I’m Gigi. I’m a parent-carer to three wonderful, neurodivergent young people, and on a professional level, have worked as a play-worker, youth-worker and teacher. I’m a qualified coach in several sports, and I’ve recently completed my master’s degree in psychology, writing my thesis on supporting children and young people with demand-avoidant profiles of autism. I have experience of providing 1:1 support for children and young people within a range of activities, both within the home and within the wider community. I have also had considerable experience supporting children who are not accessing full-time school-based education. I currently volunteer at a special-needs youth-club, and have volunteered for the NHS for the last ten years, so you might say that working with children and young people and SEND are special interests of mine.
I have all the usual qualifications you’d expect from somebody committed to keeping children and young people safe; safeguarding (level 3), paediatric first aid at work, and I subscribe to the enhanced DBS updates register. I am highly experienced in supporting children who display “actions and responses suggestive of distress” – otherwise known as challenging behaviour.
I’m caring, confident, and committed to achieving the best possible experiences for children and young people with disabilities and their families, working from a foundation of relational safety. I believe strongly that feelings of connectedness, competence and autonomy are fundamental for our mental well-being and development, and put these principles at the heart of everything I do when working with families. I am happy working both independently and within a team, which I believe is essential to supporting children, young people, and their families. I aim to be neuroaffirmative in all that I do, holding children and families in mind as ‘the experts on them’.
If you think I might be a good fit for your young person and your family, I’d be delighted to have a conversation to see how I might be able to help.