Dr Patricia Britto is a qualified and accomplished Educational Psychologist (HCPC Registered) and a mother with practical and research experience. Her qualifications include a Doctorate in Professional Educational, Child and Adolescent Psychology (DEdPsy) from UCL, Institute of Education, an MSc in Mental Health in Learning Disabilities and a BSc in Psychology. Dr Patricia works Independently at the prestigious Harley Street and as an associate for Local Authorities and Educational Psychology Services to promote children and young people’s (age 0-25) learning and social, emotional and mental well-being.
Mental health difficulties and other special educational
Dr. Patricia offers families and educational settings support through consultation, individual psychological assessments suitable for children and young people, and systemic work (e.g., training, workshops and organisational psychology support). She empowers parents and professionals to utilise practical solution-focused strategies and better understand how to support children and young people‘s behaviours (e.g., evidence-based parenting and behavioural management techniques) and other experiences such as Emotional-Based School Avoidance, EBSA), mental health difficulties and other special educational, developmental and neurodiverse needs (e.g., ADHD, Autism, Dyslexia and many more).
Support children and young people
Dr Patricia identified that there are lots of children and young people with learning difficulties, social, emotional and mental health needs and communication and interaction needs who are not being prioritised for support by their nurseries, schools and colleges due to lack of funding and resources. She decided to fill in this gap by offering bespoke and person-centred support to children and young people, their families and educational settings.
It came to Dr Patricia’s reputation that not all parents know evidence-based research/strategies and practice-based evidence of how to support children and young people. Therefore, Dr Patricia disseminated research clearly and simply to the public through in-person and online workshops to make a positive difference in children and young people’s lives.
Also, Dr Patricia is a mother, and she finds it to be the most challenging job; this, the opportunity to share ideas of how to support children and young people with other parents has been highly impactful. Dr Patricia enjoys building a community of parents who are empowered to utilise solution-focused strategies to support their children’s holistic development and, in turn, contribute to the betterment of society.
Excellent opportunity at age 15
Firstly, Dr Patricia Britto finds it a great privilege to be an Educational Psychologist, and it’s what she had always wanted to do from the age of 15 after having working experience with a government initiative called Sure Start. Dr Patricia had an excellent opportunity at age 15 to shadow a range of professionals, including a Psychologist, and she was greatly inspired and pursued the career from then on.
Dr Patricia believes that one of the great privileges of being an Educational Psychologist is being able to have access to populations of children and young people with or without specific needs and, within her practice, she works very intensively with children in care, children that are neurodiverse and this is a term used to celebrate the differences in brain function and behaviour as part of the human anatomy and experience and common types of brain differences are autism spectrum condition, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), specific literacy difficulties, Tourette’s and many more.
Providing therapeutic interventions
Dr Patricia is eclectic in her approach and uses a range of psychological approaches, particularly the eco-systemic theory, to explore children’s areas of needs and strengths. She is thorough and holistic in assessing and providing therapeutic interventions to children and young people.
Rise in mental health and special educational needs
Following the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a rise in the number of children and young people (over 400,000) with identified mental health needs and special educational needs (over 1.5 million pupils in England have special educational needs), according to the latest government statistics. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the numbers were high but not to this level, and this could be because parents spent a lot more time at home with their children and are now more in agreement with the possibility of their children having additional needs.
Mode Educational Psychology Services, founded by Dr Patricia, was birthed in April 2022 initially as a result of subcontracting by offering support to Local Authorities’ Educational Psychology Services to cope with the increase in demand for the service; however, the structure of the business has evolved ever since.
Parents and educational settings
Dr Patricia loves it when children become comfortable and joke with her during assessments and therapeutic sessions. For example, some children provide their answers to cognitive assessment questions by acting out a role play, which can be very amusing.
Often, Dr Patricia comes across clients (parents and educational settings) who are ready to receive support for their children or pupils; therefore, there is less need to provide a sentence to convince them.
A call for a solution-focused and nurturing approach
Dr Patricia would like to advise people to think of the purpose of their mission and the legacy they want to leave behind when aiming to support children and young people.
Society needs to change how they see children and young people and to have a solution-focused and nurturing approach to meeting their needs.
