If you want to contact me, here are my contact details  

But, before you get bogged down in all the serious stuff, click on one of the links below to see how absolutely unbelievable our band was in the 1980s - that's me at the back, illustrating a style known in the trade as "enthusiastic drumming" (if the links don't work, do a search on YouTube for "Johnny and the Retreads").

Johnny and the Retreads 1 (2 min 11 sec)

Johnny and the Retreads 2 (4 min 17 sec)

Johnny and the Retreads 3 (3 min 12 sec)

Background

After completing a physics degree at Hull University in 1967 (a happy time) I took a Diploma in Education in Sheffield then taught physics for seven years in Salford and North Shields (not a very happy time). In 1979 I re-qualified, with a degree in psychology then a masters in educational psychology from Newcastle University and entered practice as an educational psychologist, first in Sunderland then North Tyneside. Later I also qualified as a hypnotherapist and became a member of the British Society of Medical and Dental Hypnosis.

Training and consultancy with a wide range of settings and institutions has been an important part of professional involvement throughout my career. However, a main focus of professional interest, day to day, has been on interventions with parents, schools and children, particularly around behaviour difficulties of an attention seeking kind. I hope to complete the trilogy of publications around this theme in 2008:

"Attention seeking: A complete guide for teachers" for schools - the second edition is due in 2008.

"The Good, the Bad and the Irritating" for parents, published in 2000.

And finally a practice manual " Attention Seeking: Parent interviews - a training pack for practitioners" (currently being updated)

Other Interests

Developing research interests led to a PhD at Northumbria University in 1999. The main focus of that work is available as a seminar (see Training and Consultancy page). The thesis itself can be found on this web site. Other areas of research focus at this time are attention seeking in children; cuddle and read - an approach to reading for parents who are becoming stressed; and reflection in professional practice.

As to other creative sides, a second volume of poetry is painfully slowly being assembled. Unlike "For the Inquiry" the collection of "poetry of the dirty war" (which is on the web site), this will probably never see light of day as a conventional book, but may at some point simply appear on the web.