Supporting Individuals And Teams To Thrive

Educational psychologist, consultant and trainer, Fionna Shaw, offers individual and team support to adults, children and families.

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Fionna Shaw Educational Psychologist, Consultant and Trainer

I’m Fionna, an educational psychologist, consultant, and trainer based in West Yorkshire, with over twelve years' experience supporting children, families, schools, and organisations.

I provide psychological services for individuals - helping children, young people, and adults address challenges, build resilience, and enhance emotional wellbeing - as well as support for teams and organisations seeking to improve systems and promote inclusive, collaborative environments.

Person-centered, strengths-based

I believe that change happens when we can openly discuss challenges and draw on people’s strengths. My person centred, strengths based approach creates a safe, supportive space where we can explore together and reach meaningful solutions.

Tailored Support for Resilience, Relationships and Wellbeing

By asking key questions and listening deeply I help identify core issues, creating a plan together to address challenges. I provide one-to-one support as well as tailored training and development packages.

Developing Organisations & Teams: Supporting teams to effectively collaborate, enhance communication, and achieve shared goals through tailored evaluation and strategies.
School Inclusion / Exclusion: I address challenges related to exclusions, promoting inclusive practice and ensuring every child has access to an education and their needs met.
School & SEN System Improvement: Helping schools enhance their systems, particularly for special educational needs, fostering academic success and promoting emotional wellbeing.
Emotional & Mental Health - Including Anxiety: Providing support for individuals and organisations dealing with anxiety and other mental health concerns, building tools for emotional resilience.
Self-Esteem & Confidence: Empowering individuals to build self-esteem and confidence, enabling them to face challenges and achieve personal growth.
Relationship Challenges: Assisting individuals, families and organisations in overcoming relationship difficulties through improved communication and understanding.
Communication Needs: Supporting individuals and teams to develop effective communication skills, addressing challenges with clarity and connection.
Relational Trauma and Attachment: Providing support for those impacted by relational trauma, encouraging positive healing and healthy relationship building.
Motivation: Helping individuals and teams to discover and sustain motivation, achieve their goals and make meaningful progress in life.
Loss & Grief: Offering empathetic support for navigating loss and grief, providing tools to process emotions effectively and develop self-compassion.
Change and Transition Planning: Guiding individuals, families and organisations through significant changes with tailored strategies for smoother transitions.
Attendance and school engagement: Identifying the probable causes of school avoidance and non-attendance, providing strategies to support re-engagement.
Emotional Awareness: Helping individuals recognise, understand, and express their emotions effectively to foster personal and relational growth.
Self-Regulation, Anger Management: Teaching skills to manage emotions and behaviours, enabling healthier responses to stress and frustration.
Specific Learning Difficulties: Providing targeted support for specific learning difficulties, helping individuals and organisations build and implement effective strategies for success.
Attention and Concentration: Supporting individuals and organisations in improving learners' focus and concentration, creating better environments for learning and productivity.
Neurodivergence Related Needs: Offering support for neurodivergent individuals, recognising and addressing their unique strengths and challenges.
Stress Management and Wellbeing: Providing tools to manage stress effectively and promote overall well-being for a healthier and more balanced life.

Approaches To Support

I draw on the following areas of knowledge and expertise to create a tailored and personalised approach.

Attachment Theory, Nurturing Approaches: Promoting emotional well-being through nurturing and relational strategies tailored to individual, family and organisational needs.
Positive and Strengths-Based Psychology: Focusing on harnessing individual strengths and fostering a growth mindset to develop confidence and build resilience.
Humanistic Psychology: Drawing on humanistic principles, such as empathy and unconditional positive regard to encourage individuals to find their path to well-being and fulfilment.
Solution-Focused Psychology: Guiding individuals and organisations to focus on solutions and build actionable steps to overcome challenges effectively.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy: Encouraging individuals to embrace their thoughts and feelings while committing to meaningful actions aligned with their values.
Person-Centred Planning: Collaborating with individuals to create personalised plans that address their unique needs and aspirations.
Communication and Attunement Principles: Developing effective communication techniques to build stronger, more attuned connections in relationships.
Conflict Management: Offering strategies to resolve conflicts effectively and build healthier, more collaborative relationships and teams.
Restorative Approaches: Supporting individuals and groups to repair relationships and foster understanding through restorative practices.
De-escalation Techniques: Supporting individuals to reflect on their practice and consider adaptations to this, alongside environmental changes, to reduce stress, overwhelm and conflict.
Counselling: Empowering individuals to achieve their goals through application of coaching models aimed at overcoming challenges.
Coaching: Empowering individuals to achieve their goals through application of coaching models aimed at overcoming challenges and building on what is going well.
Supervision: Providing professional support and guidance for reflective practice, skill enhancement, achieving outcomes and encouraging safe practice.

“My aim is to support you to build resilience and improve your sense of wellbeing.

Working at both an individual and systemic level, children and adults, schools, families, and organisations have the opportunity to experience improved personal wellbeing as well as more positive and well-functioning systems and communities.”

Fionna Shaw,
Educational psychologist, consultant and trainer

Adults, Young People and Families

I take a relational and compassionate approach to help you live in alignment with your values and develop the resilience needed to navigate life’s challenges. I create a safe space to explore your needs, desires, and fears, helping you overcome obstacles and achieve your desired outcomes.

Navigating Challenges with Contextual Awareness and Compassion

Understanding behaviour within its context allows me to help individuals and families approach difficulties with greater compassion and intention. By balancing support and challenge and keeping 'one foot in the pain and one in the possibility' we can explore new perspectives and create meaningful solutions that work for you.

From Challenges to Solutions

Taking a relational approach, I meet individuals where they are, helping identify challenges, envision possibilities, and map out a way forward. I use my experience in effective communication and coaching to deeply understand both the issues at hand and what truly matters to you the individual, helping you move toward meaningful solutions.

Organisational and School Services

Organisational support begins with understanding what matters most to your organisation, establishing a shared vision for the future. I draw on the strengths of team members to foster effective communication and build positive working relationships.

Working Towards Change

With extensive experience supporting systemic change, I can help your organisation to effectively meet their aims and improve wellbeing. I support systems through evaluating processes and creating actionable plans for improvement.

Values-Led Support

Understanding and identifying your organisation’s core values is a crucial starting point for improving its overall functioning. I believe that meaningful change happens when challenges are openly discussed, and the skills and strengths of individuals are harnessed to develop effective solutions.

Positive Working Relationships

I create safe spaces and build positive working relationships to enable change. This includes helping your team to become more cohesive, manage conflict, work efficiently, and improve their problem-solving capabilities.

Systemic Change and Inclusive Practice

With over a decade of experience in systemic change within schools and successful collaboration with senior leadership teams, I bring expertise in psychology, teaching and learning, and child development.

This knowledge is applied to promote inclusive practice and enhance outcomes of organisations and their members.

Who Can I Help?

Children and young people
Families
Adults
School teams
Corporate teams
Senior leaders and managers

Supervision and Coaching Services for Psychologists and Professionals

I provide high-quality supervision and coaching to psychologists and professionals looking to develop their practice and find support to reflect within a safe and supportive relationship. I have a wealth of experience supervising psychologists including assistant psychologists and trainees working in a variety of Practice settings.

Qualifications and Registration

I graduated with an Honours degree in Psychology (MA) from the University of Edinburgh in 2009. After several years working with children and young people in various roles in Scotland, Australia and Spain I gained an MSc in Educational Psychology from Dundee University in 2014.

My broad range of experiences across the last twelve years has included working in Local Authorities in both Scotland and England and also in private practice, providing consultancy support to educational psychology services in London and the North West of England.

Fionna Shaw

Educational Psychologist, Consultant and Trainer

Testimonials

Real stories, real impact

My work has made a meaningful impact on the lives of the families and schools that I have supported. Here are a few words from those who have worked with me.

“As an experienced practitioner with extensive knowledge and expertise, Fionna has been an invaluable source of support to me both professionally and personally. She is always attuned to my needs and validates my thoughts and feelings. Fionna has helped me stay solution-focused while offering practical and actionable advice to overcome obstacles and challenges. She is a voice of reason and a compassionate critical friend when needed. Her experience in strategic support has been an invaluable resource for me.”

Will

Psychologist

“Fionna is not only incredibly knowledgeable but also highly skilled at adapting her approach to meet the unique needs of our students and ensuring that parents and staff are kept informed and supported every step of the way.”

Lucy

Management team, Alternative Provision

“As a peer supervisor, Fionna is an empathetic and active listener, who manages to gently encourage reflection and reframing with her questions and reflections. She offered me reassurance when I needed it and guidance when I sought it, without ever imposing her own view point and often with a sense of fun that made me look forward to our supervision sessions!”

Allison

Psychologist

Book A Free Consultation

I provide tailored psychological support to encourage individuals and teams to thrive.

Book A Consultation

Frequently Asked Questions

Please click here to send me an enquiry. I can offer a brief conversation on the phone at no charge at a time of your choosing to work out whether working with me is going to be right for you. You can send me a follow up email after the call if you wish to proceed- you do not need to decide there and then.

I currently offer sessions with individuals and families online. Organisational and school services can be delivered online or in person, depending on location.

Initial individual sessions are charged at a standard fee of £140 and include a brief written summary of our discussion. They last around 75 minutes. This is the standard initial session for both individuals and teams.

Follow up sessions last 50 minutes and are charged at £90. A written summary is not usually provided, however, you are welcomed and even encouraged to take your own notes.

Team and organisation training and development packages vary depending on the nature of the work, including preparation time. A charge for any piece of work will be made clear before work begins.

This will be entirely dependent on your needs and what feels like the best solution for your situation. Sometimes only a few sessions are needed to tackle a very specific issue. Sustainable change does not often happen quickly so more often than not a number of sessions are required and sometimes weekly or fortnightly sessions over a period of time is considered most helpful. Working with schools and organisations can take many forms and it may be that several days of intensive work are required or that work is needed irregularly but over many months and/ or several school terms.