North East London, Essex & OnlineTraining
They say “culture eats training” i.e embedding change in any organisation is difficult. In my approach to training I try to marry what professionals know already and what they feel they need, with ideas that will be new and most helpful to them - delivered sensitively.
How could training work for your organisation?
We would start with a conversation about what you feel you need, what issues you or your organization face and how a mental health/ child developmental perspective could help. I would offer some fresh perspectives and ideas and if we agree to proceed I would create an overview proposal of training for your organization and if that were acceptable to you I would devleop a bespoke package and deliver the training at an agreed time and location.
Many organisations benefit from an ongoing relationship of consultation that follows up on initial training - and this may be something you/your organization would want to consider. I can offer ongoing consultation via phone, or Skype or face to face – and a package tailored to this can be agreed.
I have a specific, flagship, training package that is given its own page on this website: 'Trauma Story Training©' which makes clear the links between a child's past trauma and their challenging behaviour months and even years later – please see if that would be useful for your organization.
How I work:
I establish safe, creative spaces in which adults can think openly about the challenges and questions that bring us to the training task. I try to stimulate curiosity and do so with an explicit acknowledgement of those factors that may make it difficult for professionals to embed the learning we generate in the contexts they work in. Where possible I use experiential learning techniques as well as play tasks.
I bring to the training of professionals who work with children: developmental perspectives (how children grow emotionally and mature – and what they need from us adults), a deep understanding of mental health issues (attachment, challenging behaviour, depression, anxiety, family and sibling issues, abuse, ADHD, Autism, self-harm, eating disorder etc), understandings of developmental trauma; as well as knowledge about the teaching and learning environment.
Experience:
I am a Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist; and in one of my past roles led a large CLA team in a London CAMHS, working closely with Children's Services. I have experience of developing and leading initiatives for CAMHS and Social Care around trauma. In one of these, networks around children who are newly in care are brought together to formulate on the links between the child's trauma and their current presentation - the outcome is that foster carers and social workers have a better understanding of how the challenging behaviour of traumatised children tells the story of that trauma and represents their attempt at repair and recovery.
My training experience is extensive and underpinned by training as a Primary teacher at the Institute of Education and 10 years of primary teaching thereafter. The Birkbeck MSc in Psychodynamic Counselling had a strong focus on the psychoanalytic understanding of organisational dynamics, it included annual, week-long group relations events, as well as weekly experiential group events. These experiences allow me to bring perspectives on the functioning of organisations - something that can help when trying to set up a trauma informed service/ treatment team.
In 2010 I coordinated the CAMHS response to the Targeted Mental Health in Schools project (TAMHS) in one London borough. My role involved the conception, development and delivering of two training packages: Attachment; Anxiety - to around twenty schools. Each training was attended by a range of tier one, two and three professionals eg teachers, teaching assistants, deputies, head teachers, health visitors. The trainings were audited independently by the TAMHS project and received highly positive feedback.
Since 2012, in CAMHS, I have written and delivered trainings on ‘Babies and attachment'; ‘The issues for Children Looked After in schools'; ‘Facilitating Difficult Conversations with CLA children in foster care' (see table below). These trainings each took place over two days and were delivered to groups of foster carers, a London Virtual School, Health Visitors and supervising social workers. They were all very highly regarded by attendees and by local Social Care and the Virtual School who commissioned them.
In Private Practice I have developed my own trainings and training tools that bring together the experiences of mental health work since 1997.
I have also offered seminars/ short trainings on subjects that have included: stealing and lying, Personality Disorder, Attachment, understanding how children's behaviour articulates the trauma they have suffered, etc. These trainings have been delivered to foster carers, Social Workers and Supervising Social Workers, teachers, SENCO's and Educational Psychologists.
The flagship training from Regan Psychotherapy is Trauma Story Training, which is informed by fourteen years of direct work with Children Looked After in CAMHS settings; and leading a London CLA CAMHS service between 2021-2025. See the next page for more information on Trauma Story Training and how it could benefit your organisation.
I am registered with Bloom procurement agency as one of their approved providers.
Contact me in confidence on t: 07877 048 087 or e:
