Our Services
In More Detail
Individual Art Therapy
Art Therapy is a psychodynamic model of psychotherapy. It is child centred with regards to putting the child’s needs first and working at their pace. The model allows for a flexible and tailor made approach catering to individual needs.
Our practice is underpinned by attachment theory, neuroscience and brain development. Art Therapy enables children to bridge developmental gaps without consciously revisiting their trauma. It is therefore well suited to children who have experienced pre-verbal trauma and loss.
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Art Therapy is an ideal and easily accessible means of expression for children who have experienced loss, unexpected change or who are struggling with their identity or relationships.
Dyadic Art Therapy
Dyadic Art Therapy is a model that enables a child and parent or carer to work together. There are various models within dyadic work which all support the relationship between the child and parent. They work to strength the attachment bond and increase parental attunement to the more subtle signs of a child's emotional needs. Dyadic work can involve role play, face painting, small-world play, and use of Theraplay as well as art making with paints, drawing materials, and modelling.
Life Narrative Work
We usually deliver Life Narrative Work through a Dyadic Creative Therapy model. This process enables the parent to support the child in addressing their life story together and create a narrative that the child will absorb through working with their parent in the sessions. The work entails a directive aspect as the therapist will deliver the early life information, employing creative methods. This work is often a requisite of successful therapy as it supports the child understanding a significant aspect of their identity.
Often, to accompany this work, the therapist together with the parent and child will produce a high quality hard back book which contains all the child's life story information in a carefully crafted, age appropriate way, alongside child and parent reflections from the sessions and photographs of the artworks and activity. The book will include the child's story from conception to the present day, plus a chapter about birth and adoptive parent's histories.
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Therapeutic Parenting
Parenting is an incredibly complex task. Parenting children who have been separated from their birth family in often challenging circumstances is even more complex. We do not believe we can work with children in isolation. Parents are the key agents of change. We work with parents in supporting their understanding of their child’s trauma and its impact. We offer them a range of therapeutic parenting tools and strategies that enable more positive relationships and harmonious dynamics in the home. We provide Therapeutic Parenting is an integrated aspect of all our work with children. We also run an evening Therapeutic Parenting group where the parents of children we work with can share their experiences. For more information about the models we use, see our 'Stuff & Info' pages.
Dramatherapy
Dramatherapy has as its main focus the intentional use of healing aspects of drama and theatre as the therapeutic process. It is a method of working and playing that uses action methods to facilitate creativity, imagination, learning, insight and growth. Dramatherapists work with what the body tells us and our embodied sense of self.
A Dramatherapist can work with verbal and nonverbal forms of communication and a range of creative-expressive methods can be used to allow the young person to work to their own strengths, interests and pace. In Dramatherapy we can also work on a practical level replaying difficult triggering situations, rehearsing, and embedding coping strategies.
Covid Recovery Package
The role of the parent has been stretched and blurred throughout lockdown. Parents have had to take on the role of teacher and friend, whilst managing their own work. This challenging task has left many relationships strained. Parents and their children’s emotional and mental health have suffered during the pandemic, with fear and isolation increasing in our lives. We are offering Individual and Dyadic Art Therapy to help explore the impact of Covid on your lives and relationships, and to begin healing these.
Trauma Focused CBT
CATT stands for Children's Accelerated Trauma Treatment.
It is a highly accessible and effective technique for treating simple and complex PTSD. It was developed in 1998 by Dr. Carlotta Raby and used extensively by Action for Child Trauma International for children living in war zones, as well as by many mental health organisations in the UK. The technique is suitable for people of all ages and abilities and not restricted to use for children. Many people are affected by PTSD due to traumatic events of any nature. Symptoms include intrusive thoughts, panic attacks, avoiding things that remind us of the event and nightmares. We are able to offer PTSD assessment sessions free of charge. CATT is only suitable to treat PTSD.
If your assessment indicates PTSD, we will be happy to discuss a treatment plan.
Theraplay
We integrate use of Theraplay techniques as part of our Dyadic Therapy work with children and parents. We also teach the principles and techniques to parents as part of our Therapeutic Parenting programme.
Working with Schools
We would like to help schools to support the children and families who are in therapy with us. We recommend the Team Pupil approach designed by Louise Bomber at Touch Base – an organisation developing ways of working and materials to support schools who want to work in an Attachment Aware and Trauma Responsive way. We work with school to implement Team Pupil for the families we work with.