Bringing in a therapist for sessions helps one child or adult with additional needs, for an hour. It doesn't change what happens in the other hundred and sixty seven.
The people with the most influence on how a young person feels are the staff who are there all day. That work is relentless, and without space to process it, it leads to compassion fatigue and burnout. When people are burnt out, they see behaviour instead of the feeling underneath it.
My work is with the system around the person: helping staff reflect, helping teams communicate, and helping organisations build therapeutic thinking into how they actually run, so it holds when I'm not there.
A system around a child that communicates and reflects in order to ensure the child is always central.
Not nice. Kind is different.
Underneath all of it, the thing I care about is kind culture.
A nice team avoids the difficult conversation. A kind team can have it, because everyone trusts they will still be held afterwards.
Kind cultures notice when someone is running on empty. They make it safe to say "that shift was awful and I handled it badly". They treat a child's behaviour as something to be understood rather than something to be managed. And they offer staff the same patience they're asking staff to offer children.
That isn't a soft target. It's the thing that decides how a young person is met on a Tuesday afternoon when I'm nowhere near the building.
I can't install a culture. Nobody can, and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something. What I can do is work alongside you while it shifts, and be honest with you about what I'm seeing.
Regular, facilitated space for staff to explore what the work brings up in them, so it doesn't get played back out in the setting. Relational, sometimes playful, always practical.
Having an experience isn't enough on its own. It has to be actively processed before anyone can learn from it.
Structured, guided exploration of what's happening for a particular young person and in the system around them. We think together first, then decide on actions. Everyone leaves with a shared understanding rather than a set of instructions.
Designing how therapeutic support is actually delivered: the structure of consultation, how things are recorded, how reflective practice runs, and how themes are collected and fed back into developing the service.
I stay with you while you trial it, adjust it and integrate it, so it becomes how the team works rather than a document nobody opens.
The part most consultants skip.
Something more playful? My seasonal workshops can be shaped for staff teams, to support reflection and team building.
Workshops for teamsI've worked in these settings for ten years as a support worker, in management teams, and as a therapist. I've seen the same building from three very different angles, so I understand the pressure each part of the system is under. That matters when you're asking a team to be honest in a room.
Staff who reflect rather than react. Teams that communicate better. Better staff wellbeing. And children whose feelings are understood rather than managed.
I won't promise you an inspection outcome or a number on a chart.
With a conversation. No fixed package, because your setting isn't like anyone else's. We'd talk about what's happening, what you've already tried, and what would actually be useful. Mostly I work online, and I visit in person where it makes sense.
I'll tell you honestly what I think I can help with and what I can't.
We'd talk about what's happening, what you've already tried, and what would actually be useful.