Daniel Cumber Psychology, Shrewsbury (2025)

28/08/2025

New year, New logo!

As any Educational Psychologist will know describing what we do is a common question for the profession. Our training is so involved, in depth and both broad and deep, that it can be challenging to sum up what we do in a single page let alone a logo, as anyone who has written a service brochure will know! Here is my attempt.

I wanted something to encapsulate the power of education and psychology to transform your life. with that in mind the logo has different meanings for me:

Book: This represents, for me, the power of education and learning generally as fertile soil from which to grow new shoots, and build a stable and lasting foundation. This is true, or should be true, no matter where you come from, both inside and outside of school systems. This includes life learning, experiences and connections.

Roots: I wanted to show community networks which we grow up in and the importance of meeting people where they are at, respecting their history and supporting and empowering them to positively grow in the direction of their choosing through the application of educational psychology to support the systems they are in for that change to occur.

Branches: These represent the collaboration and partnerships with children, young people and their families, education staff and multi agency professionals which are needed to promote positive change for children and young people and their families. Teamwork is crucial for this!

Leaves: The leaves of the tree represent all the different positive outcomes, trajectories and journeys that benefit from educational, child and community psychology: Children and young people, parents and carers, school and education staff and all other professionals who work with us.

Psi: The Psi symbol is associated with psychology as a whole and suggests reflection and application of psychology to the transformation and growth processes. Coming from a philosophy degree initially, for me it also has meaning grounded in ethics and what it is to live a good life. Human flourishing and working towards social justice are core values for me.

I'm pretty happy with this as an integrated communication of what I do.
I hope it will also become an anchor for me, reminding me why I do what I do, in pursuit of helping others flourish and live the best lives they can. Ultimately this is both a representation of my own journey and a hopeful expression of what I can offer others.

Through Daniel Cumber Psychology Ltd I am grateful for this opportunity to continue to give back and make a meaningful and effective difference to children and young people, their families and those who work with them.

www.danielcumber.com

12/07/2025

Helpful to see this visual about coercive control from the perspective of young children . Vital to realise awareness of coercive control for children and it's negative impacts so we can address and prevent it.

Useful safeguarding resource from the child's voice.

02/03/2025

I always bear this in mind, as to me it's a key tenet of Educational and Child Psychology, or it certainly should be.

Similar to our family sayings of:

"A stitch in time saves nine" and "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure".

Creating the conditions for meaningful belonging, and a sense of "mattering" is so vital for all children and young people. We can make a huge difference framing it this way.

21/12/2024

2/2"I always feel like he listens and gives his full attention, never feels like he is rushing or not got time. The advice and support for individual children is especially helpful, as this helps make their support package bespoke. I feel more knowledgeable and empowered in my role with Dans support.” - Pastoral Lead.

• “The ELSA supervision sessions for me were pitched just right, the correct balance of discussions about our own wellbeing and workloads, with ensuring we had support from colleagues and Dan, for any challenges with children we work with.” – ELSA

• “Dan’s support has been invaluable.” – Head Teacher

•"Dan actually listened to us. He really saw (my child). I feel for the first time in a long time that we have hope"- Parent

So thankful that my work is resonating and contributing to positive, meaningful changes for children, their families and school staff.

Happy Christmas/Winter Break to all my clients, colleagues, community and their families.

Time now for rest and rejuvenation.

See you all in 2025!

21/12/2024

Recent feedback from this term for Daniel Cumber Psychology Ltd (1/2)

• “Dan is so easy to talk to and I instantly felt at ease from our first supervision session. He is great at discussing specific cases and ways of working that could help. Dan has helped me identify personal barriers to my work and supported me with strategies to overcome these.” – ELSA

• “You go above and beyond to support not only the children that you work with but the staff too. Your advice is always child focussed and is clear and precise with practical and emotional guidance. I am inspired with the knowledge, commitment and dedication that you bring. You are helping our young people have a voice and be heard. Thank you” - SENDCO

• “Dan is very supportive, knowledgeable and caring towards staff and children. As SENDCO, Dan has been extremely helpful in supporting, supervising and planning out support across the school. Whenever I have needed advice or guidance, he has found time and worked with me to find solutions. Dan has worked with teaching staff with consultations and all staff fed back how valuable they found the time and the support given from Dan. The reports were comprehensive and has allowed staff to plan support. The children have been able to make progress based off recommendations and class teachers felt more empowered as they had an understanding of the needs that were being presented.” – SENDCO

• “Collaborative and solution focused approach. Feel like we are a team. Multi agency approach - works with SALT to develop the best support for our young people. Instrumental in supporting us to develop our Hub provisions for our children with complex needs. Always at the end of an email with advice.” - Deputy Head Teacher

• “Dan has extensive knowledge and a supportive, calm nature upskilling staff and building confidence.” – Head Teacher

• “Dan’s knowledge is exceptional and how he explains things clearly to ensure clarity really helps."

21/12/2024

Wrapping Up:
I am reflecting on this first term of full time practice since founding Daniel Cumber Psychology Ltd. It's been an amazing term, challenging and very rewarding.

Some highlights have included:

• Building and strengthening existing and new relationships with colleagues. Building the dream team!

• Setting up bespoke hub style provision to meet the increasing needs of children with SEND in schools across 14 schools (Primary and Secondary), now including collaboration with speech and language therapists.

• Successfully launching my trauma informed champion training within a secondary school using a dynamic cascade and coaching model to embed learning (pilot).

• Working strategically on organisational and group levels with a fantastic inclusive MAT.

• Delivering training in trauma informed approaches to hundreds of school staff across 10 schools.

• Using Video Enhanced Reflective Practice in 4 schools to upskill skills and confidence in staff working with children with complex needs.

• Holding the space for, and successfully problem solving with inspiring colleagues during critically difficult situations for their whole school.

• Supervision, coaching and consulting with passionate staff regarding a whole range of different strengths and needs.

• Bespoke planning and consultation including the support of new physical buildings in schools (material change) to embedded educational psychology in the environment at a secondary level to providing them with a safe base/secure haven from which to engage with their learning.

• Parent and Carer phone lines established.

•Undertook personalised and ongoing work to support with a rehabilitation clinic working with multidisciplinary teams and directly with young people and their families with acquired brain injuries over the next few years (post 16).

• Supervision groups of safeguarding and child protection teams.

22/11/2024

In great news to start the weekend, just heard that my thesis article on social justice in EP practice has now been published in the Journal of Educational and Child Psychology (British Psychological Society) in a special edition on Intersectional Identities, Education, Psychology and Social Justice.

Find it here:
https://explore.bps.org.uk/content/bpsecp/41/2/108

Thanks to my coauthor Anthea Gulliford for all her support in making this work the best it could be.

Feel free to DM for a copy free. As I understand it full access is included for BPS members.

04/11/2024

It was an absolute pleasure to present 3 workshops today to primary and secondary school staff at The 3-18 Education Trust Conference.

Pinch me moment getting to share the stage with the mighty and inspiring Jaz Ampaw-Farr. Grateful to make positive connections and create meaningful
impact by talking about how to practically support children and young people who may have experienced developmental trauma and attachment difficulties through the power of positive relationships and compassionate action.

Vital to use the body as well as the mind in the co-regulation of children and young people with these needs.

Remember it only takes one consistent and positive relationship with an adult to change a life, and that adult could be you!

Lovely to connect with so many compassionate educators across 10 schools and feeling blessed today to have had such a fantastic opportunity to potentially affect so many children's (and staff!) lives through relational practice.

.

23/08/2024

Love this model of building a trauma informed classroom from the ACTRM model (Carter, 2023). Incorporates Bruce Perry's neurosequential model (regulate then relate and only then try reason), and Maslow and Borba's hierarchies of children's needs.

Really empowering for all teachers to systemically set up trauma reducing classrooms and avoid accidentally creating trauma inducing ones!

A really helpful visual reminder that every interaction is an intervention and to prioritise connection before correction.

18/03/2024

Love this. Vital to highlight strengths in neurodiversity and counter the overly deficit focused model of disability and difference which often prevails in society. Each person is of course totally unique and has their needs but a strength and capabilities approach to individual differences best supports positive change for children and young people and their families.

With that said, I find it very helpful to be aware of some possible strengths in neurodiverse learners and to help children and young people identify their strengths and celebrate these differences when working towards equity and flourishing in education and wider life outcomes.

14/03/2024

Such a powerful image for children and young people experiencing emotional based school non-attendance (EBSA/EBSN). I know this resonates with many of us with similar experiences.

The question needs to shift from an overly within child focus e.g. What would help the child to cope? Which may be necessary for skill building but is not sufficient alone, and shift the narrative from forcing children to assimilate towards encouraging the education system to be more flexible to allow positive change to occur.

The question then becomes how do we best work with each other to make schools truly inclusive and increase every child's sense of safety and belonging so that they feel accepted and valued for who they are and the unique strengths they bring?

28/01/2024

I have been facilitating safe reflective spaces for staff in Primary and Secondary schools working to support children and young people with complex social, emotional and mental health needs recently. It developed to address a pattern of needs across the area in which I work, and staff have really felt the transformative impact of group supervision in promoting clear thinking, applying evidence based strategies and holding space for emotional processing and wondering aloud how we might all best serve these children whilst keeping ourselves well.

Fantastic to have the privilege to apply psychology through these cluster senco and teacher groups to upskill staff and increase their confidence and sense of belonging in the groups as a protective factor against the stresses and strains of supporting young people with complex attachment, trauma and SEMH needs.

I love the power of sharing psychology to increase understanding of what might be going on or have happened to someone and how best to understand their behaviour and compassionately support them going forward.

Daniel Cumber Psychology

28/08/2025

12/07/2025

02/03/2025

21/12/2024

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21/12/2024

22/11/2024

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23/08/2024

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28/01/2024

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