School psychology

Having worked in cantonal school psychology services, I can help you with school psychology situations by bringing my knowledge and expertise in this field, e.g. for assessments, requests for support measures at school, as well as cognitive and emotional support of your child.

Assessment

We perform tests, questionnaires and other tools that allow the child to be assessed and observed in different situations in order to recognize strengths and weaknesses, as well in comparison to other children of the same age. Sometimes parents come with the desire for an emotional or intellectual assessment, in other cases individual or several elements can be proposed in the course of the cooperation. Below you can see the different possibilities for an assessment.

Intellectual or cognitive assessment

The tests for detection and determination of intellectual abilities allow analysis and assessment in different areas, such as language, logic, memory, attention, visual and spatial orientation, working speed and other dimensions. Some of these tests - but not all - allow you to calculate the Intelligence Quotient (IQ). However, this must always be analyzed and interpreted in the context of the child's overall situation, the performed tests and the personality profile, for example in the case of an impulsive child, in the case of blockages or when the results are not homogeneous in different areas. Further tests are neuropsychologically oriented and help to understand difficulties in learning or neurological specificities more precisely.

Neuropsychological assessment

Other tests are more neuropsychologically focused and can help identify specific learning or neurological disorders, including attention deficit disorder with or without hyperactivity (ADD, ADHD), autism spectrum disorder (ASD), dyscalculia, memory disorders, and other childhood disorders with a neurological component.

Personality or psycho-affective assessment

This information is often collected by means of questionnaires and allow the various areas of personality, interests and attitudes, reaction, etc. to be determined and assessed. However, there are also less structured and more creative tools in which the child can freely express and behave; these allow as well, in different angles, to access the personality and affective (emotional) development.

Diagnostic Assessments

I also offer diagnostic procedures that can be used to identify the most diagnosable disorders of child development. Similarly, I can give you guidance and advice regarding a diagnosis that your child has been or could be given.

Coaching for children and / or families

This is a mentoring that I carry out together with you and your child in structured and guided meetings. Depending on the initial situation, the personality of the child, as well as the overall situation, I suggest different techniques, exercises and discussion topics concerning the child's problems; I give feedback and open up new ways to look at the situation. Together we develop strategies and the concrete steps towards improvements, with reference to the dissatisfactions and difficulties that have brought you to me.

The coaching achieves a further development of the child and possibly also its family. The child's situation or interactions in the family are not seen as satisfactory and there is a desire to be supported and to deal with it in order to improve the situation.

In case you are not sure whether a coaching or therapy for your child respectively your family is best suited, I can advise you and give you recommendations. Psychotherapy is usually indicated in more difficult situations when the emotional situation is very complex and a deepened, possibly even medically supervised treatment is indicated. Coaching, on the other hand, is recommended for people who already have a certain level of stability and wish to develop their abilities and potentials.

My experiences in coaching are based, among other things, on my activities at the CACB Center for Assessment and Coaching as well as in the psychological counseling of children and families.

Psychological support

In a difficult life situation, I give the child the space to express himself or herself and develop resources to tackle and overcome the challenges. Children express difficulties differently, and it is important for me to approach the child's personality and temperament.

During the sessions I use conversations, but also less direct methods like play, drawings and other activities depending on the personality and preferences of the child. This enables the child to create trust, to strengthen self-awareness, respect and security, as well as to develop sustained openness, spontaneity and creativity, which allows an inner change. Thus, he or she can freely express fears and conflicts in order to overcome them. This approach strengthens his or her personality, the feeling of one's own identity and self-confidence.