“We are not a fallow field”.
17.05.19 — This week I continued my Psychologically Informed Environment (PIE) journey with Centrepoint by starting to visit some ‘frontline’ services; specifically spending a day with the Centrepoint Helpline Team, and with the Berwick Street Hostel High Support Team. A massive thank you to those teams for allowing me to ‘loiter’ within their services and observe / discuss with them how they are working, and how PIE can informed their practice. What struck me the most this week was that, as our CEO Seyi Obakin noted when I also met briefly with him this week, Centrepoint is not a “fallow field” when it comes to psychologically informed practice. Within Centrepoint, we are already making very positive steps towards being a psychologically informed organisation, and my role will be to nurture those initial seedlings to grow into mighty trees, rather than to necessarily have to plant the whole field.
On the helpline I saw staff speaking to callers (the general public and young people) with what is described by Carl Rogers (Humanistic Psychologist) as ‘unconditional positive regard’, ‘empathy’ and a ‘non-judgemental’ approach to listening, as well as evidence of clear psychological skills such as the provision of psychoeducation, summarising of need and containment of distress. In Berwick Street, staff spoke highly of their experience of Reflective Practice with a Counselling Psychologist facilitator, who visited once a month, and gave them space to consider what might be going on for a young person behind a particular behaviour and how to adjust their approach to that young person to be more psychological, in order to implement positive change.
More importantly, every staff member that I have spoken with this week has embraced the PIE approach when it has been discussed, and has been eager to learn more and have training in psychological approaches in the coming months. This training however will build on what we already do well in Centrepoint; our relationships with young people, each other and our partners. So as a starter for ten, my reply to the question from several staff this week of ‘what one thing can we do to be more psychologically informed?’ has to be; ‘be reflective’. Stopping and thinking about what we do and why we do it, rather than ploughing on doing something because that is the way that it has always been done, is being psychologically informed. Always considering whether what we are doing is the best we can do for a young person using our services, has to be our starting point.
So not wanting to do myself out of a job after only three weeks (!), I am realising that we have lots to be proud of in terms of our psychologically informed practice, and should be promoting Centrepoint as a PIE organisation going forward. The challenge will be to find the gaps, and work with staff (and young people) to co-produce ways to fill these gaps to continue our journey to be even more PIE and effective in what we do. Some of our field is planted already and just needs some more sunlight and water, some is already growing nicely, and some just needs a little more attention and reflection to plough the soil and plant new seeds…..
