Lily Peterson

With over a decade of experience supporting young people and their families, Lily offers a compassionate and developmentally attuned approach to emotional and relational healing and growth. Drawing from her background in education, child development, and clinical mental health, Lily helps children and adolescents make sense of their inner world through play, connection, and reflection.

Her practice is grounded in psychodynamic and attachment-based therapy, integrating child-led play and talk therapy techniques, family systems understanding, and evidence-based therapeutic approaches. Every session is paced thoughtfully, tailored to each child’s developmental stage, emotional needs, and readiness.

Lily’s professional journey spans from early childhood education, specialty child development care and monitoring, to hospital-based child mental health services, including her work with the Child and Family Team at Auckland’s leading children’s hospital. This breadth of experience allows her to hold a deep understanding of how family, environment, and development interact in shaping a child’s emotional wellbeing and a holistic approach.

In addition to her clinical expertise, Lily brings training in yoga, meditation, breathwork, and mind–body practices, creating a calm, nurturing space where young people can feel grounded, safe, and empowered to grow.

Whether your child is struggling with anxiety, emotional regulation, coping with illness, family changes, or simply needs a safe space to be understood and processes complex emotions, Lily offers a therapeutic environment that is both insightful and deeply supportive.

Clinical Expertise

• Anxiety

• Depression

• Eating disorders

• Trauma processing

• Medical Trauma

• Coping with illness

• Grief

• Attachment and relational concerns

• Emotional and behavioural difficulties and concerns

• Self esteem

• Stress management

• Therapeutic support and processing of impactful events such as divorce or loss

Age Groups & Treatment Modalities

• Psychodynamic play-based  psychotherapy

• Relational therapy

• Mentalization-Based Therapy (MBT)

• Family-Based Therapy for adolescents with eating disorders

• Art therapy

• Sandplay therapy

• Talk therapy

• Children (including early childhood)

• Adolescents

• Parents & caregivers

• Families

Additional training: sandplay, yoga, meditation, breathwork, reiki, diet, and health