Marie is a qualified Social Worker and Cognitive Behavioural therapist (CBT) and her work has been mainly with children and adolescents. Marie is registered with Social Work England as well as an accredited CBT therapist with BABCP (British Association for Behavioural & Cognitive Psychotherapies).
As a therapist, Marie has worked for many years with children and adolescents who have been sexually abused, suffered from complex trauma or experienced other kinds of trauma and/or who have displayed harmful sexual behaviours. Over the last few years, the client group increased to include: deliberate self-harm; suicidal thoughts; depression; and psychosis among other difficulties. Marie’s main goal is to give everyone a chance to aim for a life worth living. As a qualified social worker, her work was in child protection, with unaccompanied minors and asylum seekers.
In Sweden between 2009 and 2014, Marie managed two outpatient clinics for ages from 2-25 years, where a DBT-approach group programme was developed and offered to adolescents who displayed harmful sexual behaviours. Trauma group programmes were also offered for those under 12 who had experienced sexual abuse. From 2014 to 2018, Marie worked as the CAMHS Lead Therapist at the Priory North London, where was seeing adolescents individually and in groups. Marie developed a DBT-informed approach group programme for the young people admitted, as well as for the staff. Today Marie is working independently, seeing patients individually, in groups, supervise other professionals and facilitate training, in the UK and internationally.
DBT for Adolescents group running weekly online. Contact marie@mwcare.co.uk for more information.
New and updated for 2022, as presented at the BABCP conference!
October 20th and 21st, 2022, online, 9.30-4.30 UK time and/or watch later.
Emotional regulation and social interaction for young people and parents. Marie Wassberg and Fiona Kennedy introduce DBT-A.
DBT-A Skills Training is useful with any adolescent (or adult) who has difficulty regulating emotions.
DBT-A is a strength-based approach targeting emotional dysregulation, lack of relationship skills and poor self-esteem.
Based on the work of Alec Miller and Jill Rathus. Underpinned by an evidence base of studies with adolescents who are suicidal and /or self harming, have an eating disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, emerging EUPD, or bipolar disorder. DBT-A has been explored with adolescents with ASD, ADHD and/or learning disability.
Young people learn about themselves, their bodies, emotions, thoughts and consequences. Families, carers or staff learn the same skills and how to help the young person generalise and practise their new knowledge.
Mindfulness practice and experiential learning produce a complete, whole-person intervention to increase emotional regulation and competency. This model also addresses language-based problems and helps young people generalise and maintain new skills.
DBT-A can be used in group, family and individual formats and will be compatible with your other therapy approaches. You do not need to be a DBT Practitioner to use DBT-A.
MW Care is offering Individual therapy for children, adolescents and young adults, who suffer from, amongst other difficulties:
MW Care uses the following therapeutic models:
MW Care is also providing a special treatment programme for children and adolescent who display Harmful Sexual Behaviours (a DBT-based programme developed in Sweden).
MW Care can provide Group therapy for:
Parent/carer: when it feels like you have tried everything and need to talk to someone about your exhausting situation with your child/adolescent. MW Care can provide psychoeducation which entails information and support to better understand and cope with illness.
MW Care believes that it is vitally important for parents to take part in the therapeutic work.
Offering consultation to:
MW Care has more than 20 years’ experience of working with children, adolescents and young adults with different difficulties and traumas, including displaying harmful sexual behaviours.
Offering consultation on how to manage and respond when a child or adolescent has displayed harmful sexual behaviour.
Estimate of Risk of Adolescent Sexual Offense Recidivism (ERASOR), when required, is one of the most widely-used risk assessment tools for adolescents who have offended sexually and can be available if required. ERASOR is a valuable guide for intervention and supervision efforts.
