Individual, parent, child & family’s direct – Self-Referrals

Bespoke Practitioners are highly experienced in working with children with additional needs, emotional needs and children who have been fostered or adopted.  ‘The Nurturing Parent’ support provides a consultation service that supports parents to view the holistic needs of the child.

Due to the understanding that everyone has different needs, this service is based on an initial profile discussion to ascertain which service would benefit your family most.

“In a society where there is ever-mounting pressure on children, it is important to recognise the needs of the developing child and to focus on growing, learning and having good emotional well-being” Sarah – Managing Practitioner

Bespoke Practitioners work with schools and professionals to support children identified as needing further support after referral to the service.

Solution-Focused Practice sees the practitioner seeking to support the child, young person or parent to move towards a solution.  This approach differs from the many approaches that focus on moving away from the problem; it focuses on the person being the expert in their own life, thus identifying what is needed to progress towards the solution.

This approach is particularly useful when the person is ‘stuck’ and feels that there is no way forward, it is proven highly effective in ‘difficult to change’ circumstances.

“…since I saw you [bespoke practitioner] last a lot has changed, I have not been in any fights [at school], I have only had 1 detention [25 last time], I am not getting bullied, I have made some new good friends, I stop and think a lot more…….. I am happier”  – child, secondary school, age 13 (previously refusing school)

Solution Focused Practice can be used in a planned series of sessions with the client, or in less structured formats. Therefore, it is highly adaptive to various settings; it can also be used in supervision and to support professionals.  With this in mind, it is an advantageous approach for professionals, families and children alike.

“Although the principle is simple, the delivery of the approach is often felt to be far from easy: “Solution-focused interviewing is not an easy process; it is one in which practitioners have to search as hard for the questions as their clients have to search for their answers.”  NSPCC 2014

The principles of the Massage in School Programme (MISP), acknowledge the sensory and attachment needs of children and families, to support healthy development and children’s wellbeing. Consultants are Highly Qualified Registered Instructors of MISP and aim to work with Schools, Parents and Children. The purpose is to support self-regulation and co-regulation through meeting sensory needs, teaching children and adults about self-esteem, permission and keeping the child ‘in mind’.

MISP is developed by health and teaching professionals, to incorporate the developmental needs of a child.  It started being introduced in the UK in 2000 and then it grew globally, now reaching many countries as it is internationally recognised. MISP is:

•    For children aged 4-12 years old (new routines now being introduced for 2-3 year olds)
•    Clothed massage to encourage caring and nurturing touch
•    Given by the children to one-another
•    Given by the parents to their own child/ren
•    Massage of the head, back, arms and hands using approved routines

“We now know that nurturing touch is an important need. We believe that with nurturing touch being brought into the home and the educational arena, it can become an important step towards a resolution of the crisis that education is facing.” Massage in Schools International

•    It is given and received with the child’s permission
•    Helps children to understand ‘good’ and bad’ touch
•    Improvement in emotional health
•    Suited to all children, including those with additional needs
•    Ideally 10-15 minutes daily
•    Acknowledges the intrinsic need for bonding and attachment
•    It is fun

Research has shown that:
•    Children are calmer and concentrate more
•    There is an increase in self-esteem
•    Children learn respect, which leads to social inclusion

“I wish you were coming to my school too! I am showing all my friends how to relax and to brush off the snow (a massage movement)” Child, 9 years old, UK

“After seeing my brother and dad, I tried the hand massage myself, and I now regularly do this to relax my hands in school”  Child, 15 years old, UK

“I have enjoyed how this has helped me to interact with my kids.  Although I was a bit sceptical at first, my kids have enjoyed this, they feel relaxed and my youngest son (6), who has sleeping difficulties has been settling at bedtimes.”  Parent, Colchester, Essex

Bespoke Practitioners provides parents and educators with sensory skills to support children with sensory needs, specifically due to sensory attachment needs. The approach is to teach regulation skills for home and school to find a pattern that benefits the behavioural profile of the individual child.

There is increasing identification of children’s sensory needs, with an increase in recognition of Sensory Processing Disorders (SPD).  There is a clear link between the attachment that a child forms with their caregivers and the sensory processing system, therefore, support is aimed at identifying the child’s physiological and emotional needs by supporting parents to bond with their child and the child forming a good attachment with the parent, whilst supporting schools to regulate a child in a preventative and nurturing approach.

“It is important to support children to self-regulate emotionally as well as physiologically, these are not stand alone issues, but must be addressed together” Sarah – Managing Practitioner

Practitioners are experienced to support families who have children with additional needs, as well as looked after children and adopted children who may require additional support to form attachments and have differing sensory needs to form healthy relationships with others and their environment.  The aim of the service is to link in with ‘The Nurturing Parent’ programmes, providing parents [and educators] with the skills and education to best support the child.

It is important as the child grows that a parent is able to co-regulate the child, and that the child learns the skills to self-regulate as they transition through life and the events this brings.

“Children develop behavioural strategies early in life, in order to survive their attachment environment, their pattern is to either freeze and dissociate or to flee and flight….” Eadaoin Bhreathnach, Sensory Attachment Intervention (SAI) Founder, Author & International Speaker 2016

Please also see the Just Right State ©  – a programmes focused on regulation or arousal states and then the modulation of the body senses through the Just Right State combination of regulating experiences.

The ‘Bespoke Practitioners’ approach to working with children incorporates Therapeutic Play as a media to support children through communication via image and metaphor, this is an enhancement of sensory play. This is proven successful with children that are ‘hard to reach’.

Bespoke Practitioners also apply the media of using therapeutic arts to enable practitioners to support clients to gain an insight and provide an emotional landscape to see into the person’s world.  These include – Art, Drama and Puppetry, Sculpture and Clay, Poetry, Sandplay, Music and Dance/Movement.

“Play and creative arts give the child the ability to learn and become absorbed in what they are doing, it is great to see a child grow in their self-worth, develop new skills and see them acknowledge their own identity!” Sarah – Managing Practitioner

Research evidences that children develop through tasting, touching, seeing, hearing, smelling, experiencing; also by watching and copying people close to them and playing.  This is how language and behaviour are developed.

These approaches provide a deeper level of assessment of need and attuned approaches to identifying support needs and developing care plans. Child’s developmental needs are acknowledged, and further direction on how to best support the child can be given to parents and professionals.

All Practitioners are professionally qualified with further training in neuro-science, brain development and attachment theory alongside many other psychological, physiological and sociological approaches to supporting people.

The Just Right State (JRS) refers to the capacity to achieve and maintain self-regulation. The JRS programme looks at the use of sensory activities and foods, to help children learn how to self-regulate their emotional states and behaviour. The programme supports professionals and parents to provide an enriched environment to facilitate successful parent-child / professional-child engagement -with the capacity to self-regulate and co-regulate.

“The Just Right State programme is based on the principle that when sensory-based experiences are incorporated into daily life routines it enhance the capacity of the child to remain regulated when engaged in activities that are normally challenging. This in turn allows higher level of functioning to occur, such as, social engagement and academic performance” Eadaoin Breathnach (2016).

This approach is unique in its ability to enable the parent, child and professionals to begin to make the links between sensory and emotional processing. Supporting the development of these skills and abilities in children, alongside their parents, can have a profound and positive impact on the long-term outcomes for the child, the whole family and the education setting.

During the programmes run by Bespoke Practitioners, parents and professionals will learn the development and attachment principles that are behind the taught activities. The child’s behavioural difficulties and the goals will form the profile alongside the child completing the Children’s Programme. The goal of the Children’s Programme is for them to become more emotionally aware of themselves and others, whilst giving them the tools to support self-regulation – achieving the Just Right State.

The Intensive Wraparound Service is a service that may be offered if your child attends a participating school.  IWAS ensures that the pastoral care you and your child receives is by highly skilled professionals with a vast amount of experience in supporting families, the service assesses and support families to identify better outcomes.

The ‘Intensive Wrap-Around Service’ is child centred, and incorporates child development, parenting capacity work and assessment of environmental factors to support the family to find a solution and progress.  A focus is to work alongside and coordinate the necessary professionals to be involved with the focus of meeting the child and family’s needs, as assessed together with the family.

“……for the social and emotional wellbeing for children and young people, specifically, vulnerable children aged under 5 years and all children in primary and secondary education…..

…. social and emotional wellbeing creates the foundations for healthy behaviours and educational attainment. It also helps prevent behavioural problems (including substance misuse) and mental health problems. That’s why it is important to focus on the social and emotional wellbeing of children and young people.” National Institute for Health and Care Excellence 2016

Our counselling service employs highly trained assessment and counselling practitioners, who can support adults in challenging times. The benefits of counselling include the provision of safe space and opportunities enabling difficult emotions to be expressed in words within a confidential environment.

Counselling is a ‘talking therapy’ and it supports a deeper awareness of self; it aims to bring unconscious thought patterns into the conscious to bring about understanding and the potential for change for the person.
Bespoke Practitioners offers face to face counselling sessions with a BACP (British Association Counselling Psychotherapists) registered Practitioner.  The initial assessment session will identify the approach that is centred to your personal requirement.  There is the option of walk and talk therapies and approaches will be discussed in the initial assessment session.

Bespoke Practitioners have experience in a wide range of child related needs including: disability, loss, bereavement, stress, anxiety, depression, abuse, mental health including mental health, domestic violence, attachment, educational needs.

Counselling runs from the Bespoke Practitioners Therapy Venue in North Essex.

This is a comprehensive assessment which includes standardised testing of underlying ability, cognitive skills and attainments in literacy. An in-depth analysis of test results is provided and detailed recommendations are made regarding the child’s learning.

A diagnostic judgement is made about the presence of Dyslexia, and if appropriate, other co-existing specific learning difficulties.

This service includes:
•    Pre-assessment consultation with parents/carers (either face-to-face, by telephone or email)
* This initial consultation may take place at the point of contact with Bespoke Practitioners, and so may be carried out by another member of the team

•    The gathering of background information as appropriate (and with the permission of parents/carers). This family and the school are required to complete pre-assessment questionnaires. This process may also include the reading of reports from other agencies, where parents have provided copies.

•    The assessment session – which usually takes 2 ½ to 3 hours. For younger students, or in exceptional circumstances, the assessment may be split into two shorter sessions. The assessment would take place in my home, although on occasions, it may be appropriate to conduct the session at the Bespoke Centre.
* Please refer to the separate guidance sheet regarding what to expect during the assessment

•    A full written report, which will be sent out (by post) within 15 working days

•    An additional copy of the full report will be sent electronically (if requested)

•    A follow-up consultation (face-to-face or by telephone) if parents/carers wish to discuss the report

•    A post-assessment liaison with school (where appropriate)

Any further support/advice requested by the school or parent would be chargeable at an hourly rate