For the practice
The therapists’ shelf.
Parent support you can hand over, alongside the work you are doing with a child. Find the subject, choose what to send, and the parent opens a page that says you chose it for them, with your name and your line at the top. Free to read in full, with nothing for the parent to sign up to.
Sign in with your practice address.
A link arrives by email, lasts an hour and works once. Following it shows a page with one button; pressing that signs you in for three months on whichever device you opened it. No password to keep, nothing to install, and a way to sign out at the top of every page.
Pick the subject.
From a board of the things families bring to us, or type the word a parent would use: worry, screens, meltdowns, bedtime, divorce, exams.
Leave the parent something that helps.
A pack on a subject, a chapter, a quick tip, a signposting sheet, a book. Up to five as one link. The parent reads it free, in full, with nothing to sign up to.
Ask the practice when a page is not enough.
Ask for a subject the library has not covered yet, suggest something for the shelf, or ask for a call about a family you are working with, or supervision, which the practice answers, usually within two working days.
The film in words
On screen: The navy cloth cover of The Parent Book, with its gold mark: The therapists’ shelf. It lifts onto the shelf itself, headed For the practice, Free to use, and titled Something to leave with a parent. In its first lines, these words are underlined: when a parent asks what else she can do.
At the end of a parent consultation, there’s often one more question: “Is there anything I could read?”
On screen: Then these: with your name and your line at the top.
You want to give them something good, something you’d put your name to.
On screen: At the top of the shelf, Free to use is underlined. Further down comes Everything on the shelf, its heading underlined, and over it the note Who writes it, where these words are underlined: written by qualified therapists registered with the BACP.
That’s what the therapists’ shelf is for. It’s free to use, and it’s the whole of The Parent Book, written by qualified therapists.
On screen: Won’t go to school is typed into the search, under the question What is the family facing? The results come up, 146 things across 12 kinds, and the first of each kind is brought closer, its picture underlined: the pack, School stress: what helps; the signposting sheet, School stress: who else can help; and a chapter, Neurodiversity, and the Conversation with the School.
Type what the parent said, the way they said it, and everything that could help comes up, each with a picture, so you can see what you’re sending.
On screen: Closer again, the packs and their line, whose first words are underlined: A guide a parent can keep: what to do first, what helps, what to try, and who else can help. The most useful single thing to send.
Often the best place to start is the pack: a guide they can keep.
On screen: Send is pressed beside the pack, and the box for sending it opens. The parent’s first name is left blank, since it is optional. Under A line from you, which is underlined, a line is typed: I thought this might be useful after our conversation on Tuesday. Beside it, What the parent sees shows the line under From Your name as it is typed. Under the line, the box asks for nothing clinical, nothing about the child, and nothing that would identify the family. Copy the link is pressed, and reads Copied.
Press Send, add a line of your own if you like, and copy the link.
On screen: The page the parent opens: From Your name, and the line beneath it, then Chosen for you from The Parent Book, a library written by therapists. Free to read in full, with nothing to sign up to. Below it, the pack begins: School stress, and What to do first.
The parent opens one page, with your name at the top. It’s free to read in full, and there’s nothing to sign up to.
On screen: A card is laid over the page, What helps an anxious child: These are the practical, therapy-informed things that, in our work, most consistently make a real difference, with therapy-informed underlined. Then Notes, and one over another, the notes that close three chapters: Eli Lebowitz’s Breaking Free of Child Anxiety and OCD, on the SPACE programme developed at Yale; a study of the move from primary to secondary school for the Department for Children, Schools and Families; and the Special Educational Needs and Disability Code of Practice.
What they read is therapy-informed, and it’s referenced: the chapters close with their notes, the research and the books they draw on.
On screen: Back on the parent’s page, Who else can help: this usually starts at school rather than at the surgery. Then Your child’s school, The SENCo at your child’s school, Place2Be, YoungMinds, and NHS: mental health advice for parents and carers, each with what it does and when to use it. Closer, YoungMinds: its Parents Helpline, with its hours, its webchat and its email; its own words, Not a crisis line; and, for when the line is closed, the urgent routes on the parent’s page. Then the NHS’s pages for parents. Last, the full list for school stress, with what each organisation does and when it is the right call, is at theparentbook.com/help/school-stress/services, with when it is the right call underlined.
And it points the family to established help, from their school to YoungMinds and the NHS, with numbers, opening hours, and when each is the right call.
On screen: Back on the shelf, Your recent links: each link sent, with its kind, the day it went and how often it has been opened. The first, a pack sent today, reads Opened 2 times, and that is underlined.
Beside each link, you’ll see how often it’s been opened: just the number, never who.
On screen: Then the shelf’s navy band, What else would help? Ask the practice, for you as well as for the parents you see: Ask for something we have not written; Suggest something for the shelf; or Talk something through, a call about a family you are working with, or supervision. The form opens at A conversation: Talk something through. A call about a family is underlined, then Supervision. The form asks for nothing that could identify a child or a family.
If the families you see need something we haven’t written, ask us. You can also ask for a call about a family, or for supervision.
On screen: At the head of the page for asking, the practice’s note, signed Kensington Square Therapy, with these words underlined: we reply, usually within two working days.
We’ll reply, usually within two working days.
On screen: Back on the shelf, Pass it on: A colleague could use this too. Copy a note for a colleague is pressed, and reads Copied. Paste it into an email. Beside it is Your link, which a colleague follows to ask to join.
And if a colleague would use it, send them your note, and they can ask to join.
On screen: The page a colleague opens: For therapists who work with children and their parents, The therapists’ shelf, and beneath it, Your name thought you would want to see this. Ask to join is underlined, and then these words: Parent support you can hand over.
So next time a parent asks what they could read, you’ll have something good to give them.
On screen: The navy cover returns, and gold is laid into its mark: The Parent Book. The therapists’ shelf. Sign in, or ask to join, at theparentbook.com/therapists. Written by qualified therapists registered with the BACP and NCPS.
New to the shelf? See what it is, and ask to join. If you work in a school rather than the practice, the teachers’ shelf is the door you want, and it opens to any school address.