Ingrid Cleaver

Ingrid is an Educational Psychotherapist, trainer an teacher, specialising in inclusive and reflective practice. With many years’ experience working directly with young people and their families, from early years through to university, she believes that learning is a process that only really happens within a trusting relationship, whether at home, nursery, school or college.

It's hard to learn if we feel anxious or scared. It might be a struggle to manage friendships and family relationships as well as finding the strength or motivation to keep up with the work. There may be lots of reasons its difficult to focus and keep going, so we look at the barriers to learning and figure out what to focus on and how to move forward. After some discussion with the young person and their agreement, this may involve some family work. And with permission of both the young person and parents, Ingrid might work with named school staff to help support some improvement at school.

Ingrid has worked in a number of London boroughs as a Teacher and Senco, in CAMHS in the NHS as a Psychotherapist and also at the Mulberry Bush School in Oxfordshire. She was the course director for an M.A. Educational Psychotherapy at Middlesex University and continues to train education and mental health professionals in schools and in the NHS. Her training is psycho-analytical but she draws on a variety of approaches, because an eclectic perspective provides greater flexibility for working with students, families and schools. She has had further training with the Institute of Group Analysis and some further work in Somatics.