“The more healthy relationships a child has the more likely they will be to recover from trauma"

"Hi I'm Wendy......Dr Wendy Coetzee, a Consultant Clinical Psychologist, Organisational Consultant and Trainer. I am a fully trained and HCPC registered Consultant Clinical Psychologist with over 25 years experience working across a wide range of settings including NHS, Local Authority and Private sector organisations/services. 

I have led and developed a variety of psychological and therapeutic services to support children and young people with attachment and trauma based difficulties. My career has focussed on working in the area of childhood adversity, attachment and developmental trauma, this has been an ongoing theme throughout my career. 

I am a DDP UK approved PACE trainer supervised by Dr Kim Golding. I also offer ongoing consultation and support to a wode variety of children's services. I am passionate about developing people; organisations and staff to support children with complex needs.

Psychological and Therapeutic Approach:

I have been privileged to work with some incredible organisations, families, children and young people who have taught me so much about about adversity, bravery and resilience. At the heart of my approach to making sense of children and young people's difficulties is to develop an understanding of "what happened to you" rather than "what is wrong with you?" This approach has been central to my work over the years with children, their families and the organisations/systems that support them, rather than focussing on labels that can sometimes become attached to people with complex needs. 

• "Looking through an attachment and trauma informed lens can 

                  transform our understanding of young people's difficulties".

 
My work is informed by a number of models, including DDP (Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy), neuro-sequential model of attachment and developmental trauma, Narrative therapy, Poly-vagal theory, Systemic family therapy and Trauma informed therapeutic approaches together with over 25 years of working psychologically with children and families with complex attachment and trauma based needs. 

• A "relationship centred" ethos is at the heart of my therapeutic approach, recognising that children need relationships to thrive and to help them to develop safety, trust and security. 

I draw on the expertise and knowledge of a range of attachment and trauma specialists including my supervisors and mentors Dr Kim Golding, Consultant Clinical Psychologist, Author, DDP consultant and Trainer, MBE (My Clinical Supervisor) and Dr Karen Treisman, Clinical Psychologist, Author and Organisational Trainer, CBE (Mentor). Their work has been inspirational in informing how I work with the families and systems that support them. I am currently doing my DDP practicum with Dr Kim Golding.

Strategic Expereince: 

In my role as Clinical Director of Psychological Services at Horizon Care and Education Group (for over 5 years) I am very proud to have pioneered and led the design, development and delivery of a trauma informed psychologically informed therapeutic service for a national organisation supporting and training over 250 staff to support the children and adolescents within the organisation. 

I have worked at a strategic board level role supporting organisations to develop a therapeutically informed strategy to training staff and the development of Clinical Governance and Safeguarding strategy. My strategic roles have enabled me to develop a trauma informed organisational approach to supporting staff and the children and young people. This work has enabled me to share the lived experiences of service development, working with organisational trauma and developing a trauma informed ethos to support staff and develop a psychologically and trauma informed organisational culture. 

My role as Organisational Consultant and Trainer draws on these experiences. I also draw on the expertise and support of Dr Karen Treisman and have also been inspired by training from Sandra Bloom (author of the Sanctuary Model), these models of organisational trauma and developing trauma informed systems are an essential reference when working in the field of developing trauma informed systems and services. (See Training and Workshops for further details). 

I am passionate about teaching and training. I teach on a number of University Masters and Doctoral Psychology programmes. I also regularly train and support a residential children's services and a number of schools  (SEMH and mainstream). I enjoy working with organisations to support the development of trauma informed organisational practice. Please see my wide range  of workshops and training packages which can be adapted to meet your services needs (See Training and Workshops). 

I was given an "Innovation In Practice" award by the British Psychological Society Children and Young People's faculty (2014) for my work in developing attachment and trauma informed training programmes and services for families in crisis.

I like to think of myself as an innovative, passionate and creative person with a great love of nature and the outdoors. I especially enjoy all aspects of my work in the growing field of trauma informed practice. Finally and most importantly  I am also Mum to three fantastic children of my own, who help me to remember that no matter what I’ve learned as a Clinical Psychologist there is always more to learn and that there is no such thing as “perfect parenting” just good enough is.....good enough!! 

• Dr Wendy Coetzee is a fully accredited member of both the British Psychological Society (BPS) and the Heath and Care Professions Council.