Applied Clinical Psychology Services (ACPS) Ltd are able to offer specialist psychological consultancy. What does that mean?
Psychological consultancy aims to apply the principles of clinical psychology to help a group or organisation. It draws on the principles used by a clinical psychologist when helping an individual with a problem to also help a larger group or organisation.
To explain this more, let’s take the example of an individual with a problem of anxiety. Firstly, a clinical psychologist would need to know as much detail about the reported problem as possible. In this case anxiety (e.g. What type of anxiety is it exactly? In what situations is it more of a problem? Does anything make it better or worse? etc). The clinical psychologist would also want to know what factors led up to the anxiety problem (predisposing factors), what things are keeping this problem going, such as safety behaviours, avoidance (maintenance factors). The psychologist would also be interested to find out what, if any, factors were preventing the person from overcoming their anxiety. This understanding of the problem (knowing the predisposing features, the problem itself in detail and the maintenance of the problem and barriers preventing the problem being addressed) is termed a psychological formulation of the problem.
This is when a psychologist and a client arrive at a shared understanding of the problem, how the problem developed and what is maintaining the problem. The psychological formulation helps not only to understand the development of the psychological problem(s), but should also help to explain the factors contributing to the maintenance of the problem(s) and the formulation should help to guide the appropriate interventions to address the problem (these can include both psychological and other, perhaps more practical interventions). A psychological formulation should also help us to unblock any difficulties in implementing an intervention or help to understand these potential difficulties better and help problem solve solutions.
The above principles that can be used to help an individual with anxiety can also be applied to group or organisational difficulties or challenges.
Applied Clinical Psychology Services (ACPS) Ltd offer a psychological, formulation driven approach to any development needs or challenges that may be encountered across a range of organisations within healthcare and other specialities. We can help you and your organisation to address issue such as:
- How to keep the service user or customer at the heart of the work we do
- Dealing positively with structural/organisational change
- Managing the pressure of targets
- Maximising effective team working
- Troubleshooting difficulties in teams
- Understanding individual needs within organisations
- Developing, adhering and enjoying shared organisational goals
Please contact us to discuss your consultancy needs further
