Clinical Support Services

Trust

The young people who come to New Reflexions have often had difficult early experiences that are  hard to make sense of. Very often, these challenges have been followed by multiple placement breakdowns.

By the time they reach us they may well have learned not to trust and have developed a whole range of strategies that are all about self-defence. They may find it hard to manage feelings, particularly anger and distress. They may find it hard to understand or care about what others may feel. They may think things have been their fault, that they are to blame for all that has happened. They may feel ineffective and not want to co-operate. They may want to attempt to control all aspects of their experience, and they may find it difficult to feel that they belong anywhere. They may not feel safe.

Insecurity

These types of difficulties are best understood in terms of attachment insecurity. At New Reflexions our goal is to promote attachment security and resilience. We do this by providing an integrated service in which all elements of the organisation, care, education and the clinical team, work together to provide a robust, thoughtful and nurturing environment that might enable more positive models of relationship, and promote a more positive view of the self.

The Secure Base Model

In order to do all this effectively we use The Secure Base Model, developed by Professor Gill Schofield and Dr Mary Beek. By effectively targeting the five domains that are associated with attachment security we hope to make a positive, evidenced based impact on the lives of our young people.

The clinical team are all highly qualified and experienced in working with young people in residential care. We provide individual therapy sessions in our designated suite of therapy rooms, and we conduct monthly consultations with staff teams.

We are able to administer a range of bespoke psychometric assessments and we regularly apply psychological measures in order to chart progress. In addition, we deliver an extensive programme of in house training covering attachment theory, developmental trauma, sexually harmful behaviour, emotional regulation, ASD, ADHD, to name but a few.

Meet The Team

Heather Grainger

Specialist Speech and Language Therapist (SaLT)

Heather qualified with a BSc in Clinical Language Sciences (Speech and Language Therapy) in 1987 from Leeds Metropolitan University. She is a registered member of the HCPC and RCSaLT.

Having begun her career with a mixed caseload of children and adults, she has chosen to specialise in the fields of learning disabilities and Autism for the last 30 years. She has had the opportunity to work alongside a number of specialist provisions to develop the SaLT delivery across their services. Her focus is on developing communication friendly environments, supporting the functional communication needs of her clients and facilitating the care teams to become skilled communication partners. She has maintained her skills and experience through ongoing CPD and regular access to both peer and specialist supervision.

Alongside her clinical work, she is also a tutor for the Communication Trust’s Platform 3 course and has developed, in partnership with Course Beetle, the Inclusive Communication Course.

Dr Gemma Jones

Chartered Psychologist

BSc (Hons), MA, D. Couns. Psych, CPsychol

Dr Gemma Jones is a Chartered Counselling Psychologist registered with the Health and Care Professions Council and British Psychological Society, with over 11 years’ experience as a practitioner. Dr Jones’ training and experience enables her to work across the lifespan from a variety of psychological models: applying theory and research in a range of settings. Her approach is centred within attachment theory and this remains a key area of interest alongside psychological trauma.

Dr Jones has additional trainings in DDP (Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy), EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing) for adults, and children. She is qualified to use a portfolio of psychometric assessments and clinical procedures assessing intelligence, personality, autism, trauma symptomatology, and psychopathology.

Tamsin Gough

Art Psychotherapist

Tamsin is an HCPC registered Art Psychotherapist who has 3 years training and clinical experience working with children and adults in a range of settings, and 10 years experience working with learning difficulties, disabilities, mental health and challenging behaviour.

Working from a  psychodynamic perspective, with a focus on attachment theory and using a mentalizing stance, Tamsin has worked with complex trauma and creates a safe place to help build resilience and manage feelings and behaviours.

Tamsin uses evidence based practice to promote the wellbeing and self-efficacy of those she works with.

Dr Helen Taylor

Forensic Psychologist

Helen is an HCPC registered Psychologist (Forensic) with 7 years training and clinical experience with children and young people across a range of settings.

Helen has experience in multi-systemic therapy, youth offending, HSB and forensic CAMHS.

Helen uses an integrated approach to practice founded in evidence based research.

She is committed to promoting the welfare and wellbeing of young people, adopting a strength-based approach to support young people and children to build their resilience, meet their goals and thrive.

Lotte Wood

Assistant Psychologist

Lotte is an Assistant Psychologist with an M.Phil. in Psychology and Education from the University of Cambridge. She also has Graduate Basis for Chartered Membership from the British Psychological Society.

Lotte is also a qualified teacher and has extensive experience of working with both adults and young people. In addition, she has spent six years as an Outdoor Instructor working with a broad range of individuals in a variety of different contexts, including those who present with behaviors associated with developmental trauma and insecure attachment styles.