Illuminate-EdIlluminate-Ed Psychology Services Ltd Providing Educational Psychology services to schools and colleges in/around the Teesside and North Yorkshire regions.

Accessing support:

Young people aged 16+

Hello, I’m so glad you’ve found me! 😊I hope you’re OK? If not, let's see if I can do anything to help.

I’m guessing you’re having some difficulties with something in school or college – or maybe things at home or with friends are making school, college or life at home difficult for you? Either way, I’m sorry to hear that, and happy to help if I can. Let me tell you more …

I’m not going to put a lot of information in here, because I want to keep things simple for you. But here is a little bit of information that might help you understand who I am, what I do and what might need to happen next for you.

My name is Linda Fisher and I am an Educational Psychologist (or EP for short). That means:
- I work with young people like you who are finding things tough, especially in school or college.
- My job is to understand why things are tough and find ways to make them better
- That means, I usually do a few different things like:
  - talking to adults who know you,
  - looking at what's happening in school or college,
  - meeting with you for a chat,
  - doing puzzles or games and things like that.
Lots of young people find things difficult sometimes - you are not the only one!!!
There are lots of reasons why things might be tough... but there are also lots of things people can do to find out your reasons, and lots of things people can recommend to make things better.
EPs like me usually only get involved when someone in school or college asks them to:
- That’s usually when the good things they’ve already tried haven’t been working well for you (that happens sometimes!)
- That might be a SENDCO, a tutor, pastoral support or Learning Support Advisors.
I’m sorry to have to tell you this, but I don’t usually take requests for help directly from young people themselves. Why?
- There are lots of other people out there who can help you.
- An Educational Psychologist (EP) is very expensive, and I don’t want you or anyone else to pay (a lot of £££s) for something you should be able to get free!

So, what can you do to get the help you want and need right now? Here is a short list of things I recommend you do….

1. First things first, it’s important you stay safe and well. There are some general hints and tips about this in the ‘Knowledge Zone’ section.

2. Speak to someone you know, trust or like in school or college (if you can).

3. Speak to your parents, family or someone who knows you really well (if you can). That might be someone you live with, or it might be a close (adult) friend.

4. If that isn’t working, speak to SENDIASS.

That's a group of people who are specially trained to help young people, like you, who are finding school or college difficult.
They are really friendly and really good at helping people – they do it every day! If you're worried about contacting them, you can ask an adult to help you.
They will be able to find out more about you and then tell you what to do next - they'll even help you do it, if you want or need them to.
I have put their contact details in the ‘Knowledge Zone’ section for you - you'll find them in “Important people and places.”

5. If it’s all getting just too much for you at any point, please don’t struggle alone. There are lots of people who can help – I’ve put their contact details in the ‘Knowledge Zone’ section for you. Now, that's really important - please promise me you will contact someone if you're struggling (because I care about you, and so do other people).

Thank you.

Once you’ve done all those things, I am sure someone like me will be able to give you all the help you need. 😊 Who knows, maybe it will be me that meets you but, if not, someone else kind and friendly will.