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SpanLife Psychology 85 Wimpole Street

London W1G 9RJ

Tel: 0207 125 0192 Email: info@span-life.com

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Introduction

Our Ethos

SpanLife Psychology is a young and dynamic practice bringing together psychologists who are highly skilled, passionate about their work and above all sound practitioners. Our aim is to use our psychological understanding to your advantage, by harnessing potential and empowering individuals and organisations to move forward positively. All our interventions are individually tailored, taking into account individual and organisational goals, needs and limitations. We strive to always deliver the very best quality service to guarantee satisfaction through achieving positive results.

Your Organisation & Caring for Children and Young People

Children and Young people deserve the very best start in life to give them the skills and opportunities to navigate their adulthood with success. Sadly this is not always the case and organisations like yours are set up to provide an environment of safety, hope, encouragement and nurturing to young people from diverse backgrounds who often have very complex needs. Your work is invaluable. Creating the optimal environment in which these young people can thrive and develop positively is a key focus of your organisation and that is where we come in.

How SpanLife Psychology Can Benefit Your Organisation

At SpanLife Psychology we believe the best teams are underpinned by knowledge, skill, compassion and the desire to care. We can support your organisation to provide the best level of care to the young people in your care. We will support your staff teams through regular consultation, training workshops and supervision. We will support the young people in your care through direct individual therapy and group based therapy programmes. All our support and interventions are underpinned by the most up-to-date research evidence regarding what works for young people in care and the teams supporting them.

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Working With Your Organisation

Consultation: The key to Unlocking Your Organisations True Value

Consultation is at the heart of SpanLife Psychology’s model of intervention. Consultation is a means by which psychological knowledge can be used with organisations to ensure that services are planned and delivered in a therapeutic way because decisions are grounded in a good understanding of what causes the difficulties that young people in care often present with and what can be done to support them.

We design our package of intervention based on your service specifications following a short period of consultation. Each service specification is tailored to individual organisations. This means that we fit in with you rather than the other way around. We give utmost respect to your organisations values and the vision you have for the future. Consultations can occur at the level of senior management, mid-management and/or staff teams at a frequency to suit.

SpanLife Psychology Support through life’s changes

Models of Intervention: Many Tools for the Job at Hand

We use several approaches in our work:

Indirect Working Often young people are not emotionally ready to access individual psychological therapy as this can be a very unsettling experience. If taken on too early this can actually destabilise the young person and may lead to the breakdown of a placement. At SpanLife Psychology we recognise that often the most significant relationships young people in care form are with members of their care teams.

Indirect working enables our Psychologists to provide information and tools that your care teams can use to work on specific issues with young people, with regular over-sight from a Psychologist. This has the advantages of:

i. Allowing the young person space to begin to address some issues with a

trusted individual and

ii. Increasing the skills and knowledge that your staff team have which helps

to develop a more therapeutic environment.

Direct Working This is involves the delivery of therapy to young people in your care. Therapy can be delivered within the residential placement or in a suitable location away from the home. See our website (www.span-life.com) for a detailed outline of problems we work with.

Our Psychologists are skilled in the use of:

Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT)

Attachment Based Therapies (e.g. TheraPlay)

Solution Focused Therapy

Eye Movement Reprogramming and Desensitisation (EMDR)

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Enhancing and Innovating Practice

Teaching and Training

We design and deliver training to your teams based on areas highlighted for continued professional development. Sessions can be designed as short workshops to fit in with busy schedules or can be longer training events over several hours or days, depending on your requirements. All training is based on the most up-to-date research and evidence base to ensure that information is meaningful and relevant.

Supervision

Clinical oversight of the work that is undertaken by members of your care team can be a very effective way of utilising our Psychologists skills to complement the skills of your staff. Key work sessions with young people can be designed with input from our Psychologists in line with areas highlighted in individual care plans and issues raised as part of this work, either for the young person or the member of staff can be worked through and resolved in supervision.

Managers can also find it useful to access Psychological supervision to address team dynamics and issues relating to supporting the young person(s) in their care.

Referrals:

Span Life Psychology Support through life’s changes

Case Example of Monitoring Progress

J.S. 13 year old Boy. On a voluntary care order with a history of offending and aggression towards his parents.

SpanLife Psychology: An In-Reach Model

There are many advantages to us being external to your organisation. While we endeavour to understand and respect the culture of your organisation and work in ways that complement your organisation’s ethos our independence means that we remain objective and focused on ensuring that therapeutic and evidence-based practice is a focus for all team members.

You are assured of a confidential and objective view from Psychologists that have many years of experience and have the best interests of the young people and your staff teams at the centre of their practice.