What is Consultation?

Consultation involves focussed collaborative discussion in which people who share concerns work together to identify solutions.

A Consultation meeting provides a framework for assessment and intervention. Consultation is about joint investigation, joint solution-building, joint planning and intervention, and joint evaluation and review.

Consultation draws upon a number of psychological theories and principles, for example:

Solution-oriented theory
Personal construct theory
Family systems thinking
Social constructionism

Georgia finds an integrated approach where all the above perspectives are incorporated.

Consultation has a number of key features:

Participants are seen as equal in status and in sharing expertise

Consultees should be the people most concerned and retain responsibility for the educational environment.

The goals of consultation are to facilitate potential ways forward, to develop future problem-solving skills, to start the process towards actualization.

Consultation can apply to different levels of working:

At an organisational level (e.g. helping to inform local authority policies; helping to develop whole school policies)

At a systemic level (e.g. family and school dynamics)

At a group or class level (e.g. classroom management)

At an individual child level (e.g. devising behavioural or learning programmes; identification of additional support needs).

There is flexibility in this way of working and Georgia is a known problem solver who will work hard to reach her goals.

What does Consultation look like?

Consultation is designed to help the person most concerned. Teachers, guidance counselors and principals of small to medium sized schools in both the public and private sector will benefit most from her  knowledge base and skill set.

Consultation usually takes place at two levels:

Initial Consultation – the relevant staff member meets and discusses with the Educational Psychologist, to generate strategies leading to solutions. Parental involvement is not required at this stage, though schools may wish to share their concerns with parents.

Full Consultation – a fuller discussion takes place involving parents and school staff, again generating further strategies and solutions. This discussion may involve other agencies (e.g. school doctor, social worker, speech and language therapist) who can contribute to solving the problem. A written record of the discussion and the agreed action plan is provided for all that attend the meeting. Follow up can be arranged as required.