Conversations about Consultation

Dr LeMarra Williamson is a Senior Practitioner Educational Psychologist and Academic Tutor at the University of East Anglia and the University of East London, where she contributes to the training and supervision of doctoral students on the Educational Psychology Doctorate (EdPsyD) programme. Her career combines professional practice, teaching, and research, with a strong emphasis on equality, diversity, and inclusion, and on ensuring educational psychology works in ways that empower children, families, and schools in diverse communities.Her research and practice are underpinned by a commitment to strength-based and collaborative approaches. She has worked extensively with schools, families, and young people to move beyond deficit narratives and instead identify, amplify, and build upon existing strengths and resources.A central contribution to the field has been her creation of the Tree of Change consultation framework, a model of practice designed to support more inclusive and positive educational psychology consultations. The Tree of Change shifts focus away from “what is wrong” towards “what is working,” by exploring existing resources and strengths (the roots), the collaborative process of consultation and shared understanding (the trunk), and the strategies, actions, and positive outcomes that emerge (the branches and leaves). Research into this framework has shown that it not only leads to more balanced and strength-focused action plans but also amplifies the voices of pupils, families, and teachers, particularly in communities where traditional models may otherwise have been deficit-based.Dr Williamson’s research has been published in peer-reviewed journals, including her 2022 article in Educational and Child Psychology, and she continues to supervise and support trainee educational psychologists conducting research in areas such as SEND, inclusion, and youth experiences in educational and legal contexts.Alongside her academic role, she remains committed to her applied work as a practitioner psychologist, using consultation, assessment, and intervention to support children’s learning and wellbeing. Through her teaching, writing, and professional practice, Dr Williamson has made a distinctive contribution to the development of strength-based, inclusive educational psychology, with the Tree of Change providing a framework that bridges research, theory, and practice.Faculty profile: https://research-portal.uea.ac.uk/en/persons/lemarra-williamson/

We are honoured to have with us Dr Sebastian Kraemer, a distinguished clinician, writer and honorary consultant at the Tavistock & Portman NHS Trust. Over the past half century, Sebastian has shared his reflections and learning with others, drawing deeply on his experiences with colleagues, patients, and their families.After a first degree in philosophy, Dr Kraemer studied medicine, trained in paediatrics and then in psychiatry, completing his child and adolescent training at the Tavistock Clinic. He was on the clinic staff as a trainer and consultant psychiatrist from 1980 to 2003, at the same time as combining his paediatric training with systemic therapy as a consultant psychiatrist in the Whittington hospital paediatric department. Dr Kraemer has also been facilitating staff groups since the late 1970s and this is now his main work, along with a membership of a regular family therapy reflecting team, based in a north London GP surgery.During this episode we reflect together on on the process of consultation, the use of structure and learning from working with groups. To see a list of his publication please visit his website: www.sebastiankraemer.com

After teaching for seven years in Dublin, Michael O’Loughlin earned a Ph.D. in Psychology from Columbia University in New York. He later trained as a psychoanalyst at Adelphi University on Long Island and is now Professor in the College of Education and Health Sciences and the Derner School of Psychology at Adelphi. Michael teaches courses for teachers, school psychologists and clinical psychologists in training. Of the many books he has authored or edited, five of those books focus specifically on children and adolescents including Precarities of 21st century childhoods, released in 2023. He is editor of the book series, Critical Childhood & Youth Studies from Bloomsbury. Alongside directing the Adelphi Asylum Project, he has a private practice for psychotherapy and psychoanalysis with a strong emphasis on child, adolescent, and family work.Web: michaeloloughlinphd.comFaculty profile: https://www.adelphi.edu/faculty/profiles/profile.php?PID=0064

We're meeting with Bethanie Atinuke Sonola, year 2 trainee Educational Psychologist completing her doctorate at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust. This short episode is to say a big welcome to Bethanie. We learn about Bethanie and her journey into training and share are some of the things that she hopes the podcast will explore during her time as a co-host.

We are so lucky to have with us Dr Jeffrey Brown and Starr Greensky. Jeff is currently an Assistant Professor at San Diego State University on the School Psychology Program and Starr is a student and School Psychology intern, working with Jeff. We speak with them about the development and application of a multicultural, gender, and sexually diverse affirming school‐based consultation framework. We also speak about contextual influences, colonialism and working with and in diverse communities. We were so privileged to speak with Starr and Jeff, they shared such interesting insights. We hope you enjoy listening to this episode!

Dr Anwen Marshall graduated from Bristol University in 2021 and currently works in Bristol City Council as an Educational Psychologist (EP), where she also holds the role of ‘person-centred champion’. Before training as an EP, Anwen worked as an Assistant EP in London for two years, based in a primary school.For her doctoral research, Anwen explored EP views on children and young people's participation in consultation meetings using both a online questionnaire and Appreciative Inquiry-informed interviews. Her research found a difference between beliefs and current practice, where trainee EPs/EPs generally believed in the benefits of participation, but practice often not mirroring this. Attitudes, facilitators and barriers were explored and Anwen very generously shared some of these in today's episode. She also shares elements from the model for participation she created as a product of her research, one which considers both system-wide and interpersonal practical strategies to advance children and young people's participation in consultation. We were really privileged to speak with Anwen about her research and hope this promotes reflection on our practice.

We were so privileged to speak with Laleh Laverick in this episode about a range of important factors schools are dealing with today. Laleh speaks from a wealth of expertise and experience from her role as a Leadership and Management Adviser at Hackney Education, as well as the various roles she has held in inner city primary schools - including teacher, Special Educational Needs Co-ordiator and Head Teacher - for over 20 years.Laleh has served as an Executive Headteacher of 6 inner city schools., as well as a National Leader in Education linked to a Teaching School. She has supported ‘Women Leading in Education’ and ‘BAME leadership’ programmes, as well as being a school governor. Laleh has published articles in the Chartered College of Teaching’s journal and in journals on Early Years Education. Laleh believes that schools are at their best when their vision and ethos are clearly communicated by school leaders to all stakeholders and the culture of schools is one of high ambition for their communities. We loved speaking with Laleh about so much of her experiences working in various roles in UK schools. We reflect on the current factors influencing schools in London and Special Educational Needs departments generally, as well as the important role of understanding varying professional cultures when contracting and collaborating. We hope you enjoy listening to this episode and we look forward to reading some of your reflections about the topics discussed!

Today we are so privileged to have with us Dr Lauren Kaiser, PhD, NCSP who is a Nationally Certified School Psychologist (NCSP). Currently, Dr. Kaiser is an Associate Professor and Program Coordinator for the School Psychology Graduate Program in the Psychology Department at Millersville University, Pennsylvania, in the United States.She received her Bachelors degree in Elementary Education, and earned her Masters and Doctoral degrees in School Psychology from the University of Maryland, College Park. Prior to her faculty assignment, Dr. Kaiser worked in a variety of professional capacities within urban, suburban, and rural schools across eight states in the U.S. She served as an elementary school teacher; school psychologist; and a trainer, consultant or coach of Instructional Consultation Teams and the Double Check and Bullying Classroom Check-Up programs. Her teaching and research interests are school consultation, teacher coaching, consultation training, and implementation science to help promote safe, supportive, equitable, and instructionally matched school environments for all students. Dr. Kaiser serves on the editorial board for the Journal of Educational and Psychological Consultation.She co-facilitates the NASP Consultee Centered Consultation Interest Group with Dr. Danny Newman. Dr. Kaiser and Dr. Newman were recently invited to co-author Best Practices in Instructional Consultation in the NASP Best Practices 7 series. They have worked together on several projects investigating the use and effects of deliberate practice training on the development of consultant communication micro-skills and consultation efficacy, which have resulted in peer-reviewed manuscripts and conference presentations. Dr. Kaiser’s initial consultation research focused upon the acceptability and effects of the Instructional Consultation and Instructional Consultation Teams model. Presently, Dr. Kaiser also serves as a consultant on large-scale training grants investigating the training and efficacy of the Double Check Classroom-Check-Up Model, a teacher coaching model which focuses upon enhancing culturally responsive teaching and student engagement. She has co-authored a chapter on innovations in coaching for the Handbook of School Mental Health: Issues in Clinical Child Psychology, as well as co-presented in invited national conference panels on the topic of school coaching to enhance equity in school discipline.We spoke with Lauren about her research into teacher satisfaction, seeking feedback, training novice consultants and ongoing learning and supervision of consultation. We hope you enjoy listening and reflecting on this episode!

We are so lucky to have spoken with Dr Catherine Kelly and Dr Esther Kambe Kuria about their recent publication on social justice in Educational Psychology in Practice. Catherine is an Assistant Director for the Doctorate in Educational and Child Psychology at the University of Manchester and an Educational Psychologist for Bury Metropolitan Borough Council. Esther graduated from the Doctorate in Educational and Child Psychology at the University of Manchester and currently works in Cheshire East Local Authority. In this episode, we touch on a range of topics from attunement skills and group consultation to intersectionality and social justice principles in educational psychology services. We loved speaking with Esther and Catherine and have learnt so much from this conversation. We hope you enjoy listening!Article Reference: Esther K Kuria & Catherine Kelly (2023): Exploring social justice principles within an educational psychology service, Educational Psychology in Practice, DOI: 10.1080/02667363.2023.2226857

Dr. Collier-Meek is a licensed psychologist, Board Certified Behaviour Analyst and an Associate Professor of School Psychology at Teachers College, Columbia University. She also serves as an Associate Editor for School Psychology and provides reviews to several journals, for which she has been twice honoured as reviewer of the year. Mel’s research interests includes implementation science and she conducts applied school-based implementation research. She has specific expertise in intervention fidelity and teacher consultation. We loved speaking with Mel about her work on implementation science and reflecting on consultation using a DisCrit lens. We hope you enjoy this episode :)

In this episode we were honoured to speak with Dr Dale Bartle and Dr Xavier Eloquin, two of the three editors of the "Learning from the Unconscious" book which explores Psychoanalytic Approaches in Educational Psychology. We thoroughly enjoyed speaking with Dale and Xavier and we hope that this episode stimulates curiosity and reflections about consultation practice.

In this episode with speak with three of the 4 co-founders of TEPICC, the trainee-led initiative for cultural change in Educational Psychology and beyond. We were very lucky to speak with Jason, Hannah and Yasmin and shout out to Mickel Johnson, who was sadly unavailable to record the episode. Jason, Hannah and Yasmin all completed their doctoral training at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust. Jason and Yasmin currently work as Educational Psychologists in the London Borough of Hackney and Hannah works as an Educational Psychologist in Barnet Educational Psychology Service. We thoroughly enjoyed speaking with TEPICC about their formation, hopes for the group and reflections on practice and consultation. We hope you enjoy the episode!

In this episode we speak with Cathy and Louise about their recent publication on a framework for developing consultation practice. Dr Cathy Atkinson is the curriculum director for the initial doctoral programme in educational psychology training at the University of Manchester and Dr Louise Jones is a Lead Specialist Educational and Child Psychologist at Lancashire County Council. Louise completed her thesis in consultation, including the application of Motivational Interviewing in consultation practice. We speak together about some of the elements of the National Association of School Psychology (NASP) framework which informed their approach and the integration of motivational interviewing techniques into practice. We hope you enjoy this episode as much as we enjoyed recording it!

Dr Cyril Pickering is a school psychologist who lives and works in Washington, DC. He received his Masters and PhD from the School Psychology program at the University of Maryland. Cyril was a contributor to the book "Becoming a School Consultant", which reflects on the experiences of consultation trainees as they learn the craft. His chapter, "Relationship Building and Objectivity Loss", documents lessons he learned while building effective collaboration with teachers. Cyril currently works on two school programs which serve youth and young adults who are incarcerated. We really enjoyed speaking with Cyril in this episode about the importance of relationship building, truly hearing teacher concerns and believing in the process of consultation. We hope you enjoy the episode!

On this episode we were honoured to have with us Dr Daniel Newman, who is currently an Associate Professor on the School Psychology Program at the University of Cincinnati. Among several professional service roles, Dr. Newman is also the current editor of the Journal of Educational and Psychological Consultation. We touch on his research on teaching, training and professional supervision for consultation. We really enjoyed speaking with Danny and hope that you enjoy listening!

Dr Ellie Sakata graduated from the Educational Psychology doctorate from Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust in 2021 and is now working as a qualified Educational Psychologist at Hertfordshire County Council. In this episode, we explore Ellie's thesis which looks at Culturally Responsive Practice in EP work and the the self-reflective framework she created as part of her thesis. We talk about how we can incorporate and reflect on culturally responsive practice within our work with schools, parents and CYP.

Dr Grace Giles graduated from the ed psych doctorate at Nottingham University in 2020 and is now working as a qualified EP at Sandwell Educational and Child Psychology Service. Grace did her thesis looking at the intersection of Motivational Interviewing and Consultation and her thesis title is 'Using sequence analysis to explore the role of motivational talk in consultation' which we talk about in this episode alongside lots of other consultation things!

We're exited to be speaking with Dr Rachael Green, a passionate and experienced Educational Psychologist who speaks with us about using Dynamic Assessment (DA) in EP practice. Rachael has spent over 17 years training and supervising trainee EPs and has worked in a number of local authorities over the span of her longstanding career. She is now currently the director and lead EP at Head Ways Psychology and recently developed a new approach to EP assessment called the ‘Multi-Aspect Model of Learning’ (MAML), which based on the work of Vygotsky and designed around DA principles, to be used in everyday EP practice.It was a real honour and pleasure to speak with Rachael and we hope you enjoy listening!

Today we speak with Helen Shaw, an experienced Organisational Consultant. Touching on social defences, group dynamics and the importance of collaboration and boundaries, she raises curiosity of what might be happening for schools/organisations.It was a pleasure to be apart of this thought provoking discussion around taking a systems psychodynamic approach to organisational consultation and we hope you enjoy listening!

Today we are speaking with Professor. Shaalan Farouk a senior lecturer at New York University in Abu Dhabi. Shaalan previously worked as an Educational Psychologist in London for over 20 years. He completed his PhD in Organisational Psychology at Birkbeck College, University of London. Shaalan’s publications on group process consultation and teacher emotions continues to have an impact on the work of Educational Psychologists to date. His current interest lie in narrative psychology approaches and focusing on the autobiographical memories of adolescents excluded from school. We hope you enjoy this episode!

We're meeting with Zahra Ahmed a year 2 trainee Educational Psychologist completing her doctorate at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust. This short episode sadly says goodbye to two of our talented and loved co-hosts and a big welcome to Zahra. We share are some of the things that we hope the podcast will continue to explore and discuss some of the learning that will be taken away. Jessica and Emily still have a few more episodes coming out, so it's not goodbye just yet! But we do wish them the very best of luck in their final year of training!

Today we are speaking with Professor. Aaron Fischer, a licensed psychologist and board certified behaviour analyst. He is also dee-endowed professor of school psychology and adjunct assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Utah. He is also director of the Huntsman Mental Health Institute Home programme interdisciplinary paediatric feeding disorders clinic there too. He has worked with children and young people with Social Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH) difficulties and their families for over 15 years now. His research interests lie primarily at the intersection of technology, behaviour and mental health, particularly, in tele-health and tele-consultation and how these apply to school psychology.

In this episode we speak with Robin Solomon - an esteemed consultant social worker from The Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust. Robin currently works in the fostering adoption and kinship care team and before this worked for 16 years as a senior lecturer at Brunel University, where she taught Child Care Social Work at graduate and postgraduate levels.Robin's particular interests lie in relationship-based practice in social work and she has written extensively about a psychoanalytic approach to this work.We talk in this episode about how some of these themes can be explored and applied in psychological practice, particularly to Educational Psychology.

In this episode we speak with Patrick Langford, a now newly qualified EP from the Institute of Eductation, who completed his thesis exploring what makes consultation effective in EP practice.We talk about all things consultation, particularly thinking about the application of consultation theory to practice and a consideration of what consultation is and how this might differ depending on your training institution or experience. Patrick discusses some of his findings from his thesis and what this might mean for the profession.We found this a really stimulating discussion and hope you enjoy listening to hearing Patrick speak with us.

In this episode we speak with Professor Antoinette Miranda from Ohio State University. Antoinette is a professor of School Psychology in the Department of Educational Studies at Ohio State and has several research areas of interest and publications in these areas including thinking about effective interventions with at-risk children in urban settings, consultation services in urban settings and the development of racial identity and its relationship to academic achievement. She has also been teaching cultural competence in school psychology practice to school psychology students. We think this topic is so important and we hope you find the conversation as stimulating and enjoyable as we did to speak with Antoinette.

We are really delighted and exited today to be speaking with Sharone Maital and Ingrid Hylander.Emma met both Sharone and Ingrid through the International School Psychology Association conference, or ISPA for short, where they were both co-chairs of the consultee centred consultation task-force which is part of ISPA.Both have had a long involvement with training psychologists IN consultancy as well as BEING practitioners and prolific publishers in the field. Ingrid was an associate professor at the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden. Sharone has been the director of service and deputy chief psychologist for Israels north region.The two met at ISPA a number of years ago and have since both been really involved in consultation research and practice. We begin by hearing a little about their journeys to becoming psychologists.

Hi, welcome to this episode of conversations about consultation.In this episode we speak with Professor Bill Erchul from North Carolina state university.Bill has had a 36 year career as a trainer of school psychologists in the states and has a strong research record in consultation including co-editing a volume with Susan Sheridan in relation to research in school consultation.He has had a significant dedication to both science and practice within school psychology in the states and more widely.It was a pleasure to speak with Bill and we hope you enjoy listening to this episode.References mentioned:Caplan, G., Caplan, R. B., & Erchul, W. P. (1994). Caplanian mental health consultation: Historical background and current status. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research, 46(4), 2.Erchul, W. P., Raven, B. H., & Ray, A. G. (2001). School psychologists' perceptions of social power bases in teacher consultation. Journal of Educational and Psychological Consultation, 12(1), 1-23.Wilson, K. E., Erchul, W. P., & Raven, B. H. (2008). The likelihood of use of social power strategies by school psychologists when consulting with teachers. J. Educational and Psychological Consultation, 18(2), 101-123.Erchul, W. P., & Martens, B. K. (2010). Model Description and Application. In School Consultation (pp. 105-125). Springer, New York, NY. ChicagoErchul, W. P. (1987). A relational communication analysis of control in school consultation. Professional School Psychology, 2, 113-124.Erchul, W. P., & Raven, B. H. (1997). Social power in school consultation: A contemporary view of French and Raven's bases of power model. Journal of School Psychology, 35, 137-171.

In this episode we speak with Helen Kerslake and Jane Roller from Westminster Kensington and Chelsea Educational psychology consultation service about their journey to becoming EPs and their experience of working in a service that places consultation at the centre of the work they do.It was so interesting to speak with Helen and Jane about their services relationship with Patsy Wagner and her model of consultation. They both spoke about the service being known as ‘Gods little acre’ before becoming a tri-borough where all the schools in the area embraced consultation and it was embedded fully. Both Jane and Helen felt it was important to continue this at the service to form part of Patsy’s legacy at the service.We found this conversation really inspiring and loved how Jane and Helen drew emphasis on the importance of our role in collaborating with consultees and being on a journey with them.References/readings mentioned:Bateson, G. (1970). Form, substance, and difference. Essential Readings in Biosemiotics, 423-­440. https://faculty.washington.edu/jernel/521/Form.htmDowling, E. (2020). Taking the clinic to school: A consultative service for parents, children and teachers. In E. Dowling & E. Osborne (Eds.), The Family and the School: A Joint Systems Approach to Problems with Children (2nd Ed., pp. 59-68). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429481734Kerslake, H., & Roller, J. (2000). The Development of 'Scripts' in the Practice of Consultation. Educational Psychology in Practice, 16(1), 25-30. https://doi.org/10.1080/026673600115247Newton. (2020). Problems with IQ and Psychometric Assessment. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/problems-iq-psychometric-assessments-colin-newtonBlank’s Levels of Questioning - salda.org.auWagner, P. (2000). Consultation: Developing a comprehensive approach to service delivery. Educational Psychology in Practice, 16(1), 9-18. https://doi.org/10.1080/026673600115229Wagner, P. (2008). Consultation as a framework for practice. In L. Woolfson & J. Boyle (Eds.), Frameworks for Practice in Educational Psychology: A Textbook for Trainees and Practitioners (1st Ed. pp , 139-162).Watkins, C. & Wagner, P. (2000). Improving school behaviour. Sage. http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781446219096

In this introductory episode Emma speaks in conversation with myself and Emily about our routes onto the doctorate in educational psychology training programme, where our keen interest in consultation in EP practice started, our vision for this podcast and our thoughts on some of the current issues and debates in the field of consultation.Resources/readings mentioned:Kennedy, E. K. & Lee, V. (2021). A distinctive helping relationship. In C. Arnold, D. Bartle, X. Eloquin & M. Fox (Eds.), Learning from the unconscious: Psychoanalytic approaches in educational psychology (pp 122-139). Karnac. ISBN 978-1913494230McIntosh, P. (1988). White Privilege and Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack. https://codeofgoodpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Mcintosh-White-Privilege-Unpacking-the-Invisible-Knapsack.pdf