I write the books I would have liked to read. My earlier books Changing Our Minds and A Different Way to Learn reflect the years I spent home educating my children, when I felt that there was little which reflected our educational experience. I saw how differently they learnt through not going to school, and how little there was available which looked at the process of learning outside school from a developmental psychology perspective.
I then took a side step into academia and mental health for my next book Psychology of Mental Health. This is an undergraduate text book and encourages students to take a step back from the dominant paradigms of mental health and think critically.
Most recently, When the Naughty Step Makes Things Worse (with Eliza Fricker) addresses something which had bothered me for a while – what happens when conventional parenting strategies result in parent and child being locked into battles? Often parents are told to just keep trying, and this book offers something different.
Parents would often ask me whether there was anything for their teenagers when they had stopped going to school which didn’t assume that going back to school was the only answer. I couldn’t find anything, and so Eliza Fricker and I wrote one. The Teenager’s Guide to Burnout is an illustrated guide for teens on finding their way back to the life they want to lead.
With clear explanations and compelling case examples, Naomi demonstrates how EMDR therapists can flex to meet a wide range of sensory needs, cognitive styles, and communication preferences.
You might not have met anyone else like you, but there are a surprising number of teenagers who do not go to school. Some of them are home educated, but others are just not attending school regularly.
This illustrated guide lifts the lid on the experiences of children and families who are struggling within the school system and explores how we can work with these young people to maximise their chances of a positive and fulfilled life.
This book will help you to understand what burnout is, how you got there and what you can do to get back to a life you enjoy.
Some children just haven't read the parenting books. The harder you try, the worse it gets. There's a hidden contract at the heart of parenting. It's the idea that if parents just get it right, their children can be made to do what they want.
This engaging introduction to the psychology of mental health illustrates how psychologists work in the field today. It discusses various models for understanding mental health, research on causes of mental health problems
If you are a parent worrying whether self-directed education will work for your child, because you have been told that they have special needs which can only be met in the school system - think again. Neurodivergent children experience and interact with the world differently to many of their peers.
Children are born full of curiosity, eager to participate in the world. They learn as they live, with enthusiasm and joy. Then we send them to school. We stop them from playing and actively exploring their interests, telling them it's more important to sit still and listen.