Dr Tanya Rawlinson is a Clinical Psychologist specialising in assessment and therapy with children and young people. She works with a range of psychological issues relating to social communication, emotional, physical and/or learning difficulties. .

Therapeutic support: Tanya's child-centred approach engages children creatively supporting them to feel at ease. She gently encourages the motivations of the child or young person through exploring their own goals, wishes and values. For younger children she uses play-based strategies and consultation with parents to support the child's engagement and social development. Tanya is especially interested in supporting parents and families with their own expertise to assess the underlying causes of children's behaviour and explore positive solutions. She incorporates a range of approaches in her therapeutic work to suit each individual child and carefully considers the needs of sibling and parents as well. Approaches include Positive Behaviour Support, Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT), Attachment, Mindfulness/Acceptance & Narrative Therapy. Tanya works sensitively with children/young people, families and professionals to make sense of difficulties, supporting a shared understanding and positive ways forward. .

Complex assessment: Tanya is skilled at autism/neurodiversity diagnosis including assessment of children presenting with unclear combinations of emotional, learning and/or social communication difficulties. She draws on social and psychological factors as well as cognitive and educational assessment (where appropriate) to piece together different aspectsof a childs' development. The resulting report provides a comprehensive 'snapshot' of the child's strengths, difficulties and needs and most importantly promotes their potential. Tanya is trained in administering standardised assessments for autism such as ADOS and 3Di (both recognised in NICE guidelines). .

Other information: Tanya has a background in behaviour support services for children with autism and has over fifteen years experience in this field. She additionally completed her doctoral research on the coping and perspectives of parents of children with autism. She holds a highly specialist position within NHS Paediatric services and has also worked in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS). Tanya has been involved in developing strategy and services locally for autistic children, she is qualified as an Earlybird Trainer (National Autistic Society programme for parents following diagnosis) and delivers these programmes locally.