Other Therapies
Play Therapy
Play Therapy uses a variety of play and creative arts techniques to alleviate chronic, mild and moderate psychological and emotional conditions in children that are causing behavioural problems and/or preventing children from realising their potential.
Occupational Therapy
Occupational therapists help with barriers that affect a child’s emotional, social, and physical needs. To do this, they use everyday activities, exercises, and other therapies.
OT helps children play, improves their ability to access learning and supports their daily activities. It also boosts their self-esteem and sense of accomplishment. With OT, children can:
- Develop fine motor skills so they develop good handwriting or computer skills
- Improve eye–hand coordination so that they can develop their play and improve necessary skills to access learning
- Begin to understand their sensory needs and how they can use strategies to help keep them regulated
Therapy Dogs
Educational Psychologist
The role of the educational psychologist is varied but includes:
- Observing the child in the class or the playground
- Speaking with the child or young person to get their views about what is going well in school and what might be difficult
- Looking at examples of class work
- Speaking to professionals who are involved with the child
- Liaising with parents
- Analysing existing data (e.g. assessment already completed by the school)
- Conducting tests or tasks
Our EP is a trauma specialist and delivers training to our staff on a range of topics such as:
- Nurture
- Attachment
- Resilience
- Mindset and Motivation
- Mediated Learning
- Solution-oriented approaches
Speech and Language Therapy
SLT aims to help children progress by making learning fun and engaging. Some of the strategies that your child might encounter are:
Language intervention activities: playing, talking, using pictures, books, toys or other objects to stimulate language development. This includes modelling correct vocabulary.
Articulation activities: practising specific speech sounds. The therapist will show your child how to move their mouth to make the sounds and might demonstrate for them to copy.
Oral exercises: tongue, lip and jaw exercises and facial massage aimed at strengthening the muscles of the mouth.
Dance and Movement Psychotherapy
Dance Movement Psychotherapy (DMP) recognises body movement as an implicit instrument of communication and expression. In DMP, the therapist engages creatively with their client(s) using natural movement of the body and dance, as well as verbal and non-verbal reflection. DMPs offer an embodied approach to their client’s lived experience of society, how they experience living in their body and their relationship with their body. They can also explore emotional responses that may be hard to put into words.
With the focus being on the moving body and non-verbal phenomena means that DMP can also support:
· Awareness of the self, including self-esteem, self-confidence, personal autonomy, and self-expression through the integration of emotional, cognitive, physical, and social perspectives
· Exploration of inner resources through contained creative movement play
· Development of tools with which to express or manage overwhelming feelings or thoughts
· Trust within relationships through opportunity to test the impact of self on others in a safe and contained environment
· Space to test the relationship between inner and outer reality and opportunity to increase and rehearse adaptive coping behaviours
· The potential for physical, emotional, and cognitive shifts as DMP promotes experiencing links between actions, feelings, and thoughts
DMPs work with children and adults of all ages and abilities, and with people who experience a wide range of difficulties. For example, people may be experiencing mental or emotional distress or conflict, problems with communication or information processing, difficulties with body image, physical discomfort or movement restrictions.
Music Therapy
Music Therapy is an established psychological clinical intervention, delivered by HCPC registered music therapists to help people whose lives have been affected by injury, illness or disability through supporting their psychological, emotional, cognitive, physical, communicative and social needs.
Music Therapists draw upon the innate qualities of music to support people of all ages and abilities and at all stages of life; from helping new born babies develop healthy bonds with their parents, to offering vital, sensitive and compassionate palliative care at the end of life.
Central to how Music Therapy works is the therapeutic relationship that is established and developed, through engagement in live musical interaction and play between a therapist and client. A wide range of musical styles and instruments can be used, including the voice, and the music is often improvised. Using music in this way enables clients to create their own unique musical language in which to explore and connect with the world and express themselves.
Music Therapists work across a broad spectrum of need in a wide variety of settings to enable children and young people to:
· Explore and express thoughts and feelings
· Nurture social interaction and communication skills
· Encourage creative and spontaneous play
· Develop concentration and co-ordination
· Increase awareness of themselves and others
· Boost self-esteem and build resilience
· Stimulate language and listening skills
· Strengthen family and peer relationships
Mentoring
Mentoring is delivered by our trusted adults; sessions offer our children quality time with a trusted adult and a safe environment in which to speak freely. Sessions offer support, encouragement and fun.