Child & Adolescent Counselling

It is a structured conversation between a young person and a qualified mental health professional trained to work with that age group. It usually looks different from counselling with an adult — younger children often express themselves through play, drawing or activity rather than sustained conversation, while older teenagers may want something closer to an adult conversation. What happens depends on the practitioner’s training and approach, your child’s age, and what the family has come with.

Practitioners set that themselves, and the ranges differ — someone who works with young children may not work with older teenagers, and the reverse is just as common. LifeHetu does not publish a single age range on their behalf. Read how a practitioner describes their own work on their profile, and confirm directly with them that they see children of your child’s age before booking.

The practitioner you choose. The professionals listed on LifeHetu practise independently and are not employed by LifeHetu — LifeHetu lists them, lets you read their profiles, and handles the booking and payment. LifeHetu does not verify that a practitioner specialises in working with children, so review each profile for qualifications, years in practice and how they describe their own practice, and ask them directly.

A parent or legal guardian makes the booking. The booking form collects the contact details of the adult making it — a name, an email address and a WhatsApp number — so the confirmation and session details come to you. There is no separate field for your child’s details; who the sessions are for is something you tell the practitioner directly.

Yes. LifeHetu currently enables booking for online sessions only. You and your child connect remotely with the practitioner at the time you booked. If you would like to explore meeting in person later, that is something to discuss directly with the practitioner — LifeHetu does not currently manage in-person session booking.

That is set by the practitioner, not by LifeHetu, and it depends a great deal on your child’s age. With younger children, caregivers are often closely involved. With adolescents, practitioners frequently want part or all of the session to be the young person’s own, because a teenager who expects everything to be repeated at home may not say much that matters. Many practitioners agree at the outset what will be shared with you, what will stay between them and your child, and when they would tell you something regardless — such as where they believe a young person is at risk of serious harm. Ask in the first conversation.

It depends on your child’s age and on how the practitioner works. Some want a caregiver present, some want to see the child alone, and some do both at different points. Ask the practitioner what they prefer. For younger children, an adult nearby to settle them at the start is often useful even where the practitioner then speaks with the child alone.

There is no threshold your child has to cross first, and this page cannot tell you — nothing here is an assessment of your child. Children behave differently at different ages and during difficult periods, and many things resolve on their own. If something has persisted, is affecting school, sleep, eating or friendships, or you simply cannot settle your own concern, that is a reasonable thing to bring to a first conversation with a practitioner, including the question of whether counselling is the right step at all.

Read a few profiles and compare qualifications, years in practice, how each person describes their work, languages, the current fee and when they have time available — and check they work with your child’s age group. LifeHetu does not match you to a practitioner or assess which one suits your child. It is also reasonable to change your mind after a first conversation; fit matters more with a young person than with an adult, and a child who does not warm to one practitioner may do fine with another.

Both are on the practitioner’s profile. Fees are set by each practitioner and differ between practitioners and between the services they offer, so the fee shown is the one for child counselling with that person. Availability is drawn live from their own calendar.

There is no set number, and anyone who gives you one without knowing your child is guessing. It depends on what you have come with, what you are working towards, and how the practitioner works. Some families find a few conversations enough; others continue over a longer period.