Psychologists for schools

Home Psychologists for schools

When a child or student is exposed to an extreme tragedy, or is overwhelmed by overwhelming stress, an educational psychologist is a skilled responder.

In response to requests from teachers and head teachers, we now offer child psychology behavioural support which is designed to be a tailored around pupils with deeper mental health and wellbeing issues, in either primary or secondary level education.

While intervention and therapy may seem scary to parents, a child psychologist helps parents understand that it is normal for a child to have emotional ups and downs and that therapy is a positive, healthy step.

How does it work?

      1. Conversation

One of the most important aspects of a child psychologist is to diagnose the condition or issue that is impacting the emotional well-being of a child. Common issues that children seeking therapy have faced include: divorce, abuse, mental illness, death of a loved one, or exposure to substance addiction. Symptoms that commonly warrant intervention or therapy include: obsessive behavior, social isolation, poor diminished academic performance, anxiety, anger, sleep disorders, aggression or incontinence.

Rooted in counseling and psychological theories, our child psychologists and neuroscientists are experts on how to help children manage depression, mental illness and developmental challenges. Following a conversation with you, our certified practitioner will focus on evaluating children or students who are experiencing emotional difficulties.

      2. Assessment 

A child psychologist begins by meeting the child and having a conversation, to establish rapport. The most important role of a child psychologist is to meet the child at his / her level. This may involve role playing, drawing pictures, or the use of toys and props. Relating to the child through the use of play is an effective way to build trust and help the child feel comfortable opening up. Additional standardized tests may be used to ascertain conditions like learning disorders, social interaction weaknesses, or emotional issues.

The sessions could comprise a one hour session each week for a term of half term to your pupils/students or maybe it could be a full training day(s) for teachers. A typical psychological assessment may take four to seven hours to complete. It may be conducted in several sessions, depending upon the needs and age of the child or student.

      3. Treatment plan

Rooted in evidence based theory provided by psychology and neuroscience experts, our resource content is designed to help young people understand and manage a range of wellbeing issues including anxiety, depression, mental illness and developmental challenges.

Following the initial two stages, we tailor and design a series of learning modules to suit your specific school needs and one of our locally based practitioners will come to you school and deliver them.

Our psychologists have an expertise in:

  • Sociology – eg. social skills, communication skills
  • Cognitive Science – eg. family relationships, emotional development, mediation, forgiveness and anger
  • Philosophy – eg. values, moral development
  • Social Science – eg. interpersonal relations, self-control, responsibility, resilience
  • Social Neuroscience – eg. mood swings, pessimism, isolation, concerns for the body
  • Cognitive Neuroscience – eg. learning, memory, perceptions, emotions
  • Developmental Psychology – eg. child development, attitude changes
  • Cognitive Psychology – eg. memory and thinking, knowledge representation
  • Educational Psychology – eg. motivation, problem-based learning, intelligence
  • Social Psychology – eg. persuasion, social cognition
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Intervention Therapy Sessions

Many pupils are dealing with a number of issues which might require professional support; however, in less severe cases, the intervention therapy sessions might be more appropriate, before seeking psychologist support. Our approach focuses on the exchange of pupil and psychologist interaction, targeting and remedying specific issues.

Through a variety of art and visualisation techniques, the therapist interprets the pupil’s symbolic self-expression and elicits interpretations from him/her. These sessions are usually done with a small group of individuals or on a one-to-one basis.

The techniques used during these sessions include:

  • Meditation techniques (including: mandala construction)
  • Vision boards
  • Visualisation techniques
  • Exam stress visualisation
  • Self-hypnosis
  • Group hypnosis
  • Basic yoga poses, to increase concentration
  • Basic Reiki for self-care
  • Art Therapy
  • Individual and group hypnosis and meditation
  • Super learning (self-study)
  • Gratitude diaries
  • Journaling
  • Creative Writing
  • Improvisation Drama
  • Emotional Freedom Techniques

CASE STUDY: Blessed Thomas Catholic College, Altrincham, Manchester

The context of this session was on ‘Mental Health and wellbeing’, firstly to consider as a ‘brainstorm’ activity in two’s what the students considered what we mean by ‘being healthy’.

In proceeding to understand the pressures and coping strategies for a ‘healthy mind’, our practitioner invited the students, to express their own feelings and thoughts, without it necessarily ‘being personal’.

Our role was to listen to what they had to say, which resulted in many ideas being shared. For example, reactions to stress they shared where this might show itself – illness, family or friends being injured, death of a friend, exam nerves, problems at home, bullying.

The students shared both negative and positive emotions/feelings arising out of anxiety/stress situations, and the challenge this presents. Our practitioner personalised a question to them by asking ‘if you experience any of these feelings/emotions, what difficulties might arise from them’.

Their reactions were listed and moved on to begin working out some strategies to cope with them, some of which came from them, but NeuroHeadway introduced others and sought their thoughts and comments on these.  One particular example of where stress/anxiety might occur and where there is a need for managing these is in exams.

There was a feeling among the students that FEAR OF FAILURE was a big concern for them. We talked about this, noting the importance of talking to friends, parents and teachers and not holding onto these concerns. Furthermore, to remember that exam prep is very important and we do our best in this. If, however the outcome is not good, failure can be a challenge and motivational factor to continue with our studies and not to regress. We were looking at the need to affirm some of the stressful circumstances in life as a way of accepting a positive outcome, and to work out some strategies for moving forward. The students gained a lot from this session from the way in which they joined in the conversation’s, by having quick ‘buzz group’ sessions and engagement with NeuroHeadway, by listening and guiding their thinking.

CASE STUDY: Littlehampton Academy, West Sussex

NeuroHeadway worked closely with a large group of support staff at a secondary school in the south east of England, working with colleagues on a range of psychological health and wellbeing applications to support students in need. These subjects included: bereavement, grief, anxiety, resilience, stress and mindfulness.

The support staff did not feel they had the current support that they required and as such, there is no direct counselling available to students, all support staff were finding it difficult and a struggle to help pupils through their exam period. There was a real sense of powerlessness and frustration at the present situation in the support staff and so NeuroHeadway worked with the group three months of intensive tutoring, guidance and instruction of intervention strategies to help staff understand more of the wellbeing principles for the new academic year.