Targeted Clinical Areas

The diagnosis of your child’s bowel or bladder condition may initially feel confronting and distressing for you and your family. It is completely normal for parents to feel a sense of grief which may include feelings of shock and fear. 

You may feel too scared to stop and think about how you feel as you are so focused on your baby’s care needs. 

Dr Kim has worked with many parents and families on their early adjustment. This may include telehealth sessions flexibly schedule to suit your care journey needs.

As part of treatment for some colorectal conditions, infants may require regular anal dilatations as directed by their surgical team. These procedures can sometimes be distressing for both infants and their parents.

Dr Kim has experience in infant mental health and supporting families navigating this stage of treatment. Psychological support focuses on helping parents feel more confident and supported when carrying out dilatations, while also supporting the infant’s emotional regulation and sense of safety during the procedure.

Dr Kim has also authored several resources designed to guide families through this stage of care. Shorter appointments (30 minutes) are available for parents who would like focused support around dilatation routines.

Children and adolescents may find aspects of their medical treatment stressful or challenging and this may lead to big emotions at home. 

Treatments may include oral medications such as laxatives, rectal-based treatments such as enemas, clean intermittent catheterisation (CIC), or appendicostomy washouts. 

Children may be responding to anxiety, discomfort, sensory sensitivities, previous medical experiences, or feelings of embarrassment or loss of control. Neurodevelopmental differences, such as ADHD or autism, can also make treatment routines more difficult to manage.

Psychological support focuses on understanding the underlying reasons for treatment difficulties and working collaboratively with families to develop practical and compassionate strategies that support engagement with care.

Support is offered for toilet training, toilet refusal or anxiety. It is very common for children to have strong feelings about doing a poo. It is also common to see some children withhold their stools. They may not have experienced  positive, safe feelings related to their bottom or stooling that may lead to avoidance.

Taking a developmental, trauma informed, and attachment focused approach we will work with you to form some strategies to help.

We offer assessment sessions that focus on psychological readiness for surgery.

These sessions provide an opportunity to explore you and your child’s understanding of the upcoming procedure, expectations about surgery, and any thoughts, worries or emotions that may affect coping and resilience.

Together, we may develop a supportive plan to help your child feel more prepared for the procedure and recovery period. This may include strategies for managing anxiety, supporting cooperation with medical care, and helping families feel more confident about what to expect.

Where appropriate, a procedural support plan can be shared with the treating medical team, and follow-up psychological support can be arranged after surgery.

Paediatric Medical Traumatic Stress (PMTS) has been defined as “a set of psychological and physiological responses of children to pain, injury, serious illness, medical procedures and invasive or frightening treatment experiences” (National Child Traumatic Stress Network).

Children are not the only ones affected by these experiences. Parents can also experience medical traumatic stress when supporting a child through illness, hospitalisation, repeated procedures or ongoing treatment. Feelings of fear, helplessness, worry, or ongoing stress responses are common and understandable.

Psychological support can help both children and parents process these experiences, rebuild a sense of safety and confidence, and support families in navigating ongoing medical care.

Children and adolescents may experience times when they feel "different" to peers or that they miss out on social activities because of their symptoms or treatment routines. Some children may have a colostomy or ileostomy and feel worried. 

At Colorectal Psychology we work with families to help their child and adolescent feel empowered and confident to manage their differences and see their beautiful strengths. 

Caring for a child with a complex bowel or bladder condition can be emotionally demanding at times. There may be a lot of worry and anxiety for parents wanting the best for their child. 

Support for parents may include sessions around:

• anxiety related to their child's complex medical care (admissions, treatments)
• managing treatment routines and their child's non-adherence/distress
• parents own medical trauma
• strengthening family wellbeing