Reflective Space for Teaching Staff

I undertake sessions in schools with individual teachers/teaching staff or groups of teachers who may be finding some aspects of their role particularly difficult. It may be that something has occurred personally to a member of staff, or there may have been an incident or type of behaviour in school from one of the pupil’s that has challenged staff in new ways. There could be a young person with a complex life history and teachers would like to think about how better to support this pupil in school. Perhaps school morale has changed or there are some divisions in thinking between staff members.

My service can help support teaching staff by reflecting on the difficult areas of their role and looking at how attachment and neuroscience will be impacting the child’s behaviour, but additionally - and crucially - reflect on how this impacts the school as a system, particularly ways in which professionals can be impacted by the trauma of the children they work with.

Thinking this through and gaining more knowledge on secondary trauma can help staff groups to feel more confident, become better equipped to take on their daily challenges and feel more optimistic about their role and the team. This in turn will have a positive impact on the pupil’s and the ethos of the school.

These sessions can be one-off’s, for example after a specific event or booked on a more routine basis depending on what would be most useful.

It may be that just a staff member or a couple of members of staff wish to talk something through, or that it would be useful to look at secondary trauma in a bigger group, such as during a staff meeting.

These sessions are therefore flexible and can be adapted to what would be most useful depending on the presenting issue/s.

If you would like to find out more, please contact me (make this a link to my contact page - thank you).

I am a child and adolescent psychotherapist (UKCP Registered); a counsellor; arts and play therapist based in Chichester, covering West and East Sussex, Surrey and Hampshire. You can contact me here.