Growing Minds Therapy UK in Graylingwell Park: CBT for School Refusal, Social Anxiety, and the Struggles Nobody Talks About
There are some things parents find hard to say out loud. That their child hasn't been to school properly in weeks. That the morning routine has collapsed into tears and arguments and, eventually, a quiet defeat where everyone just gives up and goes back to bed. That their teenager won't go to parties, won't answer the phone, won't do anything that involves other people watching them. That the child who used to be so full of life now seems to be moving through the world behind glass — present, but somehow not there.
These aren't small problems. They're not phases that will sort themselves out. And they're not a reflection of bad parenting or a difficult child. They're signs that a young person is struggling with something real — something that has a name, and a treatment, and a genuine chance of getting better with the right support.
Growing Minds Therapy UK works with exactly these kinds of difficulties. Not the tidy, textbook versions — the messy, lived-in ones that don't always fit neatly into a category but are making your family's life genuinely hard.
The Practice and the Person Behind It
Growing Minds Therapy UK is based at The Pavilion, Connolly Way, Graylingwell Park, Chichester, PO19 6WD — a thoughtfully converted space in one of Chichester's most pleasant neighbourhoods. The practice is run by Melissa, a BABCP-accredited Child and Young Person CBT Psychotherapist with over 20 years of experience working with children and young people across education and NHS CAMHS settings.
Before specialising in therapy, Melissa trained as a primary school teacher and worked as a specialist wellbeing teacher, teaching mindfulness and yoga to children. That background shapes the way she works now. She knows how schools function, how peer pressure operates, how a young person's world is organised — and she knows how to meet a child or teenager where they actually are, rather than where a textbook says they should be.
Her clinical qualifications are substantial. She holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Evidence-Based Psychological Treatment for Children and Young People from the University of Reading, along with a Postgraduate Certificate in Advanced Clinical Practice and Supervision from the University of Southampton. She is registered with the BABCP, holds a full enhanced DBS certificate, attends regular clinical supervision, and is a clinical supervisor herself. She also keeps up to date with the latest child mental health research as standard.
All of which means that when you bring your child to Growing Minds Therapy UK, you're getting someone who genuinely knows what they're doing — and who has spent two decades caring about getting it right.
Social Anxiety, School Avoidance, and the Conditions in Between
Social anxiety is one of the most common — and most commonly missed — difficulties in young people. It's not shyness. It's not introversion. It's a persistent, overwhelming fear of being judged, embarrassed, or humiliated in social situations, and it can make ordinary life feel like a constant threat. A teenager with social anxiety might dread every lesson where they could be asked a question, avoid the lunch hall, stop replying to messages because the pressure of saying the right thing is too great. Over time, avoidance becomes the coping strategy — and avoidance always makes anxiety worse.
School refusal often grows in the same soil. It can start as stomach aches on Sunday evenings and become something much bigger: a young person who genuinely cannot make themselves walk through the school gates, no matter how much they want to. This is anxiety at work, not defiance. And Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, delivered by someone who understands both the clinical picture and the school environment, is one of the most effective responses to it.
Melissa works with social anxiety, school avoidance, general anxiety disorders, separation anxiety, phobias, panic, OCD, PTSD, and depression. She also works with the kind of presentation that doesn't fit neatly into one box — the young person who is anxious and low, avoidant and irritable, struggling at school and struggling at home, all at once. That complexity doesn't faze her. It's what she's trained for.
How CBT Works — and Why It's the Right Approach
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy is the treatment recommended by NICE for anxiety and depression in children and young people. It's the approach used across NHS CAMHS, and the evidence for its effectiveness is extensive. The core idea is that thoughts, feelings, and behaviours are all connected — and that by learning to notice and challenge unhelpful patterns, young people can change how they feel and what they're able to do.
In practice, that might look like a young person learning to recognise the thought that fires just before their anxiety spikes, and practising a different response. It might look like gradual, supported exposure to the situations they've been avoiding — not being thrown in at the deep end, but taking carefully planned steps with the confidence that comes from understanding what's happening and why. It might look like a parent learning how to respond in ways that help rather than accidentally reinforce the anxiety.
Melissa's approach is what she describes as "flexibility within fidelity." She uses approaches with strong evidence behind them — CBT, mindfulness for children, acceptance and commitment therapy, parent-guided programmes — while adapting everything to the individual young person. A nine-year-old and a seventeen-year-old need very different things from a therapist, even when the underlying difficulty is similar. Melissa has the range to work across that spectrum.
Getting Started: What to Expect
The first step is a free 20-minute telephone call. It costs nothing and commits you to nothing. It's simply a chance for Melissa to hear about your young person's situation, and for you to get a sense of whether this feels right. She's clear that the therapeutic relationship — the fit between therapist and young person — is one of the most important factors in whether therapy works. If she doesn't think she's the right match, she'll say so.
If you decide to go ahead, the next step is an initial assessment of up to 90 minutes. Melissa will gather a thorough picture of current symptoms, background, and day-to-day life, and will put together a formulation and a proposed plan. From there, sessions are typically weekly and last up to 55 minutes. Most young people work with Melissa for between eight and twenty sessions, followed by a period of practising and embedding the skills they've built.
Sessions are available face-to-face at the Chichester practice or remotely for families across West Sussex and South Hampshire. Melissa's hours work around school and work schedules — she's available on Thursdays from 8am to 8pm, on Mondays and Tuesdays from 5pm to 8pm, and on Saturday mornings from 9am to 1pm. Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday she is closed.
To get in touch, call +44 7913 129188. To read more about the approach, the qualifications, and what the process looks like from the first call to the final session, visit Growing Minds Therapy UK in Chichester (growingmindstherapy.co.uk). If your child is struggling, this is a good place to start.