When Toni Blackett-Felix first taught in a government school and worked with children who had learning challenges, she never envisioned where her career in education would take her. Always eager to address the educational needs of her students, she thought many of the issues she faced might be because she was a new teacher.

But something didn’t feel quite right.

After finishing her bachelor’s degree in behavioural sciences and moving to England with Frederick Felix, her late husband, a cognitive behavioural therapist, she considered changing careers.

Cognition is defined as “the mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses.”

“I was frustrated with teaching and didn’t think I wanted to do it again.”

But she found her background in teaching provided more job opportunities for teaching special needs children in England. There, she taught students with motor, cognitive and developmental issues like autism and cerebral palsy.

When Blackett-Felix returned to Trinidad with her family, she plunged back into working with special needs children at schools like the Life Centre and Eshe’s.

“I began to realise I needed to change to understand these children better. I wanted to work on skill development. I had a unique skill set and a lot of experience after returning from England."

[caption id="attachment_920690" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Toni Blackett-Felix has transitioned out of classrooms to work one on one with her students at her office in Tacarigua. - PHOTO BY AYANNA KINSALE[/caption]

By 2013, Blackett-Felix had transitioned out of the classrooms to work one on one with students in her private practice, which she named Metanoia Educational Therapy, in Tacarigua. “Most of my children with social needs challenges had academic challenges. I did courses in the teaching of reading for persons with language learning difficulties at the Dyslexia Association and I received a postgraduate diploma in education, globalisation and inclusion with the University of Sheffield. I didn’t have a title for what I did. I didn’t know about anything called educational therapy.”

Educational therapy is the clinical application of research-based cognitive intervention. It combines social, psychological and academic disciplines to address students’ learning needs.

Using psychometric and standardised academic assessments, an educational therapist produces data to understand the learning challenges of a client.

Educational therapy targets issues in reading, writing, maths, spelling, study skills and critical thinking skills along with non-academic areas – learning strategies, problem solving, organisation, attention, self-esteem, self-awareness, self-advocacy and motivation.

It deals with executive skills, which is having the ability to meet challenges and accomplish goals that we all face in life without procrastinating or giving up.

Educational therapists help students to develop higher order thinking skills that allow planning and organising thou