Charlotte Lyne is a Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist and Play Therapist, in clinical practice since 2015. She moved to Donegal in 2021 after many years living and working in Cork, and is the founder of Over the Rainbow Children’s Therapy Centre, where she provides psychotherapy, play therapy, parenting support, and clinical supervision for children, adolescents, families, and professionals.

Charlotte works therapeutically with children and adolescents, offering play-based, creative, and talking therapies. She places strong emphasis on collaborative work with parents and caregivers, recognising their central role in supporting emotional regulation, attachment, and long-term wellbeing.

She brings over 20 years’ experience in education, having worked as a primary school teacher, special education teacher, and educational leader. This extensive background gives Charlotte a deep understanding of child development, neurodiversity, learning differences, school systems, and the emotional and relational needs of children and young people.

Charlotte has significant expertise in working with complex trauma, including developmental trauma, attachment trauma, and relational adversity. She has extensive experience supporting children and young people in foster care, working closely with carers, social workers, multidisciplinary teams, and Guardian ad Litem services to promote felt safety, regulation, placement stability, and relational healing.

Her therapeutic approach is integrative, relational, trauma-informed, and neurobiologically informed. She is trained to certification level in Synergetic Play Therapy (SPT) with Lisa Dion and is also a qualified Synergetic Play Therapy Supervisor.

Charlotte has completed advanced training with Paris Goodyear Brown, is trained in EMDR, and has undertaken specialist trauma training with Bessel van der Kolk.

Her work is further informed by training in neurosequential and regulation-focused approaches developed by Bruce Perry and by formal training in Interpersonal Neurobiology with Dan Siegel. These frameworks strongly influence Charlotte’s focus on nervous-system regulation, co-regulation, developmental timing, and the therapeutic relationship as the primary agent of change.

Play therapy is central to Charlotte’s work with children, recognising play as a child’s most natural language for expression and processing. Through symbolism, metaphor, and creative exploration, children can safely communicate experiences and emotions that may be difficult to verbalise. With adolescents, Charlotte integrates talk therapy with creative and expressive modalities to support emotional regulation, identity development, and relational safety.

Charlotte is a fully accredited Psychotherapist and Clinical Supervisor with-

IAPTP — Irish Association for Play Therapy & Psychotherapy, the professional body in Ireland for play therapists and psychotherapists which sets and maintains standards for training, practice, accreditation, and ethical frameworks for play therapy and psychotherapy.
• IAHIP — Irish Association of Humanistic & Integrative Psychotherapy, the representative body for humanistic and integrative psychotherapists in Ireland, accrediting qualified practitioners and supervisors and supporting high standards of training and practice.
• EAIP — European Association for Integrative Psychotherapy, a European-wide accrediting organisation dedicated to promoting integrative psychotherapy, establishing common training standards, and fostering ethical practice across Europe.

She is an accredited Clinical Supervisor, currently supervising Children’s Therapy Centre (CTC) students as well as accredited psychotherapists and play therapists from across Ireland, supporting both trainee and experienced clinicians in ethical, reflective, and trauma-informed practice.

She holds full professional indemnity and public liability insurance, is Garda vetted, and works in accordance with Children First guidelines and all relevant ethical and safeguarding standards. Charlotte is committed to ongoing professional development and to maintaining practice aligned with current research and best practice in child and adolescent mental health. She is also actively working to continue her academic and professional development, with a strong interest in research and training that bridge clinical practice, trauma-informed care, and child development.

Outside of her clinical work, Charlotte is a qualified yoga teacher and practises yoga daily as a core part of her self-care, supporting regulation, presence, and sustainability in both her personal and professional life.

Synergetic Play Therapy

Charlotte completed advanced training in Synergetic Play Therapy with Lisa Dion in Denver, Colorado in 2019, a neurobiologically informed approach that integrates nervous system regulation, attachment, and relational presence into play-based therapeutic work with children and adolescents. She later completed specialist training to become a Synergetic Play Therapy Supervisor, supporting therapists to deepen clinical confidence, self-awareness, and capacity for attuned, regulation-focused practice. This model continues to strongly inform both her therapeutic work and her approach to supervision.

If you would like to contact Charlotte: telephone (087) 9780593, email: Charlotte@playtherapist.ie or fill out the form below and Charlotte will be in touch.