Beyond Psychology

Beyond Psychology’s Closure: 28th March 2024

We close Beyond Psychology this week.

It is now time for our team to move on after 7 incredible years. We will all continue to celebrate what has been achieved in that time – thank you to all the wonderful team members who have travelled along with us over that time. We also extend our thanks to those of you out there who have supported our journey and made Beyond Psychology the success that it has been. And what a journey! One that has seen our small team impact the lives of 1000s of individual young people, their families and those travelling alongside them.

Beyond Psychology has mainly operated in Greater Manchester, with a specific focus within Rochdale. The cared for children community within Rochdale inspired us to develop the way that we did and we kept them in our hearts as we grew. Since 2017, we have also delivered commissioned trauma informed training to across the UK.

As a social enterprise, our drive has always been about focusing on social need, specifically developing a service that targeted building awareness of the impact of ACEs and the connected developmental trauma. Through our experience, we know that people who have experienced ACEs do not have to become part of the associated negative statistics for the social, emotional and educational outcomes. We know that with knowledge, understanding, guidance on empathic ways of helping and managing young people with these experiences, the outcomes can be very different, not only impacting positively on the individual, but also the wider community and society as a whole.

In 2022 we launched our Beyond Academy, a series of pre-recorded trauma informed workshops. The academy gives a good basis for understanding the impact of trauma, but also considers how those working alongside children and young people can support healing through the interactions that they have.

Though we have now closed, our social impact mission remains a significant part of our drive. We have therefore welcomed funding from GMCA to keep the website available until March 2025, for people to be able to utilise the resources.

The academy has already successfully been rolled out to the workforce across Greater Manchester and will continue to be used to help their service wide trauma informed care program.

Any money generated through people accessing the resources will be donated to the Alex Timpson Trust who help fund many fabulous projects for care experienced people and foster carers: https://www.timpson-group.co.uk/alex-timpson-trust/

We know that all the work we have achieved since 2017 will continue to have a ripple effect for all those who have worked with and alongside us. We hope we have left a trail of compassion behind us that will continue to pe*****te the areas in which we worked. We are delighted that our work will continue to have a social impact, both in the content of the workshops and also in supporting the Alex Timpson Trust.

❤️

We are absolutely delighted to be able to let you know that there will be an extension of the Beyond Academy until December 2024 after Beyond Psychology closes.

Funding to continue the website and therefore the workshops has been confirmed through Greater Manchester Combined Authority, particularly in relation to supporting the care leavers programme. This means an extension for the GM workforce and also that anyone else can sign up for £10 and donate to the Alex Timpson’s Trust in the process.

We are really pleased that the workshops will continue to have a social impact, both in their content and also in supporting the Alex Timpson’s Trust who help fund many fabulous projects for care experienced people and foster carers

https://www.timpson-group.co.uk/alex-timpson-trust/

Last week we had another great workshop with Manchester's leaving care team - very engaged, with some brilliant discussion and reflection about how PACE can be used within their work lives.

Exploring different ways we can say things to young people to support connection and reduce threat to enable healing and change to happen.

Really loved the feedback from one of the group facilitators that people found it much more challenging to think of non-PACE examples than PACE-ful ones.

Well done all and thank you for having me!

Kirsty

Hopwood Hall College awarded with the Queens anniversary prize!

…and here they are receiving the award from Queen Camilla.

The highest honour for recognition of fabulous work for further education.

Rochdale is very lucky to have you shining the light for trauma informed practice at its very best.

Well done and may you all bask in this for a long time to come as you continue on the journey…for this is indeed what it is…a journey not a destination.

A massive congratulations to Hopwood Hall College who have received the Queens anniversary prize.

A huge national honour, recognising their outstanding achievements in trauma informed practice across their college community.

This is absolute testament to the staff team and all the learners who have driven the trauma informed ethos forward in absolutely everything that they do, supporting some of the most vulnerable young people in one of the most deprived areas of the country.

To have come this far is an absolute marathon of an achievement.

Kirsty joined the hopwood team in London:

“It felt a real privilege too for me to be there this week in London at the Guildhall dinner ahead of the presentation by the Queen at Buckingham Palace.”

Beyond psychology has been part of the journey since 2018 to support embedding knowledge, understanding and awareness of the impact of adverse childhood experiences.

The incredible college community have run with this and made some massive changes over the last four years to honour the approach… more photos to follow!

Important Update for Beyond Psychology's Closure March 2024

We announce today that Beyond Psychology will be closing at the end of March 2024 after seven incredible years. This has been an immensely difficult decision. Running a small social enterprise in the current economic climate has become too difficult to continue to deliver the quality of service that we want.

Moving on, letting go and change all come with great sadness and also with a sense of jubilation in what has been achieved. This message also comes with appreciation. We would like to extend our thanks to those who have supported our journey over the years and made Beyond Psychology the success that it has been. This appreciation is especially for:

Our small team (past and present) of dedicated practitioners.
The children and young people who have used our service – you have all inspired us on so many different levels.
The incredible parents and foster carers who have worked with and alongside us within a therapeutic parenting model.
The wonderful Social Workers and Supervising Social Workers.
To the commissioners who have had confidence in the different elements of our service delivery.

To all the schools, colleges and wider organisations that have embarked on the trauma informed journey with us and embedded key theory and knowledge into every day interactions with young people.

It is now time for us to move on, but continue to celebrate all that has been achieved in those seven years. We have worked on many different levels to support children and young people’s mental health, often through a trauma informed lens, always holding compassion and nurture at the heart of everything that we do. Beyond Psychology will be leaving a legacy through our accessible training and consultation, which has helped many organisations embed trauma informed practice.

It is hard to put a number on how many lives our small team have touched, both directly and indirectly, through the extensive work that we have completed with individuals, groups, schools, colleges and other organisations across Greater Manchester, and also extending nationally. This number is well into the thousands and therefore we will be closing the service safe in the knowledge that we have reached the level of social impact that we set out to achieve. This was our primary aim when we set up, particularly that this social impact connected into an area of psychology that we hold dear – to raise awareness of the impact of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), empowering people with the knowledge to support healing for all.

As a final offering we are opening up our Beyond Psychology Academy on a ‘pay as you feel’ basis from January 2024.

https://www.beyond-psychology.co.uk/service/beyond-psychology-academy/

This incredible resource will be available on our website until the end of March 2024 and we would like for it to be accessed and available as widely as possible.

Beyond Psychology is still solvent and will be fulfilling all outstanding contracts, continuing to provide high-quality service until the close of the business on 28th March 2024. At this point, Beyond Psychology will cease to exist, but we know that all the work we have done over the last seven years will continue to have a ripple effect for all those who have worked with and alongside us.

Beyond Psychology Academy - Beyond Psychology Online courses for Individuals and Organisations.

Trauma-informed Online Training Courses 💻

⚠️ 75% off our Online Courses ⚠️

Get access here 👉🏼 https://www.beyond-psychology.co.uk/service/beyond-psychology-academy/

✅ £45 for BOTH level 1 and level 2

What’s included?

👉🏼Understanding Attachment & Developmental Trauma
- LEVEL 1
- LEVEL 2

Delivered by Child Clinical Psychologists from Beyond Psychology.

💡6 x sessions per level
💡 20 minute bite size modules
💡 Evidence based approaches
💡 Strategies to support recovery
💡 Multiple accompanying resources/worksheets per each module

✅ We offer access to The Beyond Psychology Academy to whole community organisations/schools/colleges/fostering agencies to support the learning of the impact of developmental trauma and ways to support your young people!

Corporate Price Plans 👉🏼 https://www.beyond-psychology.co.uk/product/beyond-psychology-corporate-plan/

Get Access to our Online courses 👉🏼 https://www.beyond-psychology.co.uk/service/beyond-psychology-academy/

Beyond Psychology Academy - Beyond Psychology Online courses for Individuals and Organisations.

We would like to congratulate the team at Hopwood Hall College, who we have worked with to implement trauma-informed approaches on receiving another award, the Queen's anniversary prize - amazing work!

We’ve been absolutely bowled over with all the celebratory messages we’ve received since being awarded our Queen’s Anniversary Prize!

It’s an honour to be recognised in this way and we’re delighted to see our students, staff and wider communities sharing in the achievement.

Here’s our Principal and CEO Julia Heap, Head of Safeguarding Tracey Marrow and Assistant Principal Greg Scully during last night’s Prize announcement at St James’s Palace!

Trauma-Informed Online Training For You: The Beyond Psychology Academy! -

Trauma-Informed Online Training For You: The Beyond Psychology Academy! This week we come together to mark Children in Need day, supporting disadvantaged children and young people across the UK. This year, there is a specific focus on celebrating the power of positive relationshipsand the impact of these relationships in helping to support children and young people.

FREE WORKSHOP: Understanding the Brain and Helping Children Manage Anxiety

Wednesday 15th & 22nd November held at Woodlanda Children Centre in Heywood 🧠

See the link for more info & to book on 👇🏼

FREE WORKSHOP: Understanding the Brain and Helping Children Manage Anxiety https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/understanding-the-brain-and-helping-children-manage-anxiety-tickets-749290667557?aff=oddtdtcreator Location: Woodland Children Centre Heywood 

Trauma-informed Care Online training!

✅ We shared best practice to help professionals learn how to implement a successful trauma-informed approach within their health, social care or educational setting.

👩🏻‍🏫 - Dr. Kirsty Hughes & Hannah Waugh

We’ve had a great day training professionals from a variety of settings including:

World Vision International
Granta School
St John's College
Gloucestershire County Council
The Regis School
Norfolk Virtual School
Eslington Primary School
Impact Family Services
Unity Academy
Home Office
University of Bolton
Lever Park School
Ysgol Gynradd Aberaeron
Bryanston School
Portsmouth City Council
Springfield
Altrincham Grammar School for Boys
Manor Green Primary School
Trinity CofE/Methodist Primary School
NPTCBC

For more information on how we can support your setting with trauma-informed training please visit our website OR email [email protected] 📩

FREE PARENT WORKSHOP 👶🏼👧🏽🧠

There are still some spaces available!

📍Heywood - The Old Police Station

Part 1: 6th Sept 2023
Part 2: 27th Sept 2023

Please book on via the link below!

See you all soon ☺️

Understanding The Brain & Helping Children Manage Worry & Anxiety Helping Parents Understand the Brain to Help Children Manage Worry, Anxiety & Behaviour

Helping Bury College embed the trauma-informed approach 🧠❤️

📍Bury College

Our aim has been to help staff understand how the behaviours they’re presented with from young people can be due to the impact of trauma/ complex experiences, effecting a young persons emotional regulation & mental health. Empowering professionals with this information & the “so what can we do to help?” across a whole-setting is how we believe we can have the most impact as a social enterprise to support young peoples mental health outcomes.

The Bury college team started their journey to becoming trauma informed September 2022, and have completed the main parts of the journey today. The colleges pastoral team are going to continue to embed this practice during their weekly meetings with each department by revisiting the info they have learnt during our training sessions!

Well done , have a great summer break and we look forward to seeing you in the new academic year! 🌞

🧠The impact of trauma is something that is so important for everyone to be aware of, and especially for those working with young people.

👉🏼Once we are empowered by the knowledge that increases our understanding of the impact of trauma on our brain, body, nervous system, emotions and behaviours, we can also be empowered to support young people who have these experiences via creating safe and therapeutic environments that activate soothe systems and reduce any further activation of their threat system.

FREE PARENT WORKSHOP ☺️

👉🏼 Available spaces on next weeks (part 1) Middleton workshop!

We are looking forward to meeting more lovely parents in person 🥰

These workshops are commissioned via NHS HMR CCG & in connection with (based in a Rochdale)
*therefore are to be accessed by parents living in Heywood Middleton and Rochdale.

Please book your space using the link below:

Understanding The Brain & Helping Children Manage Anxiety (IN-PERSON) In-person workshop: Helping Parents Understand the Brain to Help Children Manage Worry, Anxiety & Behaviour

Embrace the Power of Nurturing 🌻

Just like a flower, our growth and potential are influenced by the environment we're in.

When considering a child’s behaviour as problematic, instead of focusing on the young persons behaviour and blaming them, we find it’s often more helpful to manage behaviour & support them by shifting our focus on what could be impacting the YP in their environment leading to them to be displaying these behaviours.

As well as considering the environment, we want to unpick what emotions these behaviours are trying to communicate to us - Are they sad or angry?

Or did they not having their needs met earlier in life, so they have learnt that behaving in any way that they know will ensure they receive attention (attention from our caregivers as babies is so important for our survival and therefore some young people may learn to do anything they can to gain attention to stay safe, which can be where unwanted behaviours stem from - as an attempt to get their need for attention met - therefore what is known as ‘attention seeking’ behaviour is a survival response (we all need attention to survive!)

Once we look at behaviour through the trauma-informed lens we can began to have more empathy for it and work towards repair 🫶🏻

Our message is to always look beyond the behaviour and to workout what the communication is, so we can support the young person in a way that helps them to feel safer/ better in themselves, which is likely to result in a reduction in the unwanted behaviour 👩‍👦

Thanks to everyone who attended this workshop this morning in Heywood! ☺️

We’ve been doing a lot of our workshops online over the last couple of years as parents gave feedback that the online workshops worked well for their schedules!

We had missed connecting with lovely parents in person so this morning was a treat 🥰

Thanks for all of your contributions 🙌🏻

If you have any feedback please feel free to comment below ⬇️

Understanding The Brain & Helping Children Manage Anxiety (IN-PERSON) In-person workshop: Helping Parents Understand the Brain to Help Children Manage Worry, Anxiety & Behaviour

FREE WORKSHOP SPACES!

*please share- limited spaces*

Workshop: Helping parents understand a child’s brain and manage anxiety 🧠

Dates: Part 1 3rd May, Part 2 24th May

Location: In-person workshop located at The Old Police Station, Heywood.

These workshops have been commissioned by NHS CCG HMR - free spaces open to parents living in Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale.

Book via the link👇🏼

Understanding The Brain & Helping Children Manage Anxiety (IN-PERSON) In-person workshop: Helping Parents Understand the Brain to Help Children Manage Worry, Anxiety & Behaviour

👉🏼WORKSHOP SPACES: Understand the impact of Trauma and Strategies to Support Children and young people.

A FEW PLACES STILL AVAILABLE at our next Workshop - 17th May 2023!

💻We are running an in-depth 2.5 hour workshop on Understanding Trauma & Attachment, providing immediate strategies that can be used within your setting when working with young people!

This workshop will aim to support the learning about why young people with experiences of trauma present with certain behaviours and ways to help manage these behaviours & the underlying emotions, with a focus on what is happening in the brain/nervous system!

Once we understand this, we share strategies/approaches you can use to support emotional regulation of the nervous system in young people, which in turn promotes positive mental health & wellbeing.

See the event booking page for more info 👇🏼

Understanding the Impact of Trauma & Strategies to support CYP Clinical Psychologist, Dr. Kirsty Hughes, provides an understanding of the impact of trauma & ways we can support our YP mental health.

We loved supporting Social Workers to further their understanding about Attachment & Trauma and ways to support the foster carers and young people they work with!

We delivered a session specific to Therapeutic Strategies and Approaches, including PACE (dan Hughes) that they could apply within the support they provide immediately!

Thank you to Beyond Psychology for an excellent staff training session today about Parenting with PACE. The session enabled us to further our knowledge to offer the best support and guidance to our foster carers.

👉🏼ONLINE WORKSHOP SPACES OPEN

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/580416731067

🙌🏻 We loved running the 1 hour free workshop to 80 professionals on the 3rd march!

🫶🏻 Thanks to all 80 of those who attend live & 200+ people who signed up to receive the workshop recording & resources!

💻We are running an in-depth 2.5 hour workshop on Understanding Trauma & Attachment, providing immediate strategies that can be used within your setting when working with young people!

See the event booking page for more info 👇🏼

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/580416731067

👉🏼 What are examples of Developmental Trauma & ACE's?

Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) are stressful events occurring in childhood including:

- Domestic violence
-Parental abandonment through separation or divorce
-being the victim of abuse (physical, sexual and/or emotional)
-being the victim of neglect (physical and emotional)

📈 Research shows that 47% of the population had experienced at least one ACE, while 8% had four or more (Bellis et al., 2015).

📊 ACE's have been found to have lifelong impacts on health and behaviour and they are relevant to all sectors and involve all of us in society. Research shows that compared to people with no ACE's, those with 4 or more ACEs are more likely to:

🧠experience mental health difficulties

🫀develop heart disease

✍️poor academic achievement

🤧develop type 2 diabetes

Many of you may be aware of the misdiagnosis of early life trauma, as ASD and ADHD, and we want to ensure professionals are as aware of what this could look like to help young people to get the best support for them.

🌎 We believe this information should be accessible to all of those working with and supporting families, young people and children. Especially those in health, social and education related professions.

👉🏼 Dr. Kirsty Hughes will share the roadmap that Beyond Psychology currently use to implement the trauma informed approach within multiple educational settings and communities ✍️

⬇️Sign up to our free workshop to learn more & receive the roadmap of trauma-informed support!

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/free-understanding-the-impact-of-trauma-strategies-to-support-cyp-tickets-532257986967?fbclid=IwAR1XWGnGU8us5ZIYEZhY_aDVwso0o5j4nn1xb8413HOzsq0nWHie-ptTq6A

👉🏼FREE WORKSHOP RESOURCES

📌🧠 Understanding the Impact of Trauma & Strategies to support Children and Young People in whole-settings (Eg. schools, colleges, professional groups working with YP)

Thankyou to everyone who attended our workshop this morning & signed up to receive the recorded session! A huge 80 people manage to attend live! ☺️

Also, thankyou to Tracey Marrow, safeguarding manager at Hopwood Hall College for sharing your journey of accessing our training to become a trauma informed setting!

We have extended the resources to our whole network as we know they could be helpful to all! 🌎

Included: Live Trauma Workshop Recording - slides, tipsheet & more support for whole-settings/groups! -

If you would like to know how we can support your whole setting with training to become trauma informed please book a call: https://calendly.com/beyondpsych/30min

Included: Live Trauma Workshop Recording - slides, tipsheet & more support for whole-settings/groups!

🎉👏🏻

We want to say a huge congratulations to everyone at Hopwood Hall College on this achievement!

It’s amazing to see you have been recognised for all of your hard work over the last few years.

They have received the Beacon Award for Widening Participation at the award ceremony in London.

The AoC Beacon Awards celebrate the best and most innovative practice among UK Colleges.

We feel honoured to have been able to work with such a great team over the last few years across the Rochdale and Middleton Campuses, to support and embed a trauma-informed ethos! 👏🏻

Our Principal and CEO Julia Heap – together with our Safeguarding and Wellbeing Manager Tracey Marrow and our Safeguarding Officer Sadia Khan – are pictured here receiving the prestigious Beacon Award for Widening Participation at this afternoon’s award ceremony in London.

The AoC Beacon Awards celebrate the best and most innovative practice among UK Colleges.

This recognition means so much to us and motivates us to keep leading the way on widening participation.

Congratulations to all the other finalists and winners across all categories at this year’s !

We hope you all enjoyed your February half term break!
We are looking forward to supporting parents online again this morning🐯

Mental Health in Schools - Take Control Group 🧠

The final session was completed last week with students from OulderHill Academy in Rochdale!

Tanya & Hannah received thank you notes from the group which was so sweet.

“We want to thank them for coming every week and engaging so well!

It was a pleasure to work with such an amazing group of young people ✨”

👉🏼 What are examples of Developmental Trauma & ACE's?

Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) are stressful events occurring in childhood including:

- Domestic violence
-Parental abandonment through separation or divorce
-being the victim of abuse (physical, sexual and/or emotional)
-being the victim of neglect (physical and emotional)

📈 Research shows that 47% of the population had experienced at least one ACE, while 8% had four or more (Bellis et al., 2015).

📊 ACE's have been found to have lifelong impacts on health and behaviour and they are relevant to all sectors and involve all of us in society. Research shows that compared to people with no ACE's, those with 4 or more ACEs are more likely to:

🧠experience mental health difficulties

🫀develop heart disease

✍️poor academic achievement

🤧develop type 2 diabetes

Many of you may be aware of the misdiagnosis of early life trauma, as ASD and ADHD, and we want to ensure professionals are as aware of what this could look like to help young people to get the best support for them.

🌎 We believe this information should be accessible to all of those working with and supporting families, young people and children. Especially those in health, social and education related professions.

👉🏼 Dr. Kirsty Hughes will share the roadmap that Beyond Psychology currently use to implement the trauma informed approach within multiple educational settings and communities ✍️

⬇️Sign up to our free workshop to learn more & receive the roadmap of trauma-informed support!

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/free-understanding-the-impact-of-trauma-strategies-to-support-cyp-tickets-532257986967?fbclid=IwAR1XWGnGU8us5ZIYEZhY_aDVwso0o5j4nn1xb8413HOzsq0nWHie-ptTq6A