience

I have been working therapeutically with children and families for over twenty years, qualifying first as a social worker, then as an integrative child psychotherapist, and now training as a parent infant psychoanalytic psychotherapist. I have worked in a range of settings including the voluntary sector, the NHS (CAMHS), private clinics and my own private practice. I am currently the child therapist at a local independent school, and a volunteer parent infant psychotherapist with Cambridge HomeStart.

Qualifications / Professional registration

Diploma in Parent Infant Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy from the School of Infant Mental Health in London.

Masters degree in Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy from The Institute of Arts in Therapy and Education (IATE) London, graduated 2005.

I am registered with the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP) and adhere to their code of conduct.

I have professional indemnity insurance and a current DBS certificate. I attend annual safeguarding training.