Apart from all the Educational Psychology work, Shiatsu and Chi Nei Tsang sessions and teaching Buddhism and practicing yoga and meditation, I am also developing my skills in Horticulture. And today I got a place as a volunteer Trainee Grower in ‘Plants and Production’. I am delighted!

It all started in May 2022, when I started a Level 1 City and Guilds Horticulture course at Organiclea, a worker’s cooperative north of Chingford. I had heard about it because it was where I was getting my weekly bag of locally grown, seasonal organic veg.

As a new year’s resolution, in January 2022, I had signed up to Organiclea’s Fruit and Veg Box Scheme . I wanted to contribute to minimising the disastrous effects of the climate emergency in this essential way – to be the change I wanted to see in the world. I had come to face the truth that the lives of all living beings on the planet are at risk of extinction. So many ‘tipping points’ have been passed… we are facing mass species extinction…. what can I, as an individual, do about it?, I wondered.

I decided to be conscious about the food I ate – I was already eating as a vegan and wanted to do more – and Organiclea’s food is produced with in reach of the city, without the harm caused by pesticides, herbicides – and not linked to animal farming, which is cruel and environmentally destructive. For the amount, variety and tastiness of the food, this was a cheaper and easier way to get quality produce. And the energy that was imbued in the food was exquisite, complex, ‘happy’ – another blessing!

Back to the Horticulture Training story… after doing Level 1, I realised that I loved horticulture. Even more, it was really lovely just being on the farm and bonding with the plants and the soil itself and being part of this community.

In July, at the end of the course, a group of us encouraged each other to go to an open evening where we could learn more about the Level 2 course. We filled in a long forms and did an assessment there and then and pick a course. I decided to go for the Level 2 in Practical Horticultural Skills – after all, I needed to learn the basics and it was on a day of the week that I could do. I was delighted when weeks later, I received an email offering me a place on the course.

I decided I would need time to practice more on the farm. I did one of the monthly Volunteer Induction Sessions – I think it was the first Wednesday in September 2022. And just like that, I was free to come on Wednesdays and Fridays at 11am and do some volunteering with anyone else who was there too. I chose to go on Wednesdays. Here’s a picture of one session on the farm, in September when the leeks are ready for harvesting.

In October, my Level 2 Course started and initially it was a bit tricky, getting into the new vocabulary, learning to use the tools properly, making compost and making leaf mould. I also learnt how to use secateurs properly and got my first pair of secateurs. I tried my best to keep up with the homework and prepare for the assessments. There were interesting people to talk to when there was the chance – it was enjoyable way to spend the first few months of my ‘semi-early retirement’.

By the time we finished the first term’s work, it was December, and our final practical assessment of the year was to prune fruit trees in winter!

That night the temperature dropped and it snowed. We came to a snowy white Organic lea that was more beautiful than ever.

Here I am next to my little apple tree, all set to start the pruning!

So then came Janaury 2023 and I joined up on the New Entrants Start-up Scheme (NESS) – that is another story.

Then I heard about some volunteer trainee placements and looked into it and decided to give it ago and apply. I did the interview yesterday and today, 15 March 2023, I got a call to say that I have a place: I am going to be a Trainee Grower in Plants and Production. I am amazed. It has all happened so fast.

I’m following my heart, seeing where it leads, catching and honouring the thread of grief, hope and blessings for all beings throughout all time and space. And it is leading to the soil, to the earth, to the plants and animals – human ones included – all Earthlings.

These EP FAQs were put together to support an understanding of the work of an Educational Psychologist (EP). The work we do is complex and we aim to support children, teens and young people in making progress in their educational learning. To do this we work with families, school staff and other professionals who are involved.

The school visit comes after there is parental permission to work with the child, teen or young person.

It also comes after having a consultation with the family.

If there is a need for a psychological assessment, this includes visiting the school and meeting the school staff – having some ‘consultation’ with them and finding out more information – attendance, their perspective on the individual’s learning journey, the school’s views, concerns and interventions that have been in place and for how long and so on.

It can also include, doing an observation of the child, teen or young person and then some individual work with them.

Individual or ‘direct’ work with the child, teen or young person includes introductions and explaining the purpose of the assessment.

It also includes finding out about the views of the child, teen or young person about their difficulties with learning. This can include use of open ended questions, such as asking about their interests and how they are finding learning at school.

It can also include using psychological tools and approaches depending on the EP’s judgement and experience, for example:

• Self-report questionnaires, such as the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), Resiliency Scales (RS) or the Beck Youth Inventory (BYI).
• ‘Standardised assessment’, such as a ‘cognitive assessment’ – this is an optional part of the overall ‘psychological assessment’, however, it can be confused with the whole ‘psychological assessment’ process itself, particular when the word ‘assessment’ is so broad. Any results from a standardised assessment need to be interpreted cautiously and in the context of the holistic picture.
• Dynamic assessment, which explores the level of ‘mediation’ that a child currently needs and what approaches are needed to build their skills as a ‘learner’.

After the school visit, there may be time to speak again to the school staff, to discuss any initial hypotheses that may have formed. Any next steps are also discussed.

From this, there is likely to be a lot of information gathered, which is being processed and psychologically interpreted. It is this information that is used to complete the EP Report and develop recommendations that are shared with the family and school.

How the EP figures out what needs to be done is covered in another article. This covers more about the use of ecosystemic theory and the ‘consultation model ‘problem analysis’ framework.

If you are interested in a career in Educational Psychology, see the Association of Educational Psychologists (AEP) website. This gives comprehensive information about this career pathway into this worthwhile area of work within educational settings.

Please bear in mind that this is a complex question. Therefore, if you ask another Educational Psychologist (EP) you’ll get another perspective on the answer to this question. At least in the UK, EPs are trained to doctoral level in the field of Educational and Child Psychology. There is pre-requisite training to get on the course itself. if you manage to get on the three year training course, you’ll discover that it is comprehensive it what it covers and includes placement experience.

Those that make it will be trained in a range of skills, including in child development and the interacting factors within an ‘ecological system’.

Using this expertise, the EP uses information from school staff and the families in the ‘consultation meeting’ to discuss the situation and explore it in depth.

There may be a range of additional factors that need to be taken into account – at different levels of the ‘ecological system’ around the child.

Then from there, EP determines the kinds of recommendations that are needed to support the child/teenager/ young person – your child, your teenager – in making progress with their learning. This is done with the aim of ‘working out what to do’ – creating a plan of actions to help the child or young person make effective educational progress within their ability.

Case conceptualisation: During the consultation, the EP uses their expertise to make a professional judgements about how the complex factors interact together (‘initial guiding hypothesis’). The child’s difficulties are ‘conceptualised’ (case-conceptualisation) as fully as possible. The conceptualisation of the case and all its interacting factors is a complex process.

Individual Intervention Plan: The aim of the process is to create a plan about what to do (intervention plan) and to test it out (actually try out what the EP recommends) and develop ways to help the child make process in their learning. Over time, school staff and the family learn what can help the child’s development, participation, learning and achievement. Once this happens the ‘problem’ is solved and there is no more need for EP input.

One ‘problem-analysis’ model has six phases. There are others with fewer, such as the ‘plan, do review’ model. This one gives some detail (too much?) about the process.

1. Background information, role and expectations: this information is the gist of the initial consultation
2. Initial guiding hypothesis: The EP starts to form a concept of what the underlying interactive factors are that are impacting on the ‘problem’
3. Identified problem dimensions: By asking further clarifying questions, the problem is further analysed.
4. Integrated conceptualisation: The key dynamics are identified.
5. Intervention plan and implementation: The EP may make so suggestions about what to try out. You may want to discuss these further and collaboratively you work out what is best to do, and over what period of time. Essentially, the plan at best, includes ‘targets’ that are SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timed. Even better is to write this down so that you can refer to it once you have given it a go – the implementation phase. It takes time to ensure that there is effective implementation.
6. Monitoring and evaluation of actions and outcomes: As the family and school try out the suggestions, they also need to reflect upon what works. The implementation plan may be adapted as the child makes progress. This can be done with or without further input from the EP. Once the child makes sufficient and sustained progress, there is no more problem – it is solved.

An example of reading: A common problem I am asked about is reading. There are many factors that can impact on a child’s ability to develop fluent reading skills: decoding skills, phonological awareness, sight word recognition, vocabulary, verbal reasoning skills and so on.

See Scarborough’s Reading Rope as a theoretical model for developing reading skills.

The EP needs to gather information about them all and make professional judgements about the factors that have impacted positively or negatively on each one.

I am Dr Bernadette Carelse, an Educational Psychologist. I have been working in this profession since 2005. In 2022, I started offering Educational Psychology (EP) Services to families, making me a Private EP for the first time.

Perhaps someone from your school has suggested that your child/teenager ‘gets assessed’ by an Educational Psychologist (or EP or even “EdPsych” for short). Here is some information on an assessment for a child (or young person) involves.

if you decide that you want to go further, and to speak to an EP – to have an initial consultation – the first step is to formally give your consent for this to happen.

I need your consent because as soon as you start speaking to me about your child, I will start to make notes, in case I need to refer to the information later. This private information needs to be stored and looked after and so I need your consent as the parent/carer to do this.

Here is the consent form (below). I hope that it is straightforward.

If you have any questions, want to speak to me or go through the form together, we can also do this before you sign and return the form to me. If you prefer this, please contact me. We can arrange a date/time to do this.

What happens after 30 years of training and practice of yoga and meditation? And over 20 years of teaching it? Combined with over 10 years of Buddhism? Combined with my training and experience of energy cultivation using knowledge of internal energy pathways, my personal practice has evolved into something with a ‘life of its own’.

I call it Buddhist Integral Yoga.

It is Buddhist because it resonates with the ethics, meditation and insight practices of Buddhism, especially the foundations of the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path. My training as a Buddhist has been predominantly in Triratna and I am now an Order Member in this tradition.

It is Integral, because it facilitates a process of integration. Not integration in the sense of becoming a separate, individualistic entity; integration in the sense of discovering the wholeness of being, integrated and interconnected with all beings, seen and unseen.

It is Yoga, because it calls upon the eightfold path of practice outlined in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras and draws parallels with the Noble Eightfold Path, Tantric Buddhist and the energy centres of the psychophysical body.

More than being Buddhist, integrating and yogic, it is a practice that is individualised to your energy pattern and practices. It is an offering to all human beings to facilitate a personalised path to wellbeing and liberation from suffering.

This is not in the sense of that everything will be ‘hunky dory’ and that the body will never feel pain or get ill or die. This is more in the sense of deepening a connection to the reality of being, that we are impermanent, that Unsatisfactoriness and uncomfortableness are part of our experiences. And are experiences are more than the interpretations that we have of them.

The unfolding of this practice does enable a deepening of appreciation, gratitude and compassion – and ultimately a renunciation of some habits and freedom from some reactions that can enable the choices that we have to become more apparent. And the consequences of those choices. And the clarity that this brings leads to a deeper level of understanding that gives us the freedom to be, to live, for the benefit of all beings.

That is one possible potential of Buddhist Integral Yoga.

Another is that if you have aches and pains and joints problems, back ache and headaches, then a personalised practice of movement, stillness and breathing practices may reduce or even eliminate the suffering this causes. It may bring benefit to you, as one of the ‘all beings’.

In Educational Psychology work, there is a lot of ‘jargon’. I hope these “EP FAQs” are helpful for all those working with Educational Psychologists (EPs).

What is a ‘psychological assessment’? Every child, teen or young person (referred to as the ‘individual’) and their particular circumstances are unique and complex.

The psychological assessment – or ‘assessment’ for short – is to find out about the issue or concern and what might be done to help the (child, teen or young person) make progress with their learning.

The process follows after there has been parental consent or permission for EP involvement and then an ‘initial consultation’ with the parents or carers. School staff can be involved by the family to attend if they wish.

The assessment itself is a process that results in recommendations made – this is the ‘psychological advice’ that is sought.

What does the ‘EP Assessment’ include? For the purposes of pricing the work, there are costs in terms of time and resources, including expertise. Here are some of the aspects included:

• Any prior consultation work, as long as this has happened within two weeks of the assessment, and no Record of Consultation was provided (charged separately).
• Costs of travelling and travel time (less than an hour from my home).
• Time to read any additional documents that you provide that can support an understanding of the individual’s needs.
• Time for the school visit and any work done during this time. This can include consultation with school staff, observation of your child, teen or young person and any individual work with them. For more information about school visits, see here.
• The cost of any assessment resources used.
• The cost of any space needed, although the school usually provides this for free.
• An optional follow up consultation with school staff or family – this is to give some feedback – and happens within two days of the assessment.
• Time to reflect upon and analysis the information gathered, formulate hypotheses about it and make recommendations, the ‘advice’.
• A report, outlining the assessment, what was done and psychological analysis of the information gathered. It also includes any recommendations made. This can be expected within 2 weeks of the visit (or the last time that information was collected).

The EP Report is a document that covers what information was gathered together and how – and recommendations made. The information gathered is described in terms of the individual’s ‘strengths’ and ‘needs’ – and the four areas of Special Educational Needs and/or Disability (SEND) as outlined by the SEND Code of Practice 2015, are also used as a framework. These four areas are as follows:

• Communication and interaction: This includes skills to understand and use language and follow social rules and expectations.
• Cognition (thinking) and learning: This includes aspects of attention and concentration, approach to learning, motivation, reading, writing, mathematics, science etc.
• Social, emotional and mental health: This covers emotional wellbeing, emotional regulation and skills in following class rules and routines and getting on with others in their class. It can also include consideration of the impact of family dynamics and past trauma on the CYP’s wellbeing.
• Physical and sensory needs: This covers overall physical health, any medical needs, sensory needs, independence and self-care skills, sleep, diet.

How does an EP figure out what needs to be done? You might be wondering what goes into the process of creating psychological advice and developing the recommendations and for a brief glimpse into this complex process, see this article here.