Psychological Consultation: "Reframing the picture, developing understanding"

Psychological consultation can support staff teams and professionals supporting children with complex needs to have time to make sense of their behaviours and challenging behaviour using a psychologically and trauma informed lens.

"Understanding a child/young person's behaviour can completely alter our responses to them.... if we can make sense of Jay's anger and aggression in the context of his trauma experiences it can change our response to the behaviour we see.......is this anger or anxiety?"

Psychological consultation can support staff to have  time to pause, reflect and make sense of a child/young person through the lens of "what happened to you" rather whats wrong with you. 

This shift in focus can support staff to have time to reflect on the emotional impact a young person is having on them and support them to understand and manage their own emotional responses. It is vital for staff working with children and families with complex needs to feel heard and understood themselves, recognising how emotionally draining their work can be caring for children and young people who are traumatised and find relationships challenging. 

Staff who are supported emotionally and psychologically can be more effective in their work and have improved well being with the right support, supervision and consultation.

We can offer either one off psychological consultations or ongoing weekly/monthly consultations to:

• Residential care staff (whole team, manager or individuals) supporting children and young people with complex and challenging emotional and psychological needs we can also provide ongoing supervision and reflective practice support. 
• We facilitate the space to reflect on the difficulties being experienced with children and enable staff to make sense of the issues using an attachment and trauma informed  understanding and psychological formulation to guide successful engagement with the child/young person.
• Regular consultations with staff can enable a staff team to adopt a more psychologically informed approach thereby ensuring the child has the most optimal chance of developing emotionally. 
• Staff can bring their concerns in managing the young people.
  These consultations can ensure that staff have an opportunity to reflect on their own emotional needs and well being, this can prevent staff burn out and ensure that the young people’s difficulties are being given thorough clinical consideration.
  Consultation is most successful when a team have been given the training offered by TFC  on attachment and developmental trauma, and 3 day Therapeutic PACE Parenting training. 
• Contact us for more information. Wendy is a fully accredited Supervisor and can provide regular supervision for clinicians and professionals to support with their personal development. This is available for qualified Clinical Psychologists, Clinical Psychology trainees and Assistant Psychologists as well as other professional groups. 

The Foundations Consultancy can offer both one off and a series of consultations to help the wider network involved in a child's care think about what might be causing their difficulties. This approach can support developing a "shared' understanding of a child/young person ensuring that everyone supporting the child has the same shared understanding of the child's needs. We aim to develop a shared understanding of the young person from  home, school and a  social and emotional perspective.

"The (TAC) Team Around the Child meetings that Wendy has facilitated at school over the last 3  years have supported some of our most complex pupils. These meetings have enabled us to understand the young people from the parents, child's and the school's perspective. I have found the three R's really helpful in helping us to respond to what is underlying the difficulties" Carla Elliot, Northleigh House School

"Wendy has helped us to make sure that F also has a voice in these meetings. We have supported him using a therapeutic support plan to access his lessons, develop sensory breaks and manage the challenges of the school day." Ellie C

"The TAC meetings have allowed the staff supporting to have time to reflect on their responses to him and enabled them time to think about things like shame, which have helped us to avoid getting into behavioural ways of responding to his behaviour.....using a "bottom up approach" has brought about some great results." Elaine Simmons, Northleigh School
 

We can offer one off and regular weekly or monthly consultations to a variety of organisations, charities, schools and private or public sector groups of professionals. We have specialised in offering bespoke Consultation packages to support organisations to use psychologically informed thinking to support their staff, improve and enhance communication and improve outcomes.  External consultation sessions with an experienced Clinical Psychologist can help to provide an objective perspective informed by psychological thinking, organisational understanding, offering insight and support.

Wendy has benefited from over 25 years of NHS and public sector experience, 5 years in the private sector as Clinical Director of a National Residential Care Group and over 10 years of being the Director of her own independent practice . Her experience of developing psychologically informed thinking at a strategic level and the challenges of ensuring that leadership teams work together with a  shared vision to influence and support change mean that she has a great insight into supporting people at any level of an organisation. Wendy's training as a Consultant Clinical Psychologist and as a DDP and Organisational Trainer mean that she is well placed to off offer consultation and advice to organisations, charities and educational establishments.