FocusPsychology

General information

FocusPsychology was established in 2006 by Jagdish Barn, a Chartered Educational Psychologist. Over the years our philosophy and approach to delivery of psychological services has evolved by listening to our clients and in direct response to societal needs and changing legislative frameworks. Our clients are our most important critics and it is testament to our collaborative and highly professional approach to service delivery that the majority of our growth has occurred through word of mouth.

Our approach to work is holistic in nature, solution orientated and community focused. We are always adding to our team of multi-disciplinary professionals (Educational Psychologists, Specialist Therapists, Clinical Psychologists) allowing us to offer a wide range of support and therapeutic services at the point of need. We are specialists in working with very vulnerable families and with looked after children. We are highly skilled at supporting and advising early years providers, schools and other agencies on approaches and interventions that make a real difference to the lives of children and young people exhibiting social, emotional and behavioural difficulties.

The main emphasis of our approach is to empower and enhance the environments around the children and young people we strive to support. However, we understand that direct work also has a role to play and we provide assessments of complex needs and direct therapeutic intervention using a variety of approaches. We have a particular interest in the use of whole school community approaches such as Solution Focused thinking and Mindfulness to reduce stress and promote well-being in children, young people and their families, as well as the professionals that work hard to educate and support them.

We are skilled in assessing all areas of cognitive, developmental and educational, as well as social psychology, covering themes such as attachment and loss, the emotional effects of neglect and abuse, social learning, self-efficacy and resilience, emotional intelligence, personal constructs, systemic factors, personality and identity, as well as motivation and learning ability/capacity.

We are skilled at supporting families to make the necessary changes in order to prevent their children from being taken into care or from being permanently removed from their care. Our approach is respectful, non-threatening, non-judgemental and acknowledging of the many societal reasons why families find themselves in crisis. We work in partnership with the other agencies involved with the families (e.g. social workers, drug rehabilitation counsellors).

We also work with foster carers providing advice, support, training and mentoring and offer pre and post adoption support to families. We are skilled at meeting the therapeutic needs of families under considerable stress such as refugees and asylum seekers.

We have a detailed knowledge of the revised Early Years Foundation Stage Framework and the current National Curriculum. We also keep up to date with changing legislation in the area of Education, particularly SEN and Ofsted. Our work aims to support clients in improving the five outcomes of the Every Child Matters framework for the children and young people they teach and take care of. We support and advice early years providers and schools on the different ways that funding sources such as the Pupil Premium and SEN Place funding can be most effectively utilised.