Lara Glantz is a child and adolescent psychotherapist and registered social worker. She completed her MA in Psychodynamic Psychotherapy with Children and Adolescents at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust and is an accredited member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP). Prior to her psychotherapy training, Lara completed a Master’s degree in Gender Studies with Distinction.
Lara has extensive experience working with children, adolescents and families across NHS CAMHS, schools, statutory social care and specialist adolescent services. Her background as both a psychotherapist and social worker has given her a particular understanding of young people within the wider context of their relationships, families, schools and communities. She takes a psychodynamic approach to her work, providing a thoughtful and non-judgemental space in which children and young people can begin to make sense of their emotions, relationships and experiences.
Lara has a particular interest in working with adolescents who may be harder to reach or engage through more traditional services. This includes young people who are out of education, struggling to engage with the adults or services around them, or communicating their distress through behaviour that others may experience as challenging. She understands these behaviours as meaningful forms of communication and works at the young person’s pace to build trust, curiosity and a sense of safety within the therapeutic relationship.
Alongside this, Lara commonly works with depression, anxiety, bereavement and loss, and young people living with illness or difficulties within their family. She has a particular interest in questions of identity, including gender and sexuality, and in working with neurodivergent children and young people. Her approach is intersectional, considering neurodiversity and emotional wellbeing alongside the many different aspects of a young person’s identity, relationships and lived experience rather than understanding these in isolation.
Lara works with children and young people across childhood and adolescence and into young adulthood. Alongside individual psychotherapy, she offers parent work and consultations, recognising the important role parents and caregivers can play in understanding and supporting a young person’s emotional world. Her approach is collaborative and individually tailored, with an emphasis on creating a therapeutic relationship in which children, young people and families can feel understood, supported and able to explore experiences that may previously have been difficult to put into words.
