CFT for Children & Families: Adapting for Neurodivergent Young People

Dr Jen Swanston is a Clinical Psychologist specialising in working with children and young people. Jen is the Clinical Director of White Oaks Psychology service, which she set up in January 2025 to provide compassionate care to children and their families. At White Oaks, Jen supports a growing team of professionals providing therapy, parenting support and neurodevelopmental assessments to children and families. Since qualifying as a Clinical Psychologist over 14 years ago, Jen has worked both within the NHS as a highly specialist Clinical Psychologist and in private practice, setting up and running neuro-developmental and mental health services for young people. Jen’s special interest lies in applying Compassion Focused Therapy to supporting young people and their parents, with a variety of presentations and neurodevelopmental differences. She is the co-author of the Compassionate Parenting Workbook, which aims to provide support accessible to parents, who are unable to come to clinic. Jen also provides training and supervision in different areas, including how to apply compassionate practices in gymnastics, education and clinical practice.

Jen is trained in many therapeutic models including Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT), Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT).

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Dr Katherine Hodson is a Child & Adolescent Clinical Psychologist. She qualified in 2005 from the University of Oxford, and worked across different NHS services (including general CAMHS and the CAMHS-crisis service), plus within Oxford Social Care, having been trained in the Multidimensional Treatment-Foster Care (MTFC) approach in Oregon, America. Katherine moved into private practice in 2012. One of Katherine’s main areas of interest is Compassionate Focused Therapy, and she greatly utilises this approach within her clinical work, and when supervising fellow clinicians. Katherine is passionate about increasing awareness of compassionate approaches for all children, to protect them from developing stress, shame, and mental health difficulties as they develop. Therefore alongside clinical work, Katherine has been leading multiple training events at a community level, to support key figures within children's lives to understand and incorporate compassionate approaches into their interactions with young people. These training events have included: County wide SEND Governor and Headteacher training to raise CFT knowledge within education, training for coaches within extracurricular sports clubs, and training for the Royal Academy of Dance (RAD) on developing a ‘compassionate studio’ for their young dancers. Katherine has also co-authored a parenting book titled ‘Brighter Futures: A Parents’ Guide to Raising Happy, Confident Children in the Primary School Years’.