I have worked in Education for over 25 years and as an Educational Psychologist for over 22 years, providing psychological support in mainstream schools, special schools and alternative provisions across the 0-25 age range. As a teacher I worked in a school with an additional resource provision for SEMH and as a SENDCo I worked in a school with high mobility in an area of deprivation. These early career experiences left me with a deep appreciation for the complexity of teaching as a skill. It also left me valuing Education as a resource for strengthening families and communities. I became an Educational & Child Psychologist because I saw how psychology could enhance the amazing care and concern that schools can offer children, through offering skills and thinking tools that helped staff to make sense of children's learning needs and relate to children and families in ways that enabled change and healing to happen. I also valued the resources that psychology offered for navigating complexity, helping professionals make high quality decisions even when the way forward was not clear.

 

I have had lead roles in Local Authorities in Mental Health, Anti-bullying and Autism. Projects I have co-ordinated include developing anti-bullying policy & practice, implementing trauma informed approaches in schools, co-ordinating whole-school approaches to mental health and, in collaboration with health collages, developing integrated assessment and intervention services for children with social communication difficulties.

 

I have an interest in supporting special schools, additionally resource provision and alternative provision and in reducing the use of timeout, positive handling and exclusion.

 

I am passionate about developing therapeutic approaches within education and I am developing my own therapeutic skills, through additional training in Narrative Approaches, Dyadic Developmental Therapy and Video Interaction Guidance.