I particularly enjoy the problem-solving element of my work with children and young people.
My Educational Psychology training took place at the Tavistock Institute for Human Relations (London), which is a highly prestigious multi-professional NHS centre, with trainees from a range of 'psych' professions and a focus on an apprenticeship (work experience) approach as well as the expected theoretical input. The course is now affiliated to Brunel University and offers 'MSc' Ed Psychol. courses, rather than the old title of 'Certificate' Ed Psychol. My work has Systemic Thinking at its core, i.e. seeing the child in the whole context of their school, home and peer group. Although the focus/referring reason is the child/young person, the actual work to manage the immediate environment for the child, requires working closely with parents and teachers alike. I believe in parents, teachers and myself working together as a partnership to the benefit of the child/young person.
I am a parent myself and as such have experienced the joys and frustrations of motivating and working with one's own children. Part of our nine-year Educational Psychology training is to be a classroom teacher for two to three years minimum, so I also have personal experience of managing and teaching a class of 30 pupils in a South London Primary School, on a day-to-day basis.
I qualified as an Educational Psychologist in 1989 and received my Chartered Status the following year. I then achieved Associate Fellow Status in 2001. I have over 20 years of experience of Education and Psychology backed up by a programme of Continuous Professional Development regulated by the issuing of the Annual BPsS Practising Certificate. I have worked for 10 years within a County Educational Service (London and Suffolk) and have been in Private Practice since then. I have worked widely within the UK as well as working for 3 years in the Middle East (based in the United Arab Emirates) where I set up a Partnership Family Assessment Centre. I have also established and run a Nursery School in the UK over a four-year period.