Jobs for clinical psychologists IT happened so quickly.

One minute she was happily walking home from school, the next she was being grabbed from behind, a hand was pulled tight across her mouth, a voice in her ear threatened to slit her throat if she didn't hand over her mobile.

Months later, the extreme feelings of panic are still with her whenever she walks down the street. But which experts can help her, and exactly how can they do so?

She is only 10 years old.

Within the Michael Rutter Centre for Children and Young People at Maudsley Hospital in Camberwell, lies the Child Traumatic Stress Clinic. This provides a highly specialised service to children aged between three and 18 who are suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and anxiety as a result of being caught up in frightening events. These range from car and rail crashes, and industrial accidents, to bullying, and violent crime, the latter increasing all the time if we go by recent news reports.

"We basically deal with anything that can happen to you in South London," says clinical psychologist Dr Sean Perrin, who makes up the small team along with clinical psychologist Dr Patrick Smith and consultant child psychologist Professor William Yule.

Despite the severity of their cases, Perrin is optimistic because, he says: "The symptoms that arise in the aftermath of trauma are very treatable, and it's a wonderful experience to help them reclaim their lives."

Before starting at the clinic seven years ago, and armed with a postdoctoral fellowship in childhood anxiety disorders, Perrin, 38, worked in Bosnia.

Through UNICEF, he helped treat children traumatised by war.

Today, he sees referrals from accident and emergency departments, GPs, and more recently from family liaison officers too.

But he says, too many anxious and traumatised children still go unrecognised because initial symptoms are not always apparent. GPs and mental health professionals, he says, often fail to ask how those who have been involved in traumatic events are doing psychologically.

"Other people can't see you worrying, they can't be inside your head when you're having a panic attack.

No one notices until the problem becomes so bad that the child has nightmares or, for example, wets the bed.

Then there's the compounding problem of parents thinking that the best thing is to 'just get on with life, and push the memory out of your head'.

So we have to explain to them that that has the paradoxical effect of actually keeping it there."

After a thorough assessment that links symptoms with different anxiety and panic disorders, Perrin will start treatment. He gets the child to "revisit" the trauma in a way that feels safe so he or she can "gain some mastery over the memory, and then put it to bed".

They help the child to describe his or her experiences by way of "a verbal, written and drawing narrative so they have some way of integrating it in a cohesive story with a beginning, middle, and end".

The psychologists also encourage them to confront the fear of the trauma and any physical reminders of it such as the exact street in which they had a gun pointed to their head.

Perrin stresses that the treatment options depend on both the child and the nature of the trauma and are based on group and individual cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). This concentrates on the here and now with the aim of enabling the child to build up practical and effective skills to cope.

For instance, a toddler who starts to become afraid of the dark may be taught relaxation exercises and positive imagery techniques where they are encouraged to imagine they are at the beach relaxing, with the Due to a national shortage, job opportunities for clinical psychologists are very good. You need a psychology degree and relevant experience, such as working as a care assistant, is important, too. For more information contact: www.bps.org.uk/ clinical (British Psychological Society), and www.leeds.ac.uk/ chpccp (clearing house for postgraduate courses in clinical psychology). The Child Traumatic Stress Clinic can be contacted on 020 7836 5454, extension 0255.

warmth of their duvet being the comfort of the sun. The parents are encouraged to learn how to act as a kind of co-therapist.

"The great thing about kids is that they are very open. It's fun and they get better," says Perrin. "But you need to be able to analyse problems quickly, and be confident about confronting things which are scary to work [with] in this area. If you get turned off by hearing someone describe a murder or something, then you don't want to be doing what I'm doing."

This Article has been submitted by the Jeremy's Prophecy Dot Com team for informational and educational purposes. Jeremy's Prophecy Dot Com is a website dedicated to telling the story of Jeremy Jacobs, a character in the novel, Jeremy's Prophecy Dot Com.