My name is Simon Beal. I’m a Clinical Child Psychologist and I’ve worked with children, teenagers and families for over 20 years. That amounts to over 20,000 sessions, specialising in child psychology and children’s challenging behaviours. My blog aims to help parents decide whether I’m the right Psychologist for your family. Child Psychologists can have very different views and opinions on how best to help. I hope to give parents an understanding of what to expect – and for those parents that have tried ‘psychology’ before and it didn’t help – to let them know there’s still hope.
I also want to shed some light on the confusing and complex world of child behaviour, and question some of the questionable advice that is everywhere in parenting. We (as in Psychologists and other professions) have made it way more confusing than it needs to be. If you have a child with challenging behaviour, it can be very daunting and overwhelming. There’s no place for dodgy advice and opinions that aren’t backed by research and experience.
To add to the complexity and confusion, there are now more behavioural diagnoses than you can possibly imagine, and the list keeps getting longer. There’s also ‘trauma’ to consider, and of course the ever present ‘your child has attachment issues’. It seems that every second child with challenging behaviour has at least one of the above. Through lots of experience and always questioning the research and the ‘common’ advice, I hope to work with parents on what needs to be done and how they can best support their child.
If you have any questions and need to get in touch please visit the Contact page.
Or book an appointment to discuss your concerns, please visit the Appointments Page.