Heather Kemp
Training, qualifications and experience
Having first trained at the University of Exeter completing a BA in Theology, followed by a PGCE with a specialism in Early Years, I have spent the last 15 years as a teacher and as an Assistant Headteacher working in both an operational and pastoral capacity.
I then began training as a Parent-Infant Psychotherapist at the School of Infant Mental Health. Whilst carrying out this training I also qualified as a Creative Mindfulness Practitioner for Children and Parents, helping reduce the anxiety and stress of day to day life and helping to regulate emotions.
I am currently on a voluntary placement with the charity Place2Be working in a Primary school using a play therapy approach with children aged 3-11 years. I also work as a voluntary Parent-Infant Psychotherapist at the neonatal intensive care unit at Tunbridge Wells Hospital offering emotional support for parents and their babies.
I am a member of the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP) as a trainee psychotherapist and adhere to their code of ethics and standards.
I have completed training to equip me to work online or on the telephone with clients and now offer this service in addition to working face to face.
About the way I work
I offer a psychoanalytic approach with infants and parents. The aim is to relieve emotional disturbances within the parent(s) and in their interaction, for example, in postnatal depression and anxiety, infant distress and attachment disorders, through early intervention. Psychoanalytic therapy can provide help to clients by better understanding the unconscious factors that can play a role in their current behaviour, thoughts and emotions and understand the influence of the past on present behaviour.
I have completed all up to date and relevant training on safeguarding.