Many things that we do as a project grew up so seamlessly and organically that we sometimes don’t loop back to really mark, celebrate and record them.
We are going to try to do better with that – so here below we attempt to capture the origins of psychological groundings of to The Magpie Project that are and have been wholly down to the wonderful, consistent and untiring support of psychologist – Dr Sophie Doswell.
How it began
Dr Sophie Doswell first came across the The Magpie Project in 2018 at a British Psychological Conference on housing. where Jane was giving a workshop on the effects of insecure housing on the families she was supporting in her the charity that she and others had created the year before.
At the end of her workshop Jane asked the psychologists present what else The Magpie Project could be doing to include psychological thinking into the organisation.
Homelessness was not Sophie’s area of expertise, and therefore didn’t necessarily feel she was best placed to speak up, however – at the time – she reflected on the impact of the work on staff, and how important it is for staff to be supported, so they can meet the psychological needs of those who attend The Magpie Project.
After the session Sophie contacted Jane to see if anyone else had volunteered to support The Magpie Project. They hadn’t and so Sophie arranged a meeting to talk about possible support that she could offer to The Magpie Project, on a voluntary basis.
The psychology offer to The Magpie Project
The psychology offer to The Magpie Project has evolved over time, as we have become more knowledgeable and experienced in relation to important psychological elements and has embedded these ideas into everyday practice.
Each aspect of psychological input offered is described in more detail below.
Psychology based training
Sophie developed and delivered an initial training session for staff in September 2018, with a focus on the psychological impact of homelessness, the importance of trauma informed care and the need to self-care. Since then, as our offer has evolved so have the subjects that Sophie has helped with. Further training topics have included:
- Looking after yourself
- Advanced trauma informed care (including positive psychology)
- Boundaries
- Moral injury
- Psychologically Informed Environments (and follow up)
- Having difficult conversations
Together, we also developed specific induction materials for volunteers around ‘creating safety’. This session covered why we need to create safety (including thinking about the experience of trauma and homelessness) and ways of doing this, including working in a trauma informed way and looking after ourselves.
Reflective practice
The first reflective practice session took place in December 2018, and was planned as an end of term session to help the staff team reflect on how the term has gone, and think about potential impact of the work and how to look after themselves. Termly sessions were offered until The Magpie Project began to implement reflective practice as part of day-to-day practice via end of the day ‘wash-ups’.
Consultations for CEO
The need for consultation to the CEO was recognised early on, with a particular focus on having a place to share the emotional burden of the work. Since 2018, sessions have been offered on a roughly monthly basis. These sessions have enabled Jane to continue to lead the organisation through often choppy waters – and to work through what it means to create and maintain a psychologically informed environment for staff and volunteers – while always centering the mums and minis we work with.
One-to-one support for staff and volunteers
From the start of our partnership Sophie has been offered support to all staff in two ways
1. Regular sessions for staff who benefit from ongoing support and
2. Ad-hoc support when individuals have had a difficult situation and wanted to talk it though.
Initially this was offered to staff and volunteers with the proviso that they would be encouraged to discuss issues with their manager in the first instance, but could access psychological support if needed. In reality, it has only been staff who have taken up the offer of one-to-one support.
As-required consultation
Following the move to the new building – the Grassroots Centre – in September 2024, Sophie designed and held a series of sessions with staff to think about how they adapt to the new building, discuss changes to working practices, and talk through any psychological impact of these. Themes from these discussions were shared across the organisation and actions developed in response.
Reflections
From that initial workshop Sophie attended back in 2018, it was clear that The Magpie Project was a psychologically aware organisation. Since that time, Sophie, Jane and The Magpie Project have worked to ensure that psychological thinking is linked to explicit psychological frameworks and that best practice is embedded across the organisation. There are great examples of how trauma informed care has been implemented in practice, including changes made at Clothes Club and how leaving the previous building was managed.
Since 2018 the organisation has grown considerably, including the staff team. This reflects the strength of the organisation, but also brings challenges in ensuring staff are all aware of the psychological frameworks underpinning practice, and have adequate psychological support to deal with the emotional impact of their job.
Thank you
A simple ‘thank you’ to Sophie would simply not cover the depth of her involvement and the debt that we ower her in forging the shape of our project for the past 7 years. We understand how irreplaceable this work is – and we value beyond words.
