Marinella Valeri

I currently see clients on Thursdays and Fridays with daytime and early evenings available. Due to the nature of the work with younger children , under 11's are seen face to face , at my practice in Mill Hill ( Nw7 ).Older children, young people and parents and carers can be seen on-line or face to face. Please get in touch to check current availability.     

I trained and worked for many years within school-based counselling services, including with Place2Be, and bring that experience of understanding children within the context of their family, school, and wider relationships. 

My approach is collaborative and unhurried — I believe change happens best within a relationship that feels safe, consistent, and genuinely curious about the child or young person’s experience, at a pace that suits them.”

I work primarily from a psychodynamic perspective, drawing on Kleinian and object relations thinking alongside contemporary understanding of attachment and child development. With children, this often means working through play — allowing a child’s inner world, worries, and relationships to emerge and be understood in their own language, rather than through direct conversation alone.

I offer individual counselling for children and young people, and consultation sessions with the adults around the child, working from my private practice in Mill Hill, NW7, as well as online. I specialise in work with children and young people, drawing on over a decade’s experience in school-based and community counselling settings, including several years with Place2Be.

Sessions are available Thursdays and Fridays. Younger children (under 11) are seen face-to-face only; older children, young people, and adults can be seen in-person or online. A free 20-minute initial consultation is available to discuss what you’re looking for and whether we might be a good fit.

Evenings only Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Day time availability Thursday and Friday. Available on-line and face to face and at place of work if it is part of your course requirement.

I see the relationship as central to good supervision. I draw on humanistic, psychoanalytic, developmental and systemic thinking — including Hawkins and Shohet's Seven-Eyed model and Inskipp and Proctor's functional model — not as fixed procedures, but as different lenses for staying curious about the different contexts in which meaning can emerge.

Early on, if you are a trainee, this may mean offering attuned containment: reassurance, theoretical grounding, and normalising how disorienting it can feel to learn a different way of working. As confidence grows, supervision shifts to support more independent thinking — including the wider social, cultural and systemic context a child's life sits within, and the significance of non-verbal and unconscious  process to support understanding of the client's internal world.

Whatever stage you are at, I aim to offer a trusting, contracted space where questions, uncertainty and difficult feelings about the work can be brought without fear of being "closed down."

Attuned to your stage

The balance of support and challenge shifts as you develop — more containing early on, more focused on autonomous thinking as confidence and competence grow.

Held within the wider system

Safeguarding, organisational policy, cultural context and ethical practice are part of the frame from the first contracting conversation, not an afterthought.

Postgraduate experience

I am involved in Level 7 assessment processes for postgraduate counselling programmes.

I offer clinical supervision for trainee and qualified counsellors working with children and young people, available online or in person . My approach draws on humanistic, psychoanalytic and systemic thinking, informed by over a decade’s experience in school-based counselling with children — including several years with Place2Be — and as an assessor on postgraduate counselling programmes.

Alongside regular clinical supervision, I can support with training paperwork such as college or course reports, and help bridge theory to practice for those on postgraduate programmes. You can expect a thoughtful, collaborative space for genuine reflection on your clinical work, not just case management. 

The first session is an opportunity for us to meet, talk through your current work and context, and think about what you’re looking for from supervision - whether that’s regular clinical support, help with training paperwork such as college or course reports, or space to bridge theory and practice as part of a postgraduate programme.

It’s also a chance for you to get a sense of how I work and whether it feels like a good fit before committing to an ongoing arrangement.

Thank you !